Giltaire grows FRegional Middle East lead with third win of 2025

Photo: FRME

Evan Giltaire extended his Formula Regional Middle East points lead with a lights-to-flag victory in race three at Dubai Autodrome.

When qualifying two began on Saturday morning, nobody headed out on track. Almost a fifth of the 15-minute session had passed before drivers left the pits, meaning no timed laps began until five minutes and entering the second half of Q2 a 2m11.854s from ART Grand Prix’s Giltaire was the time to beat.

That was 18 seconds off what would be the pole pace, and with five minutes to go Pinnacle Motorsport’s Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Yuanpu Cui was on top with a 2m07.042s. The first representative laptime did not appear until there were three-and-a-half minutes remaining. And the battle for pole was decided there and then.

Giltaire crossed the line in 1m53.879s, and no flying laps from anyone following that could match it. Mumbai Falcons’ Rashid Al Dhaheri set a 1m54.011s, edging R-ace GP’s Ugo Ugochukwu and Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael by 0.008s and 0.011s, and Freddie Slater was also within 0.2s of pole.

The top 14 was covered by 0.763s, and of drivers who improved their pace following that the best was Sainteloc’s Yaroslav Veselaho down in 19th. Ugochukwu got to start on the front row, as Al Dhaheri had a one-place grid penalty.

Ugochukwu got alongside Giltaire off the line and had the inside line, but Giltaire led on the outside through turn one. Nael also got clear of Al Dhaheri, but he then lunged down his inside at the opening corner. The outside line proved grippier though and Nael exited the corner in third.

R-ace’s Enzo Deligny then also overtook a sliding Al Dhaheri at turn three. Three corners later Mumbai Falcons’ Jack Beeton hit out ART GP’s Kanato Le and Evans GP’s Aaron Cameron (who did make it back to the pits), and the safety car was summoned.

Racing resumed on lap four, and there was lots of action outside of the top 10. That escalated until lap six when PHM Racing’s Everett Stack and stablemate Aditya Kulkarni collided exiting turn one but got away with it. Pinnacle’s Finley Green, Mumbai Falcons’ Mercedes junior Doriane Pin and Sainteloc’s Jakob Bergmeister were not so lucky when they collided, and Stack spun later in the lap.

The safety car was needed once more, and green flags did not wave again until lap 11. Giltaire pulled away from Ugochukwu (who is under investigation for jumping the start) for his third win of 2025, as Mumbai Falcons’ Freddie Slater passed Pinnacle’s Hiyu Yamakoshi at turn two for seventh, then overtook PHM’s Brando Badoer after he lost out to Al Dhaheri.

Badoer dived back past Slater, his rival alongside Nael for second in the championship, at turn one on the final lap but then Slater snuck back head on the run to the finish line by 0.128s. Yamakoshi was a further 0.108s behind and his team-mate Ernesto Rivera, a Red Bull junior, was ninth.

Race results (12 laps)