Przyrowski takes his and RPM’s first FREC win as title rivals collide

Photo: ACI Sport

Jan Przyrowski took a commanding maiden Formula Regional Europe victory at Hockenheim, after a first corner incident took out title rivals Sebastian Wheldon and Emanuele Olivieri.

Przyrowski’s win is the first for RPM in Formula Regional Europe since entering the series in 2022. A delighted Przyrowski told Formula Scout that “it is a great milestone for the team and I am happy to be their first winner.”

MP Motorsport’s Wheldon led away from pole with R-ace GP’s Olivieri, starting alongside him on the front row, switching to the outside as he took a run at the leader through Turn 1.

The pair touched, spinning Olivieri into retirement and dropping Wheldon to the back of the field. Olivieri had no doubt that “I was fully alongside” and the stewards reached the same conclusion after the race, handing Wheldon a 10-second penalty and two licence points having been judged “wholly responsible for the collision.”

At least Wheldon, by continuing to the flag, albeit well outside the points, could take his penalty today rather than it impacting his position on the grid for Sunday’s race.

Przyrowski took to the run-off in avoidance, allowing Prema’s Tomass Stolcermanis through into the lead as the pack charged towards the Spitzkehre.

Kean Nakamura-Berta had been back in fifth as they headed towards the hairpin but somehow managed to emerge in second behind the RPM car, even having a look into the following right-hander, before the race was neutralised behind the safety car.

ART Grand Prix’s Alexandre Munoz had found himself in third, with Stolcermanis having dropped back to fourth, followed by R-ace GP’s Rashid Al Dhaheri.

When racing resumed, Nakamura-Berta was unable to make any inroads into Przyrowski’s lead, the Pole calmly managing his tyres and his lead to the flag.

“I was expecting tyre deg from lap four so I was prepared for it, I knew what to do and I didn’t make any mistakes,” he explained.

Munoz ran wide into Turn 1 starting lap 7, dropping back to 13th and promoting Stolcermanis back into the top three.

Unfortunately for the Latvian, his race came to an end as he was forced to pull into the pits two laps from the end, allowing Al Dhaheri to claim the final podium position and with it assure R-ace GP of the teams’ title.

“I’m happy for the team because they really put a lot of work in,” the Mercedes-AMG junior commented after the race. I’m really glad that we closed out one championship and now the team can be relaxed, and let me race, do whatever I want tomorrow,” he joked.

Nakamura-Berta admitted that “P2 was the best we could do and was definitely more than we’d expected after qualifying, although we’d seen the race pace in our eight-lap race run in practice but today I think we maximised it. We managed to make our way through the mess at Turn 1, almost took the lead into the hairpin but decided for the safer side.

“Jan did a really good job, a flawless performance, so hats off to him and the RPM team.”

With Nakamura-Berta finishing second and neither Olivieri nor Wheldon scoring, the Willians junior moves back into championship contention, just seven points behind Olivieri, with Wheldon 11 points further back.

“Tomorrow, we’ll give it our all and see what happens,” he said, adding that the potentially wet conditions forecast for Sunday “could spice things up. We feel quite confident in the wet, so we’ll just do our best and see what happens.”

Race results (18 laps)

Fastest lap: Przyrowski, 1m36.156s

Championship standings
1 Olivieri 200   2 Nakamura-Berta 193   3 Wheldon 182   4 Al Dhaheri 180   5 Francot 123   6 Abkhazava 85   7 Hanna 80   8 Chi 73   9 Ninovic 64  10 Popov 60