Home Featured Kanato Le opens FRegional victory account with Yas Marina success

Kanato Le opens FRegional victory account with Yas Marina success

by Ida Wood

Photo: FRME

ART Grand Prix’s Kanato Le led lights-to-flag from reversed-grid pole in Formula Regional Middle East race two at Yas Marina Circuit.

The race started in sunlight but finished under floodlights, and was light on action after the first few laps. Le made a good start, as team-mate Taiko Kato stalled from fourth on the grid and fell down the order.

Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael and R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny followed Le into turn one, with mixed fortunes for the other R-ace drivers. Ugochukwu moved up to fourth, while Akshay Bohra had a tangle with another driver in the hotel section and ended up spun around and stalled. He got his car going again, but just as Ugochukwu attempted passing Deligny around the outside the final chicane the safety car was summoned.

Racing resumed on lap three without a fuss, and behind the top four were PHM Racing’s Brando Badoer, Mumbai Falcons’ Freddie Slater, ART GP’s Evan Giltaire and Pinnacle Motorsport’s Ernesto Rivera.

There was a battle for ninth place, as Mumbai Falcons’ Rashid Al Dhaheri banged wheels with Pinnacle’s Jesse Carrasquedo jr in the hotel section on lap four. R-ace’s Jin Nakamura then passed Carrasquedo at the hairpin, then almost drove him into the pitwall twice as they concluded the lap.

Carrasquedo went wide at turn one and fell behind Aaron Cameron (Evans GP) and Lorenzo Castillo (Sainteloc), then the safety car was called out again as Finley Green (Pinnacle) and Jack Beeton (Mumbai Falcons) had collided at the final chicane. A further incident involving Carrasquedo then eliminated his team-mate Giovanni Maschio.

Le left it as late as possible to return the field to racing speed for lap eight, and had a peaceful second half of the race to earn his first FRegional win. He made the podium once in the European championship as a rookie last year.

Ugochukwu feinted a move Deligny into turn one on lap nine, and Al Dhaheri thought of attacking Rivera at the hairpin, then Al Dhaheri had to hold off Nakamura at the final chicane on lap 11. Slater maintained the points lead by finishing sixth.

Race results (14 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Kanato Le ART Grand Prix 31m17.356s
2 Theophile Nael Sainteloc Racing +1.047s
3 Enzo Deligny R-ace GP +4.091s
4 Ugo Ugochukwu R-ace GP +4.735s
5 Brando Badoer PHM Racing +5.292s
6 Freddie Slater Mumbai Falcons +6.161s
7 Evan Giltaire ART Grand Prix +6.944s
8 Ernesto Rivera Pinnacle Motorsport +8.445s
9 Rashid Al Dhaheri Mumbai Falcons +9.428s
10 Jin Nakamura R-ace GP +10.170s
11 Jesse Carrasquedo Jr Pinnacle Motorsport +11.404s
12 Taiko Kato ART Grand Prix +11.572s
13 Aaron Cameron Evans GP +12.486s
14 Reza Seewooruthun Mumbai Falcons +13.160s
15 Everett Stack PHM Racing +16.856s
16 Jaden Pariat Akcel GP +17.247s
17 Aditya Kulkarni Akcel GP +18.009s
18 Kai Daryanani Evans GP +19.731s
19 Yaroslav Veselaho Sainteloc Racing +20.882s
20 Lorenzo Castillo Sainteloc Racing +21.106s
21 Zhongwei Wang Origine Motorsport +23.743s
22 Ruiqi Liu Origine Motorsport +2 laps
Ret Giovanni Maschio Pinnacle Motorsport
Ret Finley Green Pinnacle Motorsport
Ret Jack Beeton Mumbai Falcons
Ret Akshay Bohra R-ace GP
Fastest lap: Le, 1m50.812s

Championship standings
1 Slater 44   2 Le 33   3 Badoer 27   4 Nael 26   5 Al Dhaheri 26   6 Giltaire 26   7 Ugochukwu 25   8 Deligny 24   9 Rivera 18   10 Kato 9