
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 |