Salim Hanna keeps it cool for first FRegional Middle East win at Dubai

Photo: Top Speed

Mumbai Falcons’ Salim Hanna won the second Formula Regional Middle East race at Dubai Autodrome on Sunday morning.

Having finished 12th in race one, Pinnacle Motorsport’s Alex Powell started on reversed-grid pole ahead of Hanna, Jan Przyrowski (Race Performance Motorsport), Alex Ninovic (Rodin Motorsport) and Newman Chi (CL Motorsport).

Hanna and Ninovic got either side of Powell down the long pit straight when the race began, and under braking Hanna took the lead on the inside line but did have a big lock-up. Ninovic took second, and Przyrowski passed Powell at turn two. R-ace GP’s Emanuele Olivieri was briefly up to fifth there before a crash broke his rear-left suspension.

The safety car was required, and racing resumed on lap three. Chi sat fifth, ahead of Yuki Sano (R-ace), points leader Rashid Al Dhaheri (R-ace), Kean Nakamura-Berta (Mumbai Falcons), Alexander Abkhazava (MP Motorsport), Maximilian Popov (Trident) and Andrea Dupe (G4 Racing).

The top three gapped themselves, and at the end of the back straight Al Dhaheri tried going to the inside of Sano. Another attempt was made later in the lap, then he made it stick into the final corner. Once on the pit straight he cut to the inside, and Sano went into the back of him. Sano’s damaged car then spun, prompting the safety car to return.

Before it did, Popov got back past Dupe who had passed him off-track at the penultimate corner and then used the escape road from turns one to three. They eached had gained a place after Powell stopped on-track.

The next restart was on lap seven, and Abkhazava swept to the inside down the pit straight to defend against Popov. Przyrowski meanwhile went side-by-side with Ninovic through turns two and three, allowing Chi and Al Dhaheri to stick with them. Al Dhaheri and Chi swapped places twice, Przyrowski then had to hold off Chi at the end of the back straight, before Al Dhaheri attacked Chi again.

Hanna broke 1.3 seconds clear, and in the last five laps pulled away further for his maiden FRegional win. The fight for second settled down, but there was still drama behind. Popov attacked Nakamura early in lap eight, before the latter seemed to leave the door open for him to get through. Exiting the corner following the back straight, Nakamura slowed even more and blocked Van Amersfoort Racing’s Francisco Macedo who had just tried passing Abkhazava.

Nakamura fell down the order before pitting, and Macedo lost out to Dupe before spinning. Dupe’s next target was Abkhazava, who he cleared on lap 10, while Al Dhaheri was overtaken by Popov late on but still grew his points lead.

Race results (12 laps)