Red flags hand Antonelli victory over Camara in shortened FREC race

Photo: FRECA

Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli had his redemption after losing victory in the first Formula Regional European Championship race at Monza to a penalty as he won race two on Sunday.

Antonelli’s main rival for the win was team-mate Rafael Camara, and the pair started first and fourth with Race Performance Motorsport’s Santiago Ramos and R-ace GP’s Tim Tramnitz between them.

Camara passed Tramnitz early on lap one, but then was back in fourth after cutting the della Roggia chicane as he dropped behind Trident’s Roman Bilinski who had to resist an attack from Camara at turn one on lap two.

The race was then neutralised as Arden’s Joshua Duerksen was spun around by R-ace’s Martinius Stenshorne as they exited turn two, with Duerksen retiring in the gravel and Stenshorne retiring in the pits.

That incident lifted Prema’s Lorenzo Fluxa to sixth ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Laurens van Hoepen, Trident’s Nikhil Bohra and Owen Tangavelou, and R-P-M’s Noah Stromsted.

Racing resumed on lap four and Bilinski went for the outside and then the inside of Ramos as they approached turn one. The slightest bit of contact sent Ramos spinning, and everyone avoided him as his car stopped on the turn two kerbs. He was able to get going again unaided and eventually finished 22nd.

Although Bilinski took second, he lost the position at the end of lap by running wide into the gravel at Parabolica and being passed by Camara. Third became seventh on lap five as Tramnitz passed him at the della Roggia chicane but cut it slightly and baulked Bilinski on the exit, leading to him losing three further places.

Up front there was a gap of 0.7 seconds between Antonelli and Camara, and after a few laps Antonelli started weaving down the pit straight in an attempt to break the tow to his team-mate. It did not work, and they started lap 11 split by 0.422s. Camara looked to the outside at turn one but an overtake was not possible, and he attempted the same at della Roggia but slightly cut the chicane and tucked backed in behind once they reached Lesmo 1.

He stayed on his gearbox for the rest of the lap and they crossed the line 0.029s apart. Camara was already alongside Antonelli and had the inside line for turn one, where he cleanly took the lead and held it until the race was stopped by red flags on lap 13 and with just under five minutes-plus-one lap still left on the race clock.

The cause of the stoppage was an incident on lap 12 where G4 Racing’s Pierre-Alexandre Provost went off exiting Lesmo 2 then spun across the track, and Arden’s Tom Lebbon went onto the grass and crashed into the barriers as he tried to avoid him.

First the safety car came out, then red flags waved and race control chose not to restart the race. That meant results were taken from the end of lap 11, placing Antonelli back into the lead and therefore resulting in his fourth win.

Tramnitz finished third ahead of Fluxa and van Hoepen, who had been passed by Stromsted on lap 12. Stromsted therefore was classified sixth, with Bilinski seventh.

Race results (11 laps)