Photo: FRECA
Evan Giltaire held off Rafael Camara to earn his maiden Formula Regional European Championship win at Hockenheim, in a race which ended behind the safety car.
It was the first win for ART Grand Prix since the 2022 season finale, and made up for the disappointment of Giltaire retire with gearbox issues in the previous day’s race.
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Ivan Domingues was set to start on pole, but the fastest laps of Prema’s James Wharton and Giltaire were reinstated after previously being deleted over track limits violations and that put them on the front row with Domingues knocked back to fourth behind Wharton’s team-mate Camara.
Wharton made a poor getaway from pole but he and Giltaire left the faster Camara without a gap to sneak into. Giltaire took the inside and the lead, and Camara then got a run on Wharton into turn two to take second.
Wharton’s race got worse when he came together with VAR’s Pedro Clerot at the hairpin, forcing him into retirement.
Domingues made a good start and ended lap one in third, with R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny in fourth. Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu pulled off after an incident with KIC Motorsport’s Alex Sawer, while Race Performance Motorsport’s Edgar Pierre got stuck in the gravel and so the safety car was summoned.
Racing resumed at the end of lap six and Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael put immediate pressure on VAR’s Brando Badoer, pulling off a move into the hairpin. Deligny lost ground with the three ahead and was soon defending from Nael.
Further back, Trident’s Roman Bilinski ran into the back of team-mate Niko Lacorte at turn two although both continued.
The safety car was soon required once more as Iron Dames’ Doriane Pin appeared to clip ART GP’s Lena Buhler at the hairpin, pushing her off track.
Green flags next flew with five-and-a-half minutes left of the race, and Nael challenged Deligny straight away. But before the drivers had a chance to get back into a rhythm, KIC Motorsport’s Costa Toparis and G4 Racing’s Kanato Le collided as they went through the fast right-hander into the Motodrom.
With two cars in the gravel and just over three minutes on the clock, the remaining laps ran behind the safety car and victory was secured for Giltaire.
Race results (15 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evan Giltaire | ART Grand Prix | 33m12.713s |
| 2 | Rafael Camara | Prema | +0.934s |
| 3 | Ivan Domingues | Van Amersfoort Racing | +1.355s |
| 4 | Enzo Deligny | R-ace GP | +1.654s |
| 5 | Theophile Nael | Sainteloc Racing | +2.057s |
| 6 | Brando Badoer | Van Amersfoort Racing | +2.569s |
| 7 | Pedro Clerot | Van Amersfoort Racing | +3.524s |
| 8 | Nikita Bedrin | MP Motorsport | +4.110s |
| 9 | Tuukka Taponen | R-ace GP | +4.504s |
| 10 | Niko Lacorte | Trident | +4.941s |
| 11 | Matteo De Palo | Sainteloc Racing | +6.158s |
| 12 | Roman Bilinski | Trident | +6.335s |
| 13 | Noah Stromsted | R-P-M | +7.356s |
| 14 | Alessandro Giusti | ART Grand Prix | +7.800s |
| 15 | Giovanni Maschio | R-P-M | +8.437s |
| 16 | Zachary David | R-ace GP | +8.718s |
| 17 | Romain Andriolo | G4 Racing | +9.652s |
| 18 | Ruiqi Liu | Trident | +9.920s |
| 19 | Jesse Carrasquedo | G4 Racing | +11.463s |
| 20 | Valerio Rinicella | MP Motorsport | +12.222s |
| 21 | Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi | KIC Motorsport | +12.700s |
| 22 | Nikhil Bohra | MP Motorsport | +12.815s |
| 23 | Doriane Pin | Iron Dames | +13.403s |
| 24 | Enzo Peugeot | Sainteloc Racing | +18.621s |
| 25 | Marta Garcia | Iron Dames | +19.033s |
| 26 | Yaroslav Veselaho | ART Grand Prix | +19.267s |
| Ret | Costa Toparis | KIC Motorsport | |
| Ret | Kanato Le | G4 Racing | |
| Ret | Lena Buhler | ART Grand Prix | |
| Ret | Ugo Ugochukwu | Prema | |
| Ret | Alex Sawer | KIC Motorsport | |
| Ret | James Wharton | Prema | |
| Ret | Edgar Pierre | R-P-M | |
| Fastest lap: Giltaire, 1m37.373s
Championship standings |
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