Wheldon completes FREC Dutch double at Zandvoort

Photo: ACI Sport

Sebastian Wheldon completed a dramatic double in the second Formula Regional Europe race of the weekend at Zandvoort.

The MP Motorsport driver had to work for his win, passing polesitter Kean Nakamura-Berta for the lead around the banked final turn after an early red flag.

After taking the lead on the sixth lap, Wheldon gradually extended his lead to over 1.5s but the Prema driver began closing the gap in the closing laps as he prepared a late challenge.

His hopes appeared to have been dashed when a late off from Trident’s Maximilian Popov brought out the safety car but excellent work from the marshals saw the track cleared for a last lap shoot-out.

Wheldon managed to resist Nakamura-Berta’s challenge and through the last turn, the Williams junior was under pressure from CL Motorsport’s Reno Francot. In the drag to the line, Francot just failed to snatch second by 0.06s.

Nakamura-Berta squeezed the faster-starting Wheldon to the inside into Tarzan at the start, managing to hold onto the lead around the outside as Wheldon was left with the tighter line.

The first corner had passed relatively cleanly but there was chaos at the end of the back straight, as G4 Racing’s Saqer Almaosherji collected Trident’s Andrija Kostic, pitching the Serbian’s car into a barrel-roll, with both Kai Daryanani and RPM’s Giovanni Maschio being caught up in the incident.

With multiple cars stuck in the gravel, the race was aborted, restarting behind the safety car after a lengthy delay.

While Wheldon made good his escape, Francot was clearly holding up a train of cars headed by R-ace GP’s Rashid Al Dhaheri. The Emirati was looking everywhere for a move but could not quite get close enough to attempt a pass. They were followed by MP’s Newman Chi, Ra-ce GP’s Emanuele Olivieri, who had once again had to find a way past Tomass Stolcermanis, and ART Grand Prix’s Alexandre Munoz.

Stolcermanis had dropped back slightly from the group but the late safety car restart gave him the chance to gain a place back, passing Munoz for seventh on the final lap.

Race results (19 laps)