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Camara dominates at Paul Ricard for fifth FREC win

by Roger Gascoigne

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Prema’s Rafael Camara took a dominant fifth Formula Regional Europe win of the season at Paul Ricard to extend his championship lead.

Camara took the lead at the start and was able to control the race from the front, gradually eking out his lead over Michael Belov to 3.733 seconds.

“It was a good race, I did a solid start and from that on the car was just very good,” he told Formula Scout after the race. “The team did an amazing job. I just enjoyed it and did what I know what to do.

“At one point, it was a bit too long,” he laughed. “But every lap was very fun. Fortunately we had a very good car so I was able to manage more and push when I wanted.”

Belov was equally untroubled in second place, maintaining a gap of over a second to Van Amersfoort Racing’s Brando Badoer, who took his sixth successive podium finish.

Badoer’s VAR team-mate Ivan Domingues made an excellent start to take fourth from Tuukka Taponen through the opening corners.

Their first lap battle continued with Prema’s James Wharton challenging both on the run through the fast right-hander at Signes. Domingues held onto the position, while Wharton lost his front nose cover approaching the chicane on the next lap.

Though Taponen was able to close up on Domingues, the Portuguese was able to hold onto the position despite suffering cramp in the later stages, with Wharton coming home sixth, although the Australian is under investigation by the stewards.

Alessandro Giusti headed home his ART Grand Prix team-mate in seventh and eighth, while Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu held off Nicola Lacorte for ninth after a fraught battle. A mid-race incident which saw Lacorte take to the run-off at the chicane will also be investigated after the race.

Lower down the order, R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny collided with Edgar Pierre at turn five as the pair battled over 17th place on lap 13, spinning the Race Performance Motorsport driver around and into retirement.

Race result (16 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Rafael Camara Prema 32m08.545s
2 Michael Belov Trident +3.733s
3 Brando Badoer Van Amersfoort Racing +5.605s
4 Ivan Domingues Van Amersfoort Racing +8.901s
5 Tuukka Taponen R-ace GP +9.846s
6 James Wharton Prema +14.440s
7 Alessandro Giusti ART Grand Prix +15.486s
8 Evan Giltaire ART Grand Prix +21.475s
9 Ugo Ugochukwu Prema +21.874s
10 Niko Lacorte Trident +22.682s
11 Enzo Peugeot Sainteloc Racing +23.493s
12 Matteo De Palo Sainteloc Racing +27.402s
13 Theophile Nael Sainteloc Racing +29.051s
14 Valerio Rinicella MP Motorsport +32.080s
15 Ruiqi Liu Trident +32.562s
16 Nikhil Bohra MP Motorsport +33.587s
17 Enzo Deligny R-ace GP +35.010s
18 Zachary David R-ace GP +35.623s
19 Kanato Le G4 Racing +39.157s
20 Marta Garcia Iron Dames +39.924s
21 Romain Andriolo G4 Racing +43.247s
22 Alex Sawer KIC Motorsport +45.655s
23 Alvaro Cho G4 Racing +50.839s
24 Yaroslav Veselaho ART Grand Prix +51.121s
25 Yujia Gao KIC Motorsport +56.564s
26 Isaac Barashi MP Motorsport +57.564s
27 Giovanni Maschio R-P-M +1m42.296s
Ret Doriane Pin Iron Dames
Ret Edgar Pierre R-P-M
Ret Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi KIC Motorsport
Ret Pedro Clerot Van Amersfoort Racing
Ret Noah Stromsted R-P-M
Ret Lena Buhler ART Grand Prix
Fastest lap: Camara, 1m59.830s

Championship standings
Camara 204   2 Taponen 160   3 Badoer 133   4 Wharton 89   5 Giusti 80   6 Domingues 71   7 Clerot 61   8 Giltaire 57   9 Stromsted 46   10 Deligny 37