Photo: Formula Winter Series
US Racing’s Gabriel Gomez and Maxim Rehm won the first two Formula Winter Series races at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit.
Gomez was on pole for both and ended “a perfect” Saturday bu winning race one. He almost lost the lead at the start, and sweeped to the inside. Hitech GP’s Leo Robinson took to the grass in avoidance, but kept second ahead of Rehm (who was disqualified from round one’s three races due to a technical infringement). Van Amersfoort Racing’s Maximilian Popov tried passing US’s Kabir Anurag for fourth exiting turn two.
VAR’s Dante Vinci was sixth, but US’s Edu Robinson demoted Hitech’s Fionn McLaughlin to eighth at turn one on lap two and then passed him too. The safety car soon appeared due to Maffi Racing’s David Walther crashing out.
Racing resumed on lap five, and Jenzer Motorsport’s Enea Frey attacked McLaughlin. VAR’s Payton Westcott, who had already pitted for a new front wing, stopped on track but got going again and Campos Racing’s Alisha Palmowski retired in the pits with a crabbing car.
AKM Motorsport’s Joanna Ciconte was the next retiree, and Gomez was 1.7 seconds clear when the safety car returned on lap 12 due to Jenzer Motorsport’s Alba Hurup Larsen crashing at turn five.
The field was free to fight again on lap 14, and Anurag tried passing Rehm around the outside at turn one but struck the kerbs and went off. There was lots of side-by-side action, and not all of it was clean as McLaughlin squeezed off US’s formation lap staller Andrija Kostic.
VAR’s Gino Trappa lost several places, Maffi’s Kornelia Olkucka spun and an issue sent Edu Robinson down the order before the safety car returned on lap 15 as Cram Motorsport’s Ricardo Miranda Baptista stopped on track.
There was time for two more laps of racing. Rehm forcefully held off Anurag on the restart, and at turn one on the final lap Campos’s Chloe Chambers rear-ended Hitech’s Thomas Bearman, who was sent into the back of Jenzer’s Artem Severeiukhin as they fought for a point. The top seven was unchanged, and behind them were Kostic, Frey, Jenzer’s Bart Harrison and Trappa.
Gomez had wheelspin at the start of race two on Sunday, and Leo Robinson took the lead ahead of Rehm, McLaughlin and the poleman. Robinson made a mistake on lap two and Rehm got onto his tail, then the safety car appeared on lap five as Maffi’s Teo Borenstein was recovered from the gravel.
On the lap seven restart, Robinson and Rhem twice made contact before the latter took the lead. Rehm utilised a tyre advantage to pull away after that, and a five-second penalty for jumping the start dropped McLaughlin to eighth.
Anurag dived past Vinci on lap one, squeezed past Popov on lap 12 then set the fastest lap in fourth. Kostic pipped Vinci to the finish by 0.009s.
Results round-up
Race 1 (18 laps)
1 Gabriel Gomez US Racing 32m51.914s
2 Leo Robinson Hitech GP +1.206s
3 Maxim Rehm US Racing +2.083s
4 Kabir Anurag US Racing +2.355s
5 Maximilian Popov Van Amersfoort Racing +2.999s
6 Dante Vinci Van Amersfoort Racing +3.597s
7 Fionn McLaughlin Hitech GP +4.543s
8 Enea Frey Jenzer Motorsport +5.653s
9 Bart Harrison Jenzer Motorsport +6.130s
10 Gino Trappa Van Amersfoort Racing +7.867s
Fastest lap: Gomez, 1m34.177s
Race 2 (20 laps)
1 Rehm 32m57.149s
2 L Robinson +1.585s
3 Gomez +2.430s
4 Anurag +3.061s
5 Popov +4.915s
6 Andrija Kostic US Racing +6.500s
7 Vinci +6.509s
8 McLaughlin +6.585s
9 Edu Robinson US Racing +8.704s
10 Nina Gademan Hitech GP +10.341s
FL: Anurag, 1m34.733s
Championship standings
1 Gomez 114 2 Rehm 75 3 L Robinson 72 4 McLaughlin 45 5 E Robinson 38 6 Popov 37 7 Anurag 29 8 Kostic 28 9 Luka Sammalisto 23 10 Thomas Bearman 22