Ugochukwu holds off Camara for maiden FRegional Europe win

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Ugo Ugochukwu held off Prema team-mate Rafael Camara in a one lap shootout after a late safety car period for his first Formula Regional European Championship win at Monza.

James Wharton completed a Prema podium lockout after a race-long multi-car battle for third place.

Following two laps behind the safety car at the start of the race, poleman Ugochukwu got the drop on Roman Bilinski to pull out a lead of over one second immediately when green flag action began.

Camara got a run on the Trident driver too to take second into the first chicane, but Bilinski reclaimed the position through Curva Grande. He finally made the move stick on the next lap into the second chicane, at which point Ugochukwu was already four seconds up the road. Camara then began a charge, setting multiple fastest laps to close the gap.

Wharton got himself to the front of an eight-car battle for third after passing Bilinski into Ascari on lap five.

Trident’s Ruiqi Liu held fifth, while ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire latched onto his tail after emerging in front of a battle with Valerio Rinicella and Niko Lacorte.

Giltaire was soon past and joined the fight with Wharton and Bilinski, running three-wide on the run to Parabolica. He attacked into the first chicane but was forced to use the runoff, rejoining by Wharton’s side. Another attempt into the della Roggia chicane also led to him going off.

The fight had allowed Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael to join the battle as Bilinski dropped back.

As Camara brought the gap at the front below three seconds, Giltaire was holding off an attacking Nael. He defended the inside into Parabolica but ran wide, allowing Nael to get a better exit and get past despite running wide into the Rettifilo chicane.

The racing was interrupted when Lacorte spun at the first chicane, bringing out the safety car and bunching up the field for a single-lap restart at the end.

A perfect jump from Ugochukwu gave Camara no chance of making a move for the lead, with Wharton holding onto second.

A turn one an incident eliminated Pedro Clerot, Noah Stromsted, Liu and Matteo De Palo, then Jett Bowling and Alex Sawer had their races end further around the lap.

Regular frontrunners Tuukka Taponen, Brando Badoer and Alessandro Giusti endured difficult races as they tried to fight through from the back of a grid set on practice times. Taponen salvaged a point with 10th, one place ahead of Badoer, and Giusti retired in the pits.

Race result (15 laps)