
Photo: FRME
ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire won race one of Formula Regional Middle East’s second round on Yas Marina Circuit’s Corkscrew layout.
Lining up from second on the grid, Giltaire made a good start and challenged Mumbai Falcons’ poleman Freddie Slater into turn one but was unable to find a way by.
The safety car was deployed early on as Akcel GP’s Aditya Kulkararni and Everett Stack of sister team PHM Racing had tangled at the end of the opening lap after being caught out by the field bunching up in front of them. Stack retired on the spot while Kulkarni headed for the pitlane for a new front wing.
Giltaire again challenged Slater into turn one at the restart, with the latter using the inside line to remain in front once more.
Slater resisted pressure from Giltaire for the next few laps, but an error with 10 minutes remaining allowed his pursuer to pounce. Locking up and running wide into the final chicane, Slater tried to defend the lead on the pit straight, but Giltaire squeezed up the inside to snatch the lead while Slater also lost out to his team-mate Rashid Al Dhaheri and slipped to third.
Giltaire was untroubled for the remainder of the contest and took the chequered flag two seconds clear of Al Dhaheri. ART GP’s Taito Kato completed the podium a further 2.5 seconds adrift, with Pinnacle Motorsport’s Jesse Carrasquedo Jr fourth. Slater faded dramatically in the closing laps and tumbled to a distant fifth, just ahead of R-ace GP’s Jin Nakamura.
Nakamura’s team-mate Ugo Ugochukwu was seventh ahead of Mumbai Falcons’ Jack Beeton, who just edged Sainteloc Racing’s Theopile Nael and PHM’s Brando Badoer. By finishing 10th, Badoer provisionally took reversed-grid pole for race two.
Mumbai Falcons’ Reza Seewooruthun prevailed in a frenetic scrap with R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny to finish 11th, the latter having to hand the place back after running off track while completing an overtake.
Race results (17 laps)
Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Evan Giltaire | ART Grand Prix | 30m31.824s |
2 | Rashid Al Dhaheri | Mumbai Falcons | +2.100s |
3 | Taito Kato | ART Grand Prix | +4.628s |
4 | Jesse Carrasquedo Jr | Pinnacle Motorsport | +11.001s |
5 | Freddie Slater | Mumbai Falcons | +14.426s |
6 | Jin Nakamura | R-ace GP | +15.396s |
7 | Ugo Ugochukwu | R-ace GP | +16.941s |
8 | Jack Beeton | Mumbai Falcons | +17.966s |
9 | Theophile Nael | Sainteloc Racing | +18.234s |
10 | Brando Badoer | PHM Racing | +18.752s |
11 | Reza Seewooruthun | Mumbai Falcons | +19.452s |
12 | Enzo Deligny | R-ace GP | +20.218s |
13 | Ernesto Rivera | Pinnacle Motorsport | +20.569s |
14 | Ruiqi Liu | Origine Motorsport | +28.811s |
15 | Kanato Le | ART Grand Prix | +23.576s |
16 | Kai Daryanani | Evans GP | +27.479s |
17 | Akshay Bohra | R-ace GP | +27.578s |
18 | Aaron Cameron | Evans GP | +30.686s |
19 | Jaden Pariat | Akcel GP | +32.496s |
20 | Lorenzo Castillo | Sainteloc Racing | +34.241s |
21 | Giovanni Maschio | Pinnacle Motorsport | +34.588s |
22 | Finley Green | Pinnacle Motorsport | +41.508s |
23 | Yaroslav Veselaho | Sainteloc Racing | +41.598s |
24 | Aditya Kulkarni | Akcel GP | +45.534s |
25 | Zhongwei Wang |
Origine Motorsport
|
+47.270s |
Ret | Everett Stack | PHM Racing | |
Fastest lap: Giltaire, 1m42.684s
Championship standings |