The young Portuguese driver Vicente Capela, just 12 years old and from Beja, achieved a historic result by finishing in second place in the OK-N Júnior category of the Champions of the Future Academy Program (COTFA), an international karting competition supported by F1 Academy. It was the first time a Portuguese driver climbed onto the podium in this category, which uses identical karts for all competitors, where some of the biggest talents in international karting compete.
The event took place at the Aspar Circuit in Valencia, Spain. Vicente Capela was unfamiliar with both the category and the circuit, as his main objective was to train for the Spanish Karting Championship. Nevertheless, on Saturday he achieved sixth place among nearly 30 competitors in the qualifying heats. On Sunday, he finished a mere 0.1 seconds off pole position and, after leading in all races, finished in second place in the final, just 0.2 seconds behind Filipino Axel Nocom and ahead of Swiss driver Zoltan Coigny.
In 2025, Vicente Capela had already achieved other historic results for Portuguese karting, including a third place at the Rotax Mini Max "World Championship" in Bahrain, and a victory at the Chiva round in Spain of the COTFA, in the Mini category. The young driver, a two-time national champion, stated that the result was "fantastic" and that he could have won the race, expressing immense pride in placing Portugal among the best in the world in this sport.
Vicente Capela thanked the NMS Motorsport team, especially Adrián Moreno for the mechanical assistance, and coach Frederico Peters for the advice received. The young driver reiterated his dream of becoming a professional driver and stated that he will continue to work to achieve this goal.
