Lines storms to top eight finish against the World’s best in Spain

Finlay Lines took on the world’s best karting drivers in the opening round of the 2025 FIA Karting Academy Trophy at Valencia, starting his campaign with a top-eight finish.

Selected by Motorsport UK to represent the United Kingdom in the competition, the West Midlands-born driver competed against 50 other drivers from around the globe.

During Free Practice, Finlay got to grips with the track, showing good pace by topping one of his three sessions and coming fourth in another, boding well for Qualifying and the heat races later on.

To keep things equal between the drivers, after Qualifying, the top ten drivers swapped engines with the bottom ten drivers. This process was also repeated in the heats, where the top six drivers swapped engines with the bottom six drivers.

Finlay took a sixth-place finish in all three heats, with his combined points score placing him in tenth position in the Intermediate Classification.

Starting from tenth place on the 36-driver grid, Finlay moved up to ninth place by going around the outside of the driver in front at the first turn. As the field spread out in the opening laps, Lines worked hard to close the gap down to the next driver in the field.

He hunted down and caught his rival, passing him to take an eighth-place finish in the final of the first round at Valencia.

Finlay sends his thanks to his mechanic, Stewart Barry Wright, and also to his driver-coach, Anderson Chilcot, for their continued efforts, top-quality mentoring and support across the event.

Finlay also thanks Dan Parker from Motorsport UK for flying out to Valencia to work with him and support him across the weekend.

The 2025 FIA Karting Academy Trophy – Junior class is back in action on 17-20 July, where Finlay will race for the UK at Mülsen, Germany.