MotoMini thrills in Valencia: Silver for Putortì—how did the other Italians fare? World Finals results

Before the big MotoGP finale, Valencia hosted an intense showdown between rising talents. We’re talking about the FIM MotoMini World Series (formerly MiniGP), with Daniel “Pedrosino” Putortì finishing as runner-up in the world in the Ohvale 160cc class. A second place already achieved last year and confirmed again in 2025 after the CIV Junior title, but there were three more of our standard bearers in action. Mattia Gabrielli finished 5th in 160cc, while our 190cc riders were a bit further back, Filippo Balestrero (Italian champion) and Alessandro Lora (2nd in the tricolore and European Mini Bike champion). Let’s recap how these finals went for our boys.

As always, it all kicks off with the free practice sessions, with the final combined times showing Daniel Putortì 2nd and Mattia Gabrielli 6th. A good start, then it’s on to qualifying: in the end, pole position goes to Poland’s Witold Dariusz Kupczynski ahead of Jan Babiarz, with Putortì completing the front row and Gabrielli 5th. Excellent launching spots for the three races scheduled in these world finals in Valencia: Race 1, Race 2 and the Super Final. Despite the tight battles these youngsters always deliver, the first race sees the exact trio from the front row on the podium: victory for Kupczynski over Babiarz and our “Pedrosino,” with Gabrielli 5th. The same names shine in Race 2, with a slightly different order: this time the win goes to Czech rider Babiarz over Kupczynski and Putortì, with Gabrielli just off the podium. Then it’s time for the Super Final and we come within a whisker of victory: Kupczynski edges it, but Putortì finishes just 3 thousandths behind! A Spanish double also on the podium with Javier Vigueras, only 84 thousandths back, while Gabrielli finishes 6th. Three races that crown the young Pole Witold Dariusz Kupczynski, silver for Daniel Putortì, third is Jan Babiarz, and overall 5th for our other contender, Mattia Gabrielli.

This class also got underway with free practice, and the signs were already positive: Balestrero in particular set the 3rd fastest time in the combined, while Lora finished 8th. Then came qualifying, with our riders securing the second row: pole position for the young Chinese rider Shengbo Sun ahead of Malaysia’s Qabil Irfan and Australia’s Judd Plaisted, while Lora ended up 5th ahead of Balestrero. The decisive moments, however, were the three races to be held at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, which would crown the 2025 190cc champion. On to Race 1, which ended with Sun triumphing ahead of Irfan and Britain’s Thorley Trevorrow, with Lora 6th and Balestrero unfortunate, unable even to start... Unfortunately, things didn’t go better for our riders in Race 2: Balestrero retired, Lora crashed and finished 15th (last) after the restart, while up front Venezuelan Diego Gonzalez won ahead of Sun and Irfan. The podium slipped away in the Super Final as well: Sun delivered the decisive blow to secure the title, Gonzalez was second, and German Ole Säuberlich completed the top 3, with Lora and Balestrero just off the podium. The top three in this race also became the top three in this year’s overall standings, while Alessandro Lora took 6th and Filippo Balestrero finished just outside the top 10.