Rashid Al Dhaheri enjoyed one of his best showings of his season last weekend at Round 4 of the Parolin Academy Championship, where he impressed in wet conditions to finish third in Jesolo, Italy.

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The impressive performance in trying conditions not only earned Rashid, affectionately know as ‘Little Alonso’, a third place, but the Abu Dhabi schoolboy also became the youngest Emirati race driver to make it onto the podium at an international karting event. 

Since he was given special dispensation to race in a higher class in the Parolin Academy Championship, the seven-year old Emirati is now battling it out in the class with drivers aged between 8-10 years.

Rashid started the weekend by upsetting the pecking order when qualifying on pole position by nearly a second despite wet and windy conditions which are normally foreign to the Abu Dhabi resident. 

His performance impressed all in the paddock at the historic Pista Azzurra, where the greats of Formula One have raced in the past, including Alain Prost, Riccardo Patrese, Ayrton Senna, Alex Zanardi, Michael Schumacher, Giancarlo Fisichella, Robert Kubica, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. 

A revised schedule for race day caught the team out, as Rashid arrived late for the Pre-Final which prevented him from taking to the track.

This meant Rashid would have his work cut-out in the Final.

Starting from the back of the grid, the youngster was unfazed by the ‘demotion’ and was instead highly motivated as he proceeded to deliver one of his finest showings to date. 

Keeping out of trouble and making each move count, Rashid made his way through the field to finish third, in the slip-stream of the front two. 

Rashid crossed the line a mere 0.2 of a second short of the winner. 

He also claimed the fastest lap of the race in a performance which was among the highlights of the weekend at Jesolo.

Rashid completed around 200km of testing and racing over 25 sessions during the three days in Italy, and team manager Fausto Ippoliti said: “The weekend was a great experience for Rashid. We took an important step in his development by adding telemetry to his programme. 

“Rashid impressed us a lot by the way he understood and applied it to his driving.” 

Rashid’s karting campaign continues when he returns to Italy for the next round of the Parolin Academy Championship at the Circuito di Siena on June 20.