Bohra beats Bedrin to FRegional Middle East race two victory

Photo: FRegional Middle East

R-ace GP’s Akshay Bohra led home Sainteloc Racing’s Nikita Bedrin in the reversed-grid Formula Regional Middle East race at Yas Marina Circuit.

Bohra started from pole and had Bedrin a few car lengths behind him through the whole 15-lap race, with his lead never getting as large as 0.9 seconds but never smaller than 0.6s until the final lap when Bedrin attacked and finished just 0.152s behind.

PHM Racing’s Brando Badoer passed R-ace’s Enzo Deligny at the start for fourth, then Deligny had an off and dropped to seventh, behind ART Grand Prix’s Kanato Le and Evan Giltaire.

The safety car appeared before the end of the lap, as Akcel GP by PHM Racing’s Aditya Kulkarni punctured, Sainteloc’s Yaroslav Veselaho picked up damage to had to replace his front wing, Evans GP’s Aaron Cameron needed a wheel change and Mumbai Falcons’ Jack Beeton also got into trouble that led to him retiring.

Racing resumed on lap four, and Badoer flew past Pinnacle Motorsport’s Ernesto Rivera. Deligny gained a place back on lap five as points leader Giltaire went off in the hotel section, and Le tried to pass Rivera at the final chicane. He got the job done at turn one on lap six, and further back Mumbai Falcons’ Rashid Al Dhaheri passed ART GP’s Taito Kato for 11th.

Giltaire’s title rival Freddie Slater also got past him, but then he moved back ahead of the Mumbai Falcons driver. Kato lost out to Pinnacle’s Hiyu Yamakoshi on lap seven, then to Origine Motorsport’s Ruiqi Liu on lap eight, but there were no further changes to the top 10 until lap 11.

Rivera defended against Deligny down the back straight on lap 10, but Deligny got his nose ahead on the outside. To try to hold his position into the corner, Rivera turned in late but sent himself and Deligny way off the road. They rejoined still side-by-side, and remained like that all the way through to turn two on lap 11 where Deligny was forced off again but he got his overtake complete. Behind them, Slater passed Giltaire once more.

Le attacked Badoer at the end of lap 12, and looked to the outside of him at turn one in each of the remaining laps but had no luck. His opportunity to get on the podium came on the run to the finish line as he drew alongside Badoer, but lost out by 0.173s.

Al Dhaheri and Yamakoshi made several passes to move up to ninth and 11th by the end of the race.

Race results (15 laps)