Photo: FRMEC
Mumbai Falcons’ Rafael Camara took his first Formula Regional Middle East win in the third race of the weekend at Dubai Autodrome.
Camara started on pole alongside fellow Ferrari junior Tuukka Taponen, who got alongside him on the run to turn one and passed him down the inside of the corner. The R-ace GP driver squeezed Camara off at turn two, and he rejoined the track alongside his rival.
Later in the lap he reclaimed the lead, and Taponen tried getting back past following that but could not get a move done.
However on lap two he did get back into first place as he went to the inside of Camara at a hairpin and again squeezed him off. Camara once more was able to rejoin safely and alongside Taponen, and repeated his lap one move at the end of the back straight to move ahead.
At the next corner PHM Racing’s Taylor Barnard, who had lost third to Pinnacle Motorsport’s Mari Boya off the line but had then passed him back later on lap one, did a two-in-one move to snatch the lead but at the exit went wide and dropped back to fourth behind Camara, Taponen and Boya.
Barnard returned to third at the next hairpin, then his team-mate Brando Badoer demoted Boya to fifth at the last corner.
There was a gap to R-ace’s Martinius Stenshorne in sixth, then another gap to the big battle for seventh between Bruno del Pino and Arvid Lindblad and which was being followed closely by Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and James Wharton. Lindblad got ahead, and on lap five Wharton passed del Pino too.
The fight at the front died down, although the top two remained close before the safety car neutralised the race with two laps to go. That secured the win for Camara, with Taponen second and Badoer in third after passing Barnard.
Boya lost fifth place on lap nine of 15 when he stopped at the final corner, and Lindblad inherited the place before he too stopped there on lap 13. Jesse Carrasqueo Jr also spun there on that lap.
That meant Wharton finished fifth, having passed Stenshorne on lap 12, with del Pino in seventh ahead of Nikhil Bohra and Inthraphuvasak. Ugo Ugochukwu won a fierce race-long battle for what ended up being the final points position.
Race result (15 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rafael Camara | Mumbai Falcons | 30m54.294s |
| 2 | Tuukka Taponen | R-ace GP | +0.663s |
| 3 | Brando Badoer | PHM Racing | +0.945s |
| 4 | Taylor Barnard | PHM Racing | +1.279s |
| 5 | James Wharton | Mumbai Falcons | +1.802s |
| 6 | Martinius Stenshorne | R-ace GP | +3.391s |
| 7 | Bruno del Pino | MP Motorsport | +4.322s |
| 8 | Nikhil Bohra | MP Motorsport | +4.599s |
| 9 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | PHM Racing | +6.113s |
| 10 | Ugo Ugochukwu | Mumbai Falcons | +6.236s |
| 11 | Theophile Nael | Sainteloc Racing | +6.470s |
| 12 | Noah Lisle | Xcel Motorsport | +7.008s |
| 13 | John Bennett | Evans GP | +8.584s |
| 14 | Emmo Fittipaldi | MP Motorsport | +8.898s |
| 15 | Joe Garfias | Sainteloc Racing | +10.493s |
| 16 | Giovanni Maschio | Pinnacle Motorsport | +11.769s |
| 17 | Isaac Barashi | MP Motorsport | +12.396s |
| 18 | Ruiqi Liu | PHM Racing | +12.465s |
| 19 | Alexander Abkhazava | Pinnacle Motorsport | +13.337s |
| 20 | Yaroslav Veselaho | Xcel Motorsport | +14.237s |
| 21 | Costa Toparis | Evans GP | +14.575s |
| 22 | Zhongwei Wang | R&B Racing | +14.702s |
| 23 | Yujia Gao | R&B Racing | +18.774s |
| 24 | Arvid Lindblad | Mumbai Falcons | +3 laps |
| 25 | Jesse Carrasquedo Jr | R-ace GP | +3 laps |
| Ret | Mari Boya | Pinnacle Motorsport | |
| Ret | Zachary David | R-ace GP | |
| Ret | Noah Stromsted | Sainteloc Racing | |
| Fastest lap: Camara, 1m56.733s
Championship standings |
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