Photo: FRMEC
Taylor Barnard reduced Tuukka Taponen’s Formula Regional Middle East points lead by beating him to victory in race one of the weekend at Yas Marina Circuit.
The pair shared the front row, with Barnard on pole for the fourth time this season and once again having engine concerns pre-race. After resisting an opening lap attack, Barnard gradually built a gap over his title rival through the first half of the 17-lap race.
Despite three successive fastest laps he only had 0.643 seconds in hand by lap seven, and the gap did not exceed a second until the end of lap nine. Taponen did not get closer to the leader until lap 12, but by that point he was still trailing by 1.3s and further gains were not enough to deny Barnard a fourth win of 2024 as he only got back within a second of him with two laps to go.
There was a sizeable gap to Costa Toparis in third, with Zachary David passing James Wharton for fourth on lap one. Wharton’s Mumbai Falcons team-mate Ugo Ugochukwu finished behind him sixth.
Alexander Abkhazava was a lonely seventh, and he escaped what ended up being a messy scrap for eighth.
Brando Badoer held the position ahead of Theophile Nael and Nikhil Bohra on lap one, with Bohra passing Nael on lap two. He gained another spot on lap five, but found himself still fighting with Badoer two laps later. That enabled Nael to stay with them, attempting a pass on Badoer that lap then again on lap 10 at turn five. However it all went wrong and contact between the pair sent both out of the race with damaged cars.
It freed up the pressure on Bohra, and promoted Mumbai Falcons’ Rafael Camara and MP Motorsport’s Bruno del Pino to the final points positions.
Pinnacle Motorsport had a tricky race, with Mari Boya pitting on lap one and his car being worked on until lap 13 when he returned to track. His team-mate Finley Green, who reportedly had appendicitis surgery last week, retired in the pits at the end of lap seven.
Race result (17 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taylor Barnard | PHM Racing | 31m29.383s |
| 2 | Tuukka Taponen | R-ace GP | +0.423s |
| 3 | Costa Toparis | Evans GP | +5.101s |
| 4 | Zachary David | R-ace GP | +6.341s |
| 5 | James Wharton | Mumbai Falcons | +7.324s |
| 6 | Ugo Ugochukwu | Mumbai Falcons | +8.496s |
| 7 | Alexander Abkhazava | Pinnacle Motorsport | +14.419s |
| 8 | Nikhil Bohra | MP Motorsport | +19.994s |
| 9 | Rafael Camara | Mumbai Falcons | +24.128s |
| 10 | Bruno del Pino | MP Motorsport | +27.908s |
| 11 | Noah Lisle | Xcel Motorsport | +30.466s |
| 12 | Giovanni Maschio | Pinnacle Motorsport | +31.564s |
| 13 | Ruiqi Liu | PHM Racing | +32.200s |
| 14 | Jesse Carrasquedo | R-ace GP | +33.934s |
| 15 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | PHM Racing | +35.262s |
| 16 | Enzo Peugeot | Sainteloc Racing | +35.804s |
| 17 | Emmo Fittipaldi | MP Motorsport | +36.355s |
| 18 | Isaac Barashi | MP Motorsport | +38.614s |
| 19 | Kanato Le | R-ace GP | +40.739s |
| 20 | John Bennett | Evans GP | +41.272s |
| 21 | Yujia Gao | R&B Racing | +42.068s |
| 22 | Edgar Pierre | Evans GP | +49.111s |
| 23 | Zhongwei Wang | R&B Racing | +51.333s |
| 24 | Yaroslav Veselaho | Xcel Motorsport | +57.413s |
| 25 | Jose Garfias | Sainteloc Racing | +2 laps |
| Ret | Theophile Nael | Sainteloc Racing | |
| Ret | Brando Badoer | PHM Racing | |
| Ret | Finley Green | Pinnacle Motorsport | |
| Ret | Mari Boya | Pinnacle Motorsport | |
| Fastest lap: Taponen, 1m51.456s
Championship standings |
|||