R-ace GP’s Rashid Al Dhaheri fought through from 11th on the grid to win Formula Regional Europe’s first-ever reversed-grid race.
The Mercedes-AMG F1 junior kept his cool in an incident-packed race to calmly pick his way through the field. Van Amersfoort Racing’s Dion Gowda led the race from start to finish but incurred a five second penalty for a jump start, dropping him to sixth in the final classification.
Reza Seewooruthun and Alex Ninovic took the remaining podium positions for Rodin Motorsport, as the team continued its strong form in its maiden race in the championship.
As Gowda stormed into the lead from the outside of the front row, behind him Alexandre Munoz stalled. MP Motorsport’s Alexander Abkhazava clipped G4 Racing’s Marcus Saeter as he tried to avoid the stationary ART Grand Prix machine, pitching the Norwegian into the barriers and bringing out the safety car, with the field filing through the pit lane as Saeter’s car was cleared away.
The safety car was not back in the pit lane for long before it was required again when Emil Frey, Miguel Costa and Sajer Almaosherji came together at Turn 4, all ending their races against the inside barrier.
Racing finally got underway properly at the end of lap eight, with just under 12 minutes remaining. Gowda led away from Seewooruthun, as Al Dhaheri looked to find a way past Ninovic for sixth on the road. Gowda had little time remaining to eke out the necessary gap, throwing up dust as he ran wide at the final corner.
MP Motorsport’s Sebastian Wheldon was stuck down in eighth, running wide at Turn 4, as he tried to avoid the battle ahead, and would later incur a five second penalty for track limit infringements. Race on winner Kean Nakamura-Berta was not making the same progress as Al Dhaheri, battling with Maksimilian Popov and Newman Chi for sixth.
G4 Racing’s miserable and expensive day was completed when Rahim Alibhai ran wide at Turn 4, losing his front wing as he bounced through the gravel trap.
On lap 14 Al Dhaheri was on the tail of third-placed Reno Francot, diving to the inside at Turn 4 and setting after the effective race leader, Seewooruthun. On the run up to Turn 3 the Emirati drafted past the Rodin car, defending the inside down into Turn 4 to prevent the Briton from reclaiming the place.
However, the Rodin driver held on to claim second place, with team-mate Ninovic rounding off a strong race for the team on its series debut by passing Francot for third on the final lap.
However, with numerous track limit warnings still to be processed, the results remain provisional.