rewrite this content and keep HTML tags
Youth prevailed as Nikolass Bertāns beat Daniels Baumanis in an all-Latvian final to win the 2025 FIA Intercontinental Drifting Cup in Riga – the biggest and most international edition of the event to date. Paweł Korpuliński secured third place, while Latvia also claimed the Nations Cup victory on home soil
In a tightly contested final, 20-year-old Bertāns, who finished a close second to James Deane in 2021 when the FIA IDC last visited Latvia, produced a superb chase and lead run against 17-year-old Baumanis to secure his first-ever IDC crown at the wheel of his BMW based on a HGK Eurofighter chassis.
“It’s a good step up in life and another title in the bag so I am really happy that I ended the season on a good,” said Bertāns after the final. “Thank you to Daniels for an amazing final; I have been looking forward to driving with him all my career because he was just starting out when I was in Pro and now, we are in the final on the big stage.”
After seeing off Egypt’s Karim Hany after a re-run in the first round of elimination tandems, Bertāns had to overcome a serious of tough battles on his journey towards the final, namely against Polish duo Jakub Przygoński and Pawel Korpuliński in the Top 8 and Top 4 bouts respectively.
A brilliant chase run against Przygoński in the Top 8 was the key to progressing to the final four, while an equally impressive lead run with Korpuliński in close company gave Bertāns his ticket to the final.
Similarly, Baumanis came through a nail-biting semi-final with El Salvador’s Nasser Alharbali Urias in his BMW E46. Contact between the two in the first run left Alharbali Urias needing to make repairs to his car while Baumanis was deemed responsible. After the second run resulted in a dead-heat, Baumanis eventually prevailed in the third battle, relegating Alharbali Urias to dispute third place with Korpuliński.
Both Alharbali Urias and Korpuliński were so evenly matched in their two runs, that the judges forced a deciding winner-takes-all tandem to determine the final step on the podium. Korpuliński just got the better of Alharbali Urias to win over the judges to grab third.
After topping qualifying on Friday afternoon, Alharbali Urias had earlier survived a scare in the opening Top 32 run of the day, against Greek driver Christos Chantzaras, hitting the long wall at the end of his chase run. Chantzaras was deemed to have decelerated too much, therefore backing into Alharbali Urias, paving the way for the latter to progress.
Meanwhile, Switzerland’s Abdul-Karim Jahan nearly produced a big surprise in his Top 8 tandem battle with Korpuliński, before the Polish driver made it through after a more accurate second run.
Prior to exiting the competition in the semi-final stage, Przygoński had engaged in arguably the most exciting tandem of the day in the Top 32, facing off against Japanese driver Hokuto Matsuyama. Both drivers (at the wheel of their Toyota GR86 and Toyota A90 Supra respectively) delivered pin-point lead runs and aggressive chases but it was Przygoński who went through.
Elsewhere in the first round, there was yet more drama for Rubén Bolaños who, for the second day in a row, suffered technical problems during his first run. The Spanish driver took the regulatory five-minute repair window but his BMW E46 would go no further, handing Georgian driver Mevlud Meladze in a similar BMW E46 a free passage to the Top 16.
In the Top 16 tandems, Meladze was then in strife himself, this time against eventual runner-up Baumanis. The pair made slight contact, and both spun out. A mistake at the initiation from Meladze on the re-run allowed Baumanis to progress.
Ahmed Al Amri was a non-starter in his Nissan Silvia S15, while Hungarian competitor Tamás Magyar’s Mercedes 190 was ruled out after a heavy crash against the long wall in his battle with Lithuania’s Andrius Vasiliauskas.
