Euro RX1 Mid-Season Review: Too close to call

Having finished runner-up in the standings to Patrick O’Donovan last year, Yury Belevskiy entered the season as many people’s favourite for glory. The Swiss star duly won the first two rounds – although the manner in which he achieved those victories could scarcely have been more different.

In the curtain-raising contest at Lousada, he was on commanding form, claiming a clean sweep during the heats prior to dominating his semi-final and the all-important final – on both occasions, taking the chequered flag almost six seconds clear of his closest pursuer. 

At Höljes, however, Belevskiy barely scraped into the semi-finals after enduring a torrid run throug the heats, but when conditions deteriorated, the Volland Racing ace’s experience shone through. As his adversaries came unstuck, he expertly converted a back row start in the final into a third career triumph at the European Championship’s highest level to extend his advantage at the summit of the standings to 14 points. 

The 30-year-old travelled to Hungary for round three chasing the hat-trick, but like in Sweden, his weekend proved to be anything but plain sailing, and after making mistakes in both of Saturday’s heats, Belevskiy then came together with Mika Liimatainen as the pair disputed the lead in the final, with the Audi S1 driver forced out on the spot.

That failure to finish opened the door for title rivals Liimatainen and Damian Litwinowicz to close the gap in the championship classification – and they needed no second invitation. The Finn had already ascended the podium at Lousada and Höljes, and in scooping the runner-up spoils at Nyirád – behind hugely popular first-time winner Zoltán Koncseg on the Hungarian’s home soil – he narrowed the deficit at the top of the table to just four points.

Belevskiy’s former team-mate Litwinowicz rounded out the rostrum in third in the ‘Red Cauldron’ to continue his super-consistent start to proceedings in 2025 with Automax Motorsport – the Pole having placed inside the top four in all three rounds to-date.

Reigning Euro RX3 champion Nils Volland looked to be firmly in the mix for a champagne celebration on his Euro RX1 bow in Portugal, but an impact with the wall in heat four brought a premature conclusion to an otherwise impressive debut.

Fellow young gun Martin Enlund has similarly turned heads this year, narrowly missing out on the podium in his first appearance in the series at Lousada before producing what was arguably an even better performance on home turf at Höljes, where the Swede secured third in the intermediate ranking.

Not to be outdone, compatriot Lukas Andersson and flying Finn Joni Turpeinen – aged respectively 17 and 16 – stunned seasoned competitors by featuring up at the sharp end throughout the ‘Magic Weekend’. Unleashing a scintillating turn-of-speed, the rising stars demonstrated no lack of bravery in the torrential conditions to duel tooth-and-nail for the lead early on in the final, with the Swede ultimately going on to finish a stellar second. 

Another prodigious teenage talent stole the show a fortnight later in Hungary, as Andor Trepák confidently took the fight to the regular front-runners on his championship debut, tying with Litwinowicz for the top spot at the end of the first day and proving – like Enlund, Andersson and Turpeinen – that the future of the sport is in safe hands indeed...