MOTORSPORT – ALI Almansoori continued his incredible dominance this season in the 2025-26 Bahrain Touring Car Challenge (BTCC) with yet another double in the fifth round of National Race Day, held over the weekend at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.
Almansoori won both races in the meeting to extend his perfect record for this campaign with 10 victories from as many events.
Also held as part of National Race Day was the latest round of the 2025-26 Bahrain Motorcycle Championship (BMC), with Saeed Al Sulaiti and Marcos Ludena emerging victorious in their respective classes. The weekend’s events were organised by BIC in co-operation with the Bahrain Motor Federation, the Circuit Racing Commission, and the Bahrain Motorcycle Commission.
Action was held along BIC’s 2.554-kilometre Inner Track with competitors going bumper-to-bumper and wheel-to-wheel for plenty of heated, high-octane battles.
Having won all eight of the BTCC’s races heading into last weekend’s programme, Almansoori was the heavy favourite, and he lived up to his billing.
Behind the wheel of his Honda Civic, Almansoori set the pace in free practice and then captured pole position in qualifying. He then charged to the chequered flag in the BTCC’s first 15-lap race with a total winning time of 19 minutes 52.375 seconds – finishing 2.250s ahead of runner-up Moaaz Elzahrawi. Ahmed Bajnaid was a distant third 16.039s adrift to complete the podium placers. Both Elzahrawi and Bajnaid were also driving Honda Civics.
In race two, also held across 15 laps, Almansoori started from the back of the grid in fifth position with James Taylor driving an Acura RSX DC5 on pole.
That mattered little as Almansoori powered to the front and triumphed in a time of 20:06.406 with an even bigger gap of 4.308s from Elzahrawi. Taylor joined them on the podium in third 1:02.005 from the victor.
In the BMC, Alsulaiti led the 1,000cc class in free practice riding his BMW 1000RR while Mohamad Alzaidan on a Kawasaki ZX6 set the pace amongst the 600cc competitors. They then maintained their strong form by taking pole in their respective categories in qualifying, setting the stage for an exciting 14-lap race.
Al Sulaiti went on to claim the 1,000cc victory in 15:39.716, finishing 41.238s ahead of Fahad Al Gharabally in a Suzuki GSXR and Hassan Al Awadhi on a Ducati V2 by more than a lap.
Ludena stormed to the 600cc win in 16:08.954. Abdulrahman Ahmed and Faisal Bader took the other podium places, both riding Honda CVR600RR bikes.
BIC’s 2025-26 racing calendar features seven rounds of National Race Day. The season’s sixth and penultimate meeting is scheduled to take place on March 13. That will set the stage for the grand finale on April 24.
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