Taichi Watarai secured double pole today morning for the opening round of the 2025/2026 Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East (PCCME)

Taichi Watarai secured double pole today morning for the opening round of the 2025/2026 Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East (PCCME), being held as part of this weekend’s events in the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC).

Watarai clinched the leading grid position for the meeting’s first race, to be held later this evening, after clocking a fastest lap of 2mins 03.247secs in qualifying. He then took pole for race two on Saturday after posting the best second-fastest time of the session of 2:03.350.

This evening’s opening race of the new campaign is scheduled for a 5.45pm start, while tomorrow’s second event will begin at 11am.

Set to start race one alongside Watarai on the front row is Alexandra Vateva, who had a mark of 2:03.609 in qualifying. The pair are competing in the PCCME’s Pro category.

Set to start first amongst the ProAm runners is Bankcy, who set a quickest lap of 2:03.795, while in front of the Masters category will be Krister Andero, whose best qualifying lap was 2:04.890.

For race two, Cedric Chassang will be on row one beside Watarai. His second-best time in today’s qualifying was 2:03.895, and he is also the leading starter in the ProAm class. Andero took pole once again for the Masters with a second-fastest lap time of 2:05.229.