De Palo dominant at Hungaroring to move into FREC points lead

Photo: ACI Sport

Trident’s Matteo De Palo took the Formula Regional European Championship points lead with a dominant victory at the Hungaroring.

The Italian made a great start to be unchallenged into the opening corner, where R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny went down the inside of Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri for third place.

De Palo had a gap after just a few corners, and by the end of lap one was 1.562 seconds clear of Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Clerot.

Behind the top four were Prema’s Freddie Slater, VAR’s Hiyu Yamakoshi and ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire, who had started in fifth.

There was 4.2s between De Palo and Yamakoshi when the safety car was summoned on lap nine, and it came just as Slater was attempting to overtake Al Dhaheri.

The cause of the interruption was an incident for Akcel GP’s Saqer Al Maosherji, who had contact at turn two and went spinning then stopped in the run-off after turn three and could not get going again. He was the second retiree, as Race Performance Motorsport’s Ean Eyckmans had ended his race in the pits on lap two following an early incident.

Very little had happened in the top 10 until then, with Deligny trying a move on Clerot into turn one on lap four but going too aggressive to pull it off and R-ace’s Akshay Bohra similarly diving down Giltaire’s inside there on lap one but not getting ahead.

Racing resumed on lap 12, and Sainteloc Racing’s Nikita Bedrin lunged on Prema’s Jack Beeton for ninth at turn one. He did not turn in to the corner in time though and sent both off. Trident’s Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi took ninth place from Bedrin as Beeton fell to 13th.

De Palo built a 1.2s gap in the first lap of racing this time, then continued to pull away. Deligny repeated his lap four on lap 15, but once again ran too deep once he was ahead so Clerot went straight back past exiting turn one.

The safety car returned as De Palo began lap 16, due to G4 Racing’s debutant Edu Robinson parking his car up by a barrier, and returned to the pits with one lap remaining.

Slater made a bold look at Al Dhaheri into turn one, but that then put him under pressure from Yamakoshi into turn two.  He closed back onto Al Dhaheri’s tail by the end of the lap, but by finishing fifth while De Palo won by 1.122s it meant he lost his points lead to the Italian.

Beeton was demoted to 15th before the chequered flag by ART GP’s Taito Kato and R-ace’s Jin Nakamura.

Race results (18 laps)