Deligny beats Clerot to Barcelona FREC win as title rivals move level

Photo: ACI Sport

Enzo Deligny held off Pedro Clerot to win the second Formula Regional European Championship race at Barcelona.

Freddie Slater was on course to reclaim the points lead by two points over Matteo De Palo after an excellent double pass, only to later run wide through the gravel in the final corners of the race, leaving the two title rivals now tied for the lead.

Deligny had claimed pole position in heavy rain in qualifying, managing to top the second group by 0.605 seconds over R-ace GP team-mate Akshay Bohra with his with his last lap of the session. That time also put him half a second ahead of the benchmark set in the first group by Pedro Clerot, who was in turn also six tenths clear of his nearest rival Evan Giltaire.

The race started with two laps behind the safety car, just like the earlier Italian Formula 4 race, a decision taken by race control in reaction to “unequal grip conditions on the grid”.

The safety car would come back out after an incident on the first lap of racing between Giovanni Maschio and Edouard Borgna that left the former with broken rear-left suspension.

Deligny came close to catching the safety car at the restart, and had Clerot all over him on the approach to the first corner but managed to stay ahead.

Even though Deligny broke over one second clear in the middle of the race, Clerot would catch him again before the finish, bringing the gap down to 0.4s with five minutes remaining. Deligny held on though to take his third win of the season, 0.386s ahead of his fellow outsider in the title fight, with the pair now tied 28 points off the joint leaders.

Slater came fourth in Deligny’s qualifying group behind Akshay Bohra and Michael Belov and lined up seventh on the grid, one place behind De Palo, who was third in the other group.

Both held their positions at the initial start, before Slater went on the attack at the subsequent restart, passing De Palo around the outside of Turn 4 and then seamlessly sliding down the inside of Belov in Turn 5 to gain fifth. De Palo tried to follow him past Belov but couldn’t make a move stick.

Bohra held third from the start but couldn’t keep pace with the front two, with the gap growing to 10s by the finish. He came under pressure from both Giltaire and Slater, who was the first to attempt a move with a look around the outside of Giltaire in Turn 12 with two laps to go.

Giltaire then attacked Bohra in Turn 1 but found himself eased onto the run-off area on the outside. Emerging ahead, he gave the place back to Bohra into Turn 4 but that gave the opportunity to Slater to pass him around the outside.

Slater was right on Bohra’s tail entering the final corners but then slid wide into the gravel on the exit of the penultimate corner, allowing Giltaire back past.

De Palo finished seventh behind Belov, while Taito Kato was eighth after getting ahead of compatriots Hiyu Yamakoshi and Jin Nakamura.

Race results (18 laps)