The ROK Cup Italy is back to the Franciacorta Karting Track in Castrezzato (BS) for the third round of the 2025 season, with the paddock crowded by more than 200 drivers in the seven competing categories. At the end of Sunday, the following championship’s leaders emerged: Almekdad Ghazi (Mini ROK U10), Bissa Patrick (Mini ROK), Cichoracki Tomasz (Junior ROK), Gaglianò Giuseppe (Senior ROK), Sorbello Andrea (Expert ROK), Ferrari Riccardo (Super ROK) e Pasiewicz Karol (Shifter ROK).

Mini ROK U10

The season of Mini ROK U10, the “new entry” category of the ROK Cup Italy, successfully continues.

The first place in Sunday morning's qualifying session goes to Platon Kovtunenko, who sets a time of 57.677 seconds. Giovanni Ventorino and Leo Kralev chase their rival, placing second and third respectively and Ghazi Almekdad, fourth. Leon Giudicelli and Elias Boullier rank fifth and sixth, ahead of Nico Fardin, seventh, Edoardo Traina, eighth, Farel Beretta Dugat, ninth, and Samuel Dal Pozzo, tenth. Also taking part in the Under 10 category are Miguel Spina, Matteo Meni, Anna Makolm, Radek Czernicki, Gabriel Mara Varon, Nicolaj Pietras, Giovanni Pasini, Giorgio Sapignoli, Bryan Galardini, Ilmen Yilmaz, and Przemyslaw Janiszewski.

In Race 1, the start from the inside line allows Kovtunenko, Kralev and Giudicelli to conquer the top positions in the standings, while Ventorino is fourth after the opening corners. In short order, Kralev takes the lead and begins an intense duel with Kovtunenko. Giudicelli and Ventorino, instead, fighting for third position, join shortly afterwards by Almekdad. Instead, the pressure from Kovtunenko, Kralev is first under the checkered flag, with the Ukrainian driver finishing second. Behind the two, Ventorino gains the lowest step of the podium, beating Giudicelli, fourth, and Almekdad, fifth.

In Race 2, starting from pole position due to the inversion of the first eight, Fardin is in the lead immediately after the start, but at the end of the first lap the ranking sees Kovtunenko in the lead ahead of Boullier, Almekdad and Fardin, in that order. Five drivers are fighting for the victory during the race: Kovtunenko, firmly running in the lead, Almekdad, Boullier and the Ventorino-Kralev duo, who in the meantime have managed to gain several positions. At the last hairpin of the final lap, Kovtunenko and Kralev touch: the Bulgarian restarts from the back, while the Ukrainian wins. However, Kovtunenko receives a three-second penalty, and the victory goes into the hands of Almekdad, first with just 0.068 seconds of advantage over Boullier, second. Ventorino gains the last step of the podium, ahead of Pasini, fourth, and Fardin, fifth.

Mini ROK

The Mini ROK races in Franciacorta are both intense and decisive in the final meters. The weekend begins with Alessandro Nanni in pole position in Sunday's qualifying with a chrono time of 56.087 seconds. Niccolò Perico follows his compatriot in second place, while Thomas Ometto and Giuseppe Noviello are third and fourth in the rankings, respectively. In fifth place we find Tommaso Pomoni, preceding Dominik Wojcik, Patrick Bissa, Bryan Filippelli, Marco Verde and Nicolò Poli. Following in the next positions we find Romain Lopez, Giulio Manzoni, Daniel Hakkinen, Andrea Buffo, Johannes Buchhammer, Dilan Roman Fricker, Filippo Frigerio, Lorenzo Zucchetto, Manuel Enrique Calendi, Aleksander Czub, Ayrton Jon Tonna, Axel Gore, Camilla Amarotti, Mattia Pellin, Nathan Lotrionte, Nicholas Bertolani, Nicolas Yerly, Luigi Dascoli, Jan Gardzielik, Andrea Screpis, Alex Dal Maso, Sebastian Schirripa, Logan Billau.

In Race 1, Nanni and Ometto pass the first corner in the first and second position, followed by Perico in the third position and Noviello who slips to the fourth. With Ometto dropping back to fourth place after just one lap, the fight for victory becomes an exclusive affair between Nanni, Perico and Noviello: the three drivers, in fact, remain very close for the whole race, without any of them managing to change their standings. With an impenetrable defense, Nanni precedes Perico in the sprint by 0.017 seconds and Noviello by 0.084 seconds, thus taking the victory. Verde gains five positions and finishes fourth, while Buffo makes up nine positions and finishes fifth. Bissa is sixth, Wojcik is seventh and Ometto is eighth.

In Race 2, Ometto, from pole position, tries in every way to keep running in the lead, but Bissa is quick to take the lead away from him at the first bend. The Italian, however, must deal with Perico, who starts from the fourth row and is able to overtake him on the third lap. The two start a great battle for the whole race, until the checkered flag sanctions the victory of Perico over Bissa by just 0.210 seconds. After having tried in vain to reach the leading duo, Nanni finishes third, ahead of Noviello, fourth as well as author of the best time of the race, and Verde, fifth.

Junior ROK

Junior ROK sets a season record in terms of participants, with 60 drivers on track.

Qualifying speaks Polish: Natan Rybczynski takes the pole position thanks to the best time of 49.471 seconds in group number 2, beating the fastest driver of the group number 1, Matteo Melis. Leonardo Lanza and Matteo Peruccio are third and fourth respectively, while Tomasz Cichoracki and Liam Aarsbaek Secall are fifth and sixth. Blazej Kostrzewa, Alberto Masotto, Leonardo De Grandi and Huifei Xie complete the top ten. The ranking continues with Franciszek Bal, Sebastian Riedel, Mikolaj Gawlikowski, Angelo Pecoraro, Riccardo Brangero, Faidon Papafilippou, Olek Mrozik, Enrico Pietro Villa, Francesco Iannuzzo, Iven Ammann, Julia Angelard, Andrea Proverbio, Kacper Kluk, Vasco De Vito, Ioannis Chatziparaskevaidis, Samuel Gabriele Del Gaudio, Stefano Zamponi, Marek Lagan, Neil Nekmouche, Mateusz Wal, Francesco Koci, Michael Czyzewicz, Gabriele Iacomelli, Carlo Pongratz, Riccardo Repetto, Adrian Potepa, Odin Flora, Jessica Calleja, Ilias Mitaki, Selina Baum, Adriyan Anachkov, Tommaso Scarato, Alessandro Gorini, Jacob Zavaliauskas, Nikola Nikolic, Oguz Marangoz, Mariachiara Nardelli, Emma Boschetto, Valerio Santini, Jan Stencel, Francesca Pietrini, Santino Sapia, Giada Vanigioli, Ascanio Sandrini, Sean Beck Davies, Borys Blaszczyk, Lena Pichler, Zac Ibbotson, Ismet Yilmaz and Pietro Chesini.

Melis clearly stands out in the qualifying heat: with three wins out of three races, the Italian driver is ahead of everyone in the ranking. Cichoracki gets a win and two second places allowing him to go to the second position in the intermediate standings. Secall places third, while Papafilippou and Pecoraro show off among the rivals and earn fourth and fifth position respectively. Peruccio drops back to sixth place, ahead of Angelard, who climbed from 21st, and Kostrzewa. Bal and Mrozik are close to the top 10, which does not include Poleman Rybczynski (15th) and Lanza (20th).

In the final, Melis jumps perfectly than his opponents, but the race is immediately interrupted with a yellow flag on the entire circuit, due to an accident in the first corners that also involves Brangero, second in the championship on the eve of this round. The race restarts with Melis, Cichoracki, Papafilippou and Kostrzewa in front of everyone and immediately at odds for first position. Only on the last lap, taking advantage of the battle between the three behind, Melis manages to distance himself enough from his rivals to take the victory. Cichoracki gains the second place and precedes Papafilippou, third, and Kostrzewa, fourth. Rybczynski recovers up to fifth position.

Senior ROK

The Senior ROK category is also crowded, with 42 drivers verified in this third round of the championship.

Paolo Dung Pastori surprises everyone in qualifying, securing the pole position with a chrono time of 47.857 seconds in the group number 2. Mattia D’Erme, the fastest in the group number 1, settles into second place, while Giuseppe Gaglianò, third, and Cristian Biasatti, fourth, are behind him. Davide Lombardo takes the fifth place and precedes Riccardo Chiodo, sixth, Colin Wazny, seventh, and Andrea Barbieri, eighth. Alexandre Lopez and Alberto Bernardi occupy the last two places in the top 10, ninth and tenth respectively. Following in the ranking are Leonardo Monzani, Federico Zanetti, Oskar Hildebranski, Riccardo Salemi, Emilio Tedesco, Iwo Beszterda, Luca Perelli, Christian Romeo, Ludovica Miceli, Giovanni Polato, Piotr Orzechowski, Franek Lassota, Alessandro Merigo, Anh Tu Ranghetti, Marlon Di Salvo, Marcin Dokucki, Rikardo Bakaj, Antoni Makuch, Alessandro Cocchi, Simone Taccola, Omar Locarini, Lukasz Jezierski, Kyle Ducoli, Arthur Minhea Benedi Nicului, Mattia Jentile, Nassim Bouarfa, Ewa Banach, Edward Thompson, Rotem Solomon, Marek Lipkowski, Cristiano Gautier and Samuele Di Filippo.

With a victory and a second place in his favor, Pastori maintains his leadership in the intermediate classification too, but this time he finds himself behind Gaglianò, winner of two second places. Lombardo is third, also thanks to a win in the heats, and precedes Barbieri, fourth. Monzani and Beszterda gain several positions and are fifth and sixth, respectively. Behind Chiodo, seventh, is D’Erme, who slips from second place. Bernardi and Hildebranski take the last two positions in the top 10. Biasatti goes from fourth to 16^th place.

In the final, Lombardo surprises everyone at the start and takes the lead of the race, with Pastori and Gaglianò forced to chase their compatriot. In the following laps, Gaglianò takes the lead: first he overtakes Pastori, then he closes the gap on Lombardo and takes first place. With Gaglianò now in full flight, Lombardo is gradually caught by Pastori and Beszterda. At the end of the 16 laps scheduled, Gaglianò crosses the finish line alone, while Lombardo secures the second place. However, a collision on the last bend between Pastori and Beszterda prevented them from still have the chance to reach the podium: Barbieri finishes third, ahead of Lopez, Salemi and Pastori, while Beszterda is tenth.

Expert ROK

At Franciacorta the drivers of Expert ROK, the category reserved for the expert drivers of the ROK Cup Italy, cannot be missing.

Alessandro Viganò leads the qualifying session, taking pole position in 48.871 seconds. Behind him are Filippo Repetto, second and just 0.056 seconds behind, and Michele Zampieri, third. Fourth place goes to Paolo Baselli, followed in the standings by Tino Donadei, fifth, and Andrea Sorbello, sixth. Riccardo Pini, Adrian Marcinkiewicz, Mario Barrios Ferrero and Daniel Zajac also make their way into the top 10. Next in the standings are: Marzio Cavini, Gianluca Rubiolini, Gianluca Todeschini, Eitam Turchin, Luca Davì, Marco Nannavecchia and Marco Beretta.

In Race 1, the pole position allows Viganò to lead the group right from the start, with Repetto, Zampieri, Sorbello and Baselli in the following positions. With a series of fast laps, Viganò constantly increases his gap over Repetto, who is instead forced to watch his back first from Zampieri and, starting from the third-to-last lap, from Sorbello. Thanks to a perfect performance, Viganò wins the first race, climbing onto the podium accompanied by Repetto and Sorbello, second and third. Zampieri is "satisfied" with fourth place, ahead of Baselli. Donadei is sixth, Pini seventh and Marcinkiewicz eighth.

In Race 2, Marcinkiewicz makes the most of his pole position start and leads the leading group of Donadei, Zampieri, Repetto and Sorbello, while Pini slips to 11th place. However, Sorbello emerges after just two laps, but in the central stages of the race he must deal with Viganò, threatening behind him. However, a twist arrives from the sporting Marshalls who assign a three-second penalty to Viganò for not having respected the starting procedure: the Italian, therefore, with determination takes first place and, despite finishing the race in front of everyone, is relegated to fourth in the standings. Sorbello wins the race, preceding Repetto and Zampieri. Donadei is fifth, with Pini able to take the sixth place.

Super ROK

As in the Junior ROK, the Super ROK category also registers a season record number of drivers in this event, with 38.

First pole position in the championship for Nicolas Marchesi: the Italian is ahead of everyone in the qualifyings with a time of 47.098 seconds, achieved in group 2. Gaia Cardinali is leading group 1 and is positioned second, therefore preceding Zach Taylor, third, and Mattia Vischi, fourth, in the combined classification. Daniele Galbiati, Alex Laghezza and Guido Bidoli are respectively fifth, sixth and seventh, while Christian Canonica and Sotirios Athanasopoulos are eighth and ninth. Alex Desario, instead, ranks tenth.

Following the standing we find Alessandro Cocozza, Riccardo Ferrari, Alessandro Zini, Pietro Camerlengo, Simone Donchi, Sarp Kayol, Nicholas Giuseppe Reino, Chiara Bolognini, Emmanouil Lioudakis, Vittorio Maria Russo, Luca Fiorenti, Samuele Sottile, Nik Sculac, Rafael Kamal, Manuel Gritti, Nicola Marini, Riccardo Cocozza, Alessandro Arrey Bernardini, Scott Reilly, Owen Speight, Andrea Saporiti, Elliott Shaw, Matteo Lazzarotto, Matteo Bellandi, Giuseppe Palladino, Mattia Bernardi, Gabriele Cucinotta and Fabio Silvestri.

In the qualifying heats, Marchesi is perfect: with two wins out of two races, the Italian remains steady at the top of the category, with Cardinali always in the role of first pursuer. Vischi and Laghezza occupy third and fourth place, while Cocozza goes from 11th to fifth. Desario is sixth, ahead of Galbiati, seventh, and Taylor, eighth. Ferrari and Athanasopoulos complete the top ten.

In the final, Vischi is chasing Marchesi’s lead from the very first moments and, with a decisive attack, overtakes the poleman, forced to give up a position to Cardinali as well. In the following laps, Ferrari temporarily runs the second place, until Marchesi takes the lead and launches himself in pursuit of the leader Vischi. On the eighth lap, Marchesi overtakes Vischi who, in an attempt to counterattack, ends up on the grass and retires. Marchesi has no choice but to manage his advantage for the rest of the race and wins ahead of Cardinali, who is disqualified for not respecting the black flag with the orange disc. Second place then goes to Ferrari, while Desario snatches the third place.

Shifter ROK

Many drivers also attend the Shifter ROK, the gearbox category of the ROK Cup Italy. Nicola Rossini is the main protagonist of the qualifyings. The Italian records the best time of 46.531 seconds, almost a tenth of a second better than Karol Pasiewicz, the first of the pursuers. Marco Chiarello follows in third position, ahead of Luca Bettoni, fourth, William Lanzeni, fifth, and Davide Cordera, sixth. At the top of the ranking are Manuel Daziano, seventh, Brando Pozzi, eighth, Kacper Bielecki, ninth, and Roberto Manduchi, tenth. Also among the checked drivers are Boris Cutaia, Marco Acquarella, Leonardo Principalli, Andre Nicastro, Lorenzo Ripamonti, Nikolaos Fragkakis, Valentino Rossi, Paolo Fracasso, Juan Camilo Acosta, Giacomo Prandelli, Victor Jimenez, Davide Cominazzini, Mateo Moni, Alfio Messina, Matteo Orengo, Tymoteusz Ksiadz and Diego Bartolozzi.

In Race 1, Pasiewicz performs a better start than Rossini when the lights go out and, after coming alongside him at the first bend, overtakes him. Behind them, Chiarello takes the third place, ahead of Bettoni and Pozzi. The trio of Pasiewicz, Rossini and Chiarello extends the lead over the rest of the group, but on the third lap Rossini makes a mistake, hits the barriers and retires. Chiarello, having inherited second place, remains glued to Pasiewicz, but is unable to worry him: the Polish driver wins with a 0.389 second advantage over the Italian. Having climbed to third place after a couple of laps from the start, Lanzeni takes the lowest step of the podium, while Cordera and Daziano fight until the end for fourth place, finally gained by Cordera. Bettoni finishes the race sixth, while Pozzi classifies tenth due to a five-second penalty for an incorrectly positioned front spoiler.

In Race 2, Manduchi performs a good start from the first spot on the starting grid and is immediately in the lead, with Daziano behind him, author of a brilliant start from the second row. Cordera gains the third place, while Principalli does not take advantage of starting from the front row. After a few laps, however, is Lanzeni making his way into the leading group: taking advantage of the duel between Manduchi and Daziano, he overtakes the latter and takes the reins of the race on the eighth lap. In the meantime, a contact at the first bend between Daziano and Pasiewicz puts an end to the Italian's performance, while the Polish driver starts again from the back. The race ends with the victory of Lanzeni, good at resisting Manduchi, second, and Pozzi, who started tenth and crossed the finish line third. Principalli and Bettoni are fourth and fifth, while Rossini recovers to sixth place. Cordera, on the other hand, finishes tenth.