Photo: Top Speed
Mumbai Falcons’ Kean Nakamura-Berta took the Formula Regional Middle East title in a heavily disrupted final round at Losail.
Due to FIA Formula 3 pre-season testing, ART Grand Prix was without Taito Kato so called up its Formula 2 signing Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak.
He was in the cockpit for pre-event testing, which there was only one session of in the first of several schedule revisions. His team-mate Kabir Anurag set the test pace, edging Mumbai Falcons’ Sebastian Wheldon by 0.098 seconds. G4 Racing’s Jules Roussel was third.
A second free practice session was added, and Roussel set a 1m48.132s to lead Pinnacle Motorsport’s Alex Powell by 0.231s in FP1. CL Motorsport’s Reno Francot lowered the pace to 1m48.057s in FP2, pipping MP Motorsport’s Alexander Abkhazava by 0.046s, Powell by 0.048s and G4’s Artem Severiukhin by 0.072s.
Qualifying had been scheduled for Thursday but was pushed to Friday due to technical issues that also led to race two being cancelled. In Q1, MP’s Jesse Carrasquedo Jr and Abkhazava were the drivers to beat before red flags waved with six minutes to go due to Van Amersfoort Racing’s Yuhao Fu going off.
Powell went quickest after the restart, then Mumbai Falcons’ Kean Nakamura-Berta posted a 1m48.461s on his penultimate lap to snatch race one pole by 0.169s.
Wheldon trailed by 0.332s in third, and Abkhazava was fourth ahead of R-ace GP’s points leader Rashid Al Dhaheri.
Carrasquedo, Abkhazava, Anurag, ART GP’s Matteo Giaccardi, Roussel, Trident’s Maximilian Popov and Powell all spent time on top in Q2 before Nakamura-Berta posted a 1m48.057s.
Red flags waved with three minutes to go due to Abkhazava stopping on track, and after the restart Anurag demoted him to fifth. Nakamura-Berta had beaten Wheldon to race three pole (which became the day’s season-ending second race) by 0.153s, with Powell 0.321s back.
Al Dhaheri qualified eighth and a second covered the top 19 after title outsider Abkhazava had all of his laptimes from both sessions deleted.
Race one started with drama. Powell and Al Dhaheri made poor launches, allowing Wheldon to attack Nakamura-Berta into the opening corner and for Race Performance Motorsport’s Jan Przyrowski to take third. Wheldon stuck alongside his team-mate for two corners after forcing him into defence, then was pressured by Przyrowski later in the lap before the safety car appeared due to Rodin Motorsport’s Maxim Rehm having a airborne crash.
Al Dhaheri had fallen to seventh, but recovered a spot on the lap four restart. The top 11 went unchanged for the 12 laps of green flag action, with Nakamura-Berta winning by 1.827s to reduce Al Dhaheri’s lead to seven points. Anurag finished fifth, and R-ace’s Emanuele Olivieri was seventh. Abkhazava recovered from 32nd to 26th, exiting title contention.
Race two ran at night. Nakamura-Berta was able to break clear on lap one as Powell attacked Wheldon and Anurag attacked Powell. There was contact in the battle for second, then for third too, but it calmed down on lap two.
The safety car was summoned at the end of that lap, and red flags followed. G4’s Andrea Dupe had spun, MP’s Alceu Feldmann Neto had crashed out and Abkhazava had ended his race by colliding with CL Motorsport’s Enea Frey.
Al Dhaheri sat seventh for the restart behind the safety car, having overtaken Carrasquedo. Green flags waved one lap later and both Wheldon and Anurag weaved heavily down the pit straight. The top seven held their positions, while Olivieri overtook Carrasquedo around the outside of turn one on lap seven of 16.
Wheldon never got close enough to Nakamura-Berta to threaten his lead, and the race-winner took the title as Al Dhaheri made no progress.
Severiukhin retired on lap 10 with his car on fire, Roussel got penalised for his engine cover detaching as he left the pits, and Carrasquedo was disqualified.
Results round-up
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Kean Nakamura-Berta Mumbai Falcons 31m13.592s
2 Sebastian Wheldon Mumbai Falcons +1.827s
3 Jan Przyrowski R-P-M +5.448s
4 Alex Powell Pinnacle Motorsport +6.116s
5 Kabir Anurag ART Grand Prix +7.589s
6 Rashid Al Dhaheri R-ace GP +8.108s
7 Emanuele Olivieri R-ace GP +8.689s
8 Yuki Sano R-ace GP +9.640s
9 Maximilian Popov Trident +11.262s
10 Salim Hanna Mumbai Falcons
Pole: Nakamura-Berta, 1m48.461s
Fastest lap: Wheldon, 1m48.832s
Race 2 (16 laps)
1 Nakamura-Berta 44m00.126s
2 Wheldon +0.765s
3 Powell +1.918s
4 Anurag +4.670s
5 Przyrowski +5.390s
6 Hanna +6.208s
7 Al Dhaheri +6.590s
8 Olivieri +7.762s
9 Sano +10.702s
10 Miguel Costa R-P-M +13.219s
P: Nakamura-Berta, 1m48.057s
FL: Olivieri, 1m48.180s
Championship standings
1 Nakamura-Berta 151 2 Al Dhaheri 139 3 Abkhazava 95 4 Powell 76 5 Wheldon 71 6 Przyrowski 71 7 Maximilian Popov 70 8 Alex Ninovic 66 9 Anurag 62 10 Hanna 54