De Palo into FREC lead with Red Bull Ring win, Nakamura goes on charge

Photo: ACI Sport

Trident’s Matteo Palo took the Formula Regional European Championship points lead by winning race one at the Red Bull Ring.

He had moved closer to the top of the standings pre-weekend as Prema’s erstwhile points leader Freddie Slater was disqualified from second place in the previous race at Imola due to a technical infringement relating to his wheels.

De Palo started from pole and was not challenged for the lead at any point, winning by 2.95 seconds.

R-ace GP’s Akshay Bohra started second, and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Clerot was third but went off at the opening corner and rejoined alongside Sainteloc Racing’s Nikita Bedrin. They swapped places ar turn three, then R-ace’s Enzo Deligny dived down Clerot’s inside at turn five.

The safety car was then summoned due to chaos at turn three. CL Motorsport’s Enea Frey was spun around by contact with Prema’s Jack beeton and he ended up in the path of Race Performance Motorsport’s Giovanni Maschio. Newman Chi slowed to a near stop to avoid hitting him at the apex, but G4 Racing’s Saqer Al Maosherji ploughed into his rear and pushed all of them forward. Al Maosherji was able to reverse out of the incident.

Before racing paused, Slater climbed from 18th to 12th, and R-ace’s Jin Nakamura went from 28th to 19th.

Bedrin dived down the inside of Bohra at turn three on the lap five restart, and Deligny overtook him on the inside of turn five. Bohra then had to get defensive against Clerot, whose next attempt at a move was on lap 13. He tried the inside of turn three and succeded, with Bohra unsuccessfully attempting to get back past at turn five.

There was more action ahead on lap 19 of 21, as Deligny looked to the outside of Bedrin at turn three then swept to the inside but both went off.  They battled through the next two corners, and Bedin stayed ahead.

Slater made up one spot on lap six, but got no further. Nakamura gained two places on lap five, another two on lap six, and one on lap seven.

His next bit of progress was on lap 10, clearing ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato, and he overtook VAR’s Dion Gowda on the lap after. Up the road was Slater, who he passed on lap 12, then he entered the top by slipstreaming past CL’s Michael Belov on lap 14.

There was a big gap to R-P-M’s Ean Eyckmans, but Nakamura was able to clear him by lap 17 and he also got by ART GP’s Evan Giltaire before the end of the race.

Race results (21 laps)