Camara claims lights-to-flag victory in FREC race one at Red Bull Ring

Photo: FRECA

Prema’s Rafael Camara claimed a convincing lights-to-flag victory in Formula Regional European Championship race one at the Red Bull Ring.

The Ferrari junior nailed the start and benefitted from battles behind him to open a gap, which allowed him to then manage the race to the end. This was the Brazilian’s second victory, after winning race one at Spa-Francorchamps from pole.

R-ace GP’s Tim Tramnitz attempted to go around the outside of G4 Racing’s Alessandro Giusti for second at turn one on the opening lap. Tramnitz had to go wide and took to the run-off area, but rejoined ahead of Giusti.

Behind them, G4’s Michael Belov moved up to fifth from seventh on the grid, meanwhile Prema’s Lorenzo Fluxa dropped from fourth to sixth.

Giusti soon started to put pressure on Tramnitz and eventually regained second on lap three as he took the inside line under braking at turn three. Tramnitz ran wide at the exit of the corner, staying ahead of Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who also tried to take advantage of the situation.

The French rookie soon opened a two-second gap over Tramnitz, which continued to increase as the race progressed and had doubled halfway through it. However, Giusti’s pace wasn’t enough to close the over two-second gap Camara had opened at the front in the first three laps.

Overtaking proved extremely difficult as Antonelli couldn’t find his way past Tramnitz despite being within half-a-second of his rival for the whole race. The duo finished 11 seconds behind Giusti.

Belov, who took the chequered flag in fifth, was demoted to 10th place as a result of a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits. He wasn’t the only one to receive a penalty for such reason: G4 team-mate Pierre-Alexandre Provost, Race Performance Motorsport’s Santiago Ramos and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Jesse Carrasquedo were also penalised.

Tramnitz’s R-ace team-mate Martinius Stenshorne continued to struggle, as he could only finish 18th from 20th on the grid and now Antonelli has pulled away from him in the standings.

Monolite Racing’s series returnee Hadrien David failed to get going at first, dropping from 15th to last at the start. The Frenchman would then recover 12 positions to finish in 20th.

Race results (22 laps)