Home Featured Saucy gets eighth FREC win, 16 drivers penalised

Saucy gets eighth FREC win, 16 drivers penalised

by Cian Brittle

Photo: FRECA

Franco Colapinto has lost his second win from the Red Bull Ring round of the Formula Regional European Championship due to track limits violations, subject to appeal.

ART Grand Prix’s Gregoire Saucy inherits the victory, stretching his championship lead over Hadrien David to 77 points.

Colapinto’s 10-second penalty drops him to fourth behind Gabriel Bortoleto and Zane Maloney too, while Monolite Racing’s Pietro Delli Guanti is now a surprise fifth behind him.

Colapinto was not the only driver affected, as a raft of post-race penalties were handed out to 16 drivers as a result of consistent track limits breaches.

Among the original points scorers, Isack Hadjar, Alex Quinn, William Alatalo, and Dino Beganovic are all served with five-second penalties.

Hadjar drops one position to sixth, while Beganovic loses his second-best finish of the season as he drops out of the points into 11th thanks to an additional 10s penalty due to overtaking under yellow flag conditions.

Alatalo suffers the same fate as Beganovic, as the Arden driver is also handed a 10s penalty for overtaking behind yellow flags, dropping him from eighth to 15th.

Even with his penalty, Quinn is able to gain one position thanks to the number of other drivers being penalised.

Gabriele Mini and Mari Boya would have been first in line for promotions into the points, having finished 11th and 12th on the road, but both drivers were handed 10s penalties, demoting them to 12th and 14th respectively.

As a result, Francesco Pizzi and Patrik Pasma are the ones to benefit from the final two points-paying positions, with Pasma’s initial 17th place highlighting the breadth of the retroactive penalties.

Nico Gohler, Axel Gnos, and Nicola Marinangeli also got 5s penalties.

The other drivers to suffer 10-second penalties were Tommy Smith, Ido Cohen, Eduardo Barrichello, and Oliver Goethe, although it should be noted that the latter’s penalty is being appealed.

Returning champion Gianluca Petecof’s weekend went from bad to worse as he was given a 25s penalty, converted from a drive-through, leaving the Brazilian second to last, ahead of Andrea Rosso who was given an identical penalty.

Race results (21 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Gregoire Saucy ART Grand Prix 32m05.984s
2 Gabriel Bortoleto FA Racing by MP +2.959s
3 Zane Maloney R-ace GP +5.991s
4 Franco Colapinto MP Motorsport +8.943s
5 Pietro Delli Guanti Monolite Racing +10.015s
6 Isack Hadjar R-ace GP +11.774s
7 David Vidales Prema +11.874s
8 Alex Quinn Arden +16.251s
9 Francesco Pizzi Van Amersfoort Racing +18.262s
10 Patrik Pasma ART Grand Prix +22.201s
11 Dino Beganovic Prema +23.076s
12 Gabriele Mini ART Grand Prix +23.772s
13 Paul Aron Prema +24.118s
14 Mari Boya Van Amersfoort Racing +25.058s
15 William Alatalo Arden +25.971s
16 Lorenzo Fluxa Van Amersfoort Racing +26.437s
17 Elias Seppanen KIC Motorsport +28.991s
18 Oliver Goethe MP Motorsport +29.787s
19 Ido Cohen JD Motorsport +30.719s
20 Jose Garfias Monolite Racing +37.805s
21 Nicola Marinangeli Arden +37.832s
22 Nico Gohler KIC Motorsport +39.223s
23 Emidio Pesce DR Formula +40.211s
24 Axel Gnos G4 Racing +41.128s
25 Eduardo Barrichello JD Motorsport +45.789s
26 Lena Buhler R-ace GP +46.243s
27 Tommy Smith JD Motorsport +46.326s
28 Gianluca Petecof KIC Motorsport +46.889s
29 Andrea Rosso FA Racing by MP +47.517s
Ret Kas Haverkort MP Motorsport
Ret Alexandre Bardinon FA Racing by MP
Ret Michael Belov G4 Racing
Ret Hadrien David R-ace GP
Fastest lap: Colapinto, 1m26.569s

Championship standings
1
Saucy 224   2 David 147   3 Maloney 141   4 Hadjar 109   5 Aron 109   6 Mini 109   7 Quinn 96   8 Alatalo 77   9 Colapinto 73   10 Vidales 58