ACA · Finale Race⏱ 1h31

The Finale endurance race at Karting Nevers Magny-Cours (1,110 m circuit) took place on 17 September 2026 over 91 minutes, with 19 teams on the grid. The event delivered a closely fought battle across the field, with pace, consistency and strategy all playing decisive roles in the final standings.

ASTON MARTIN (kart #25) took the victory by completing 71 laps, finishing a lap ahead of a chasing pack and crossing the line with a gap equivalent to Tour 73 over second place. Despite ranking only 5th in pure pace (median lap time of 1:11.904), the team delivered remarkable consistency throughout — an overall standard deviation of just 0.89 s across four stints, each of which was rated stable. Five pit stops were made over the course of the race.

RACING BULLS (kart #14) finished second, 17.659 seconds behind, having covered the most laps of anyone in the race — 72 laps. Their median pace of 1:11.867 ranked 4th in the field. Two of their five stints showed slight slowdowns (0.18 and 0.15 s/lap respectively), but the team managed to maintain enough overall tempo to hold their position through to the flag.

SAUBER (kart #29) completed the podium at 18.765 seconds, also on 71 laps. They posted the 3rd best pure pace (1:11.474 median) and, crucially, set the fastest lap of the entire race: a 1:10.342, shared by BMW but recorded here at the highest level. With six stints, two of which showed noticeable slowdowns (0.25 and 0.42 s/lap), Sauber's raw speed was impressive but consistency was more variable (standard deviation of 0.96 s).

ALPINE (kart #20) is the stand-out strategic story of this race. Ranked only 9th in pure pace (median 1:12.560, standard deviation of 1.28 s — one of the higher figures in the top half of the field), they nevertheless secured 4th place overall, one lap down. Two of their six stints showed degradation (0.17 and 0.32 s/lap), yet their pit stop management lifted them well above where their raw speed alone would have placed them.

At the other end of the strategic spectrum, BMW (kart #27, 17th) posted the best pure pace of the entire field — a median of 1:11.252 and the lowest standard deviation of any team (0.79 s, the most consistent of all 19 competitors) — yet crossed the line in 17th place, four laps off the lead. This gap between outright speed and final position makes BMW the most striking underperformance of the day relative to their real-world pace.

PEUGEOT (kart #23) deserves mention for their 2nd best pure pace (1:11.326 median), finishing 6th — slightly below what their rhythm merited, but their final stint of 26 laps was notably stable and fast. MERCEDES (kart #34, 10th) was the only team to record six pit stops and displayed the highest lap time standard deviation in the analysed field (2.56 s), illustrating significant inconsistency across their seven stints, despite some individually very competitive segments.

At the back, HAAS (kart #31) finished 19th and last, 16 laps down, with a best lap of 1:19.345 — well adrift of the rest of the field throughout.

Key takeaways for teams: This race demonstrates that outright pace is not enough — ALPINE climbed five positions above their pure pace ranking through strategic execution, while BMW's superior rhythm and consistency failed to convert into a competitive result. Managing stint degradation is equally critical: CITROEN's fourth stint (−0.48 s/lap) and MERCEDES' third (−0.48 s/lap) illustrate how rapidly lost lap time can compound over a 91-minute race. Teams with stable, repeatable stints — like ASTON MARTIN (four consecutive stable stints) — ultimately controlled the top of the standings.