Photo: ACI Sport
Pedro Clerot won the second Formula Regional European Championship race at the Red Bull Ring, as Freddie Slater reclaimed the points lead.
Starting from pole position, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Clerot immediately went right to cover off Enzo Deligny and then defended the inside from the R-ace GP driver at Turn 3.
Further back, Matteo De Palo, having started from 11th, found himself taking to the grass in avoidance and losing places after Akshay Bohra aggressively swerved from right to left.
Sustaining damage, the Trident driver – who had taken the points lead with his race one win on Saturday – would later visit the pits twice and finish unclassified, three laps down, for his first non-score of the season. Post-race Bohra was given a five-place grid penalty for forcing De Palo onto the grass.
Jin Nakamura got down the inside of Rashid Al Dhaheri to take third place on lap one, and was followed through by Evan Giltaire.
ART Grand Prix driver Giltaire was on the tail of R-ace GP’s Nakamura and looking for his first podium finish since the Misano season opener when he was given a five-second penalty for jumping the start – as was Trident’s Ruiqi Liu.
Slater meanwhile had gone wheel-to-wheel with Al Dhaheri through Turn 7 on lap three, taking advantage of his Prema team-mate putting two wheels in the gravel to pass him around the outside.
Up front, Clerot pulled away from Deligny to win by 2.771 seconds and record his second win of the season. Toyota junior Nakamura shook off Giltaire on the way to securing his maiden FREC podium.
Slater couldn’t find a way past Giltaire on track, but fourth place puts him three points in from of De Palo at the top of the standings with three rounds remaining.
Giltaire would be classified seventh, dropping behind the Prema trio of Slater, Al Dhaheri and Jack Beeton.
Five-second penalties for exceeding track limits were handed to Kenato Le, Giovanni Maschio and Alex Powell, with Saqer Al Maosherji receiving 15s of penalties.
Race results (22 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pedro Clerot | Van Amersfoort Racing | 32m03.029s |
| 2 | Enzo Deligny | R-ace GP | +2.771s |
| 3 | Jin Nakamura | R-ace GP | +4.046s |
| 4 | Freddie Slater | Prema | +8.478s |
| 5 | Rashid Al Dhaheri | Prema | +9.003s |
| 6 | Jack Beeton | Prema | +11.303s |
| 7 | Evan Giltaire | ART Grand Prix | +12.458s |
| 8 | Nikita Bedrin | Sainteloc Racing | +17.230s |
| 9 | Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi | Trident | +18.487s |
| 10 | Reno Francot | R-P-M | +18.949s |
| 11 | Hiyu Yamakoshi | Van Amersfoort Racing | +19.391s |
| 12 | Akshay Bohra | R-ace GP | +19.683s |
| 13 | Dion Gowda | Van Amersfoort Racing | +20.232s |
| 14 | Taito Kato | ART Grand Prix | +22.309s |
| 15 | Ean Eyckmans | R-P-M | +24.468s |
| 16 | Kanato Le | ART Grand Prix | +28.506s |
| 17 | Michael Belov | CL Motorsport | +30.569s |
| 18 | Edu Robinson | G4 Racing | +35.278s |
| 19 | Ruiqi Liu | Trident | +37.007s |
| 20 | Giovanni Maschio | R-P-M | +38.190s |
| 21 | Alex Powell | Prema | +40.947s |
| 22 | Newman Chi | CL Motorsport | +44.191s |
| 23 | Tim Gerhards | Sainteloc Racing | +46.182s |
| 24 | Edouard Borgna | G4 Racing | +47.125s |
| 25 | Yaroslav Veselaho | Sainteloc Racing | +48.018s |
| 26 | Saqer Al Maosherji | G4 Racing | +1m33.405s |
| 27 | Enea Frey | CL Motorsport | +2 laps |
| NC | Matteo De Palo | Trident | |
| Fastest lap: Al Dhaheri, 1m26.931s
Championship standings |
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