Abkhazava win puts energy back into FRegional Middle East title fight

Photo: Top Speed

Rashid Al Dhaheri’s charge to the Formula Regional Middle East title became less clear-cut in the final race at Dubai Autodrome as he non-scored while Alexander Abkhazava won.

Qualifying two on Saturday set the grid for race three on Sunday, and R-ace GP driver Al Dhaheri may have only been 0.437 seconds off pole but that left him in 11th place.

Pinnacle Motorsport’s Alex Powell was fastest by just 0.082s over R-ace’s Yuki Sano, with MP Motorsport’s Abkhazava 0.179s behind in third.

Kean Nakamura-Berta (Mumbai Falcons) and Alex Ninovic (Rodin Motorsport) were within 0.3s of Powell, and Emanuele Olivieri (R-ace) qualified sixth in his first weekend of FRegional competition. One tenth of a second split him and Al Dhaheri, with Sebastian Wheldon (Mumbai Falcons), Dion Gowda (Van Amersfoort Racing), Jan Przyrowski (Race Performance Motorsport) and Taito Kato (ART Grand Prix) between them.

A second split the top 22, and Trident’s title outsider Maximilian Popov failed to qualify so needed permission to race.

The next day there was more drama before the race, as Powell did not make it to the grid as Pinnacle ran out of time to enact repairs following a crash in race two and Sano withdrew after his team worked extensively on his car following his own race two clash. Abkhazava therefore started from pole position.

He headed to the outside line off the line, forcing Nakamura-Berta beyond track limits but not stopping him from nosing ahead. However Abkhazava braked later into turn one on the inside to reclaim the lead, and with the inside line for turn three Ninovic was able to snatch second place. Nakamura-Berta got back past down the back straight, and when Ninovic slid through turn 12 it put Olivieri on his gearbox.

Olivieri attemped a turn 10 dive on lap two, and remained alongside until getting past at turn 12. The gaps opened up until the safety car was summoned on lap five as MP’s Alceu Feldmann Neto drove into the rear of CL Motorsport’s Newman Chi on the pit straight and crashed out.

Racing resumed on lap eight, and Abkhazava weaved down the back straight as Nakamura-Berta kept close. He dived down the inside at turn 10, Abkhazava forced him off at turn 11, then Nakamura-Berta drove into the rear of the leader at turn 12.

While Nakamura-Berta damaged his nose and broke his front wing, Abkhazava slowed through the next two corners and Nakamura-Berta got alongside at the turn 14 hairpin. Olivieri was getting involved again, while Ninovic spun down the order at the last corner.

On lap nine Nakamura-Berta went for the same attack, then on lap 10 he had to defend against Olivieri down the pit straight. That allowed Abkhazava to break clear, and the top three positions were decided.

Gowda had a lonely race to fourth, but a 10s penalty for causing a collision demoted him to 10th. Wheldon got a five-second penalty for gaining an advantage off-track, and that dropped him from sixth to ninth.

Przyrowski had defended hard against him on lap one, but Wheldon got past after running off at the last corner. Kato made it three-wide as they reached turn one, and Wheldon remained ahead on the outside but cut turn two. Przyrowski lost out to Kato a few corners later, but an off meant Przyrowski reclaimed eighth and G4 Racing’s Jules Roussel attacked.

Kato tried a turn 10 dive on lap three, and Wheldon pressured Gowda on lap eight before being overtaken by Przyrowski. On lap nine Kato also got through, and went for another dive that put him alongside Przyrowski through turn 11.

Al Dhaheri was late off the line and fell from ninth to outside of the top 20, and his recovery to 16th meant his gap to Nakamura-Berta in the title fight was reduced to 24 points. Ninovic’s own recovery only took him to 26th.

Race results (14 laps)