Photo: ACI Sport
Freddie Slater stormed to a victory in the first Formula Regional Europe race at Hockenheim with a thrilling drive that earned him the points lead outright.
After a heavy shower pre-race, the safety car led the field through the first lap since only the racing line was dry and the entire field was on slick tyres.
Trident’s poleman De Palo shot into an early lead of 1.5 seconds once green flags waved, before R-ace GP’s Akshay Bohra started to pick up speed and close in. De Palo locked up into the Sachskurve as he tried to maintain his advantage.
ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire tried to attack Bohra into the hairpin but ran wide on the exit, allowing Slater to power past as Giltaire struggled for grip on the wet run-off. The track surface remained damp off-line, making overtaking difficult.
Slater then began to close in on Bohra, going past on lap nine with a clean outbraking manoeuvre into the hairpin. Bohra tried to fight back on acceleration out of the turn but had to cede the position.
De Palo had Slater on his tail by the end of the lap, and the Prema driver initially attacked into the Spitzkehre hairpin before dramatically diving for the inside into the tight left-hander at turn eight. Contact was avoided but both cars ran wide off the track, allowing Bohra to sweep into the lead as Slater rejoined ahead of De Palo.
However, Slater was soon onto the tail of Bohra and got a run through the Parabolika. Bohra tried to defend into the hairpin but Slater had sufficient momentum to outbrake Bohra for the second time to take the lead. Once in clean air, he was unstoppable and built a lead of 3.871 seconds.
De Palo did not have the pace to stay with the top two and held off a late charge from Giltaire and R-ace’s Evan Deligny to keep third and drop 10 points behind Slater in the title fight.
Deligny fell behind team-mate Jin Nakamura for one lap during the race before returning to his starting position of fifth, and Nakamura later came under pressure from Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Clerot. The title outsider got a run into the hairpin on lap 16 and once past Nakamura was matching Slater’s laptimes but ran out of time to hunt down Deligny.
Race Performance Motorsport’s debutant James Egozi finished eighth, and the remaining points positions were filled by ART GP’s Japanese pair Taito Kato and Kanato Le.
Race results (19 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Freddie Slater | Prema | 32m10.799s |
| 2 | Akshay Bohra | R-ace GP | +3.871s |
| 3 | Matteo De Palo | Trident | +5.298s |
| 4 | Evan Giltaire | ART Grand Prix | +6.175s |
| 5 | Enzo Deligny | R-ace GP | +6.788s |
| 6 | Pedro Clerot | Van Amersfoort Racing | +7.655s |
| 7 | Jin Nakamura | R-ace GP | +10.580s |
| 8 | James Egozi | R-P-M | +11.597s |
| 9 | Taito Kato | ART Grand Prix | +12.240s |
| 10 | Kanato Le | ART Grand Prix | +14.392s |
| 11 | Ruiqi Liu | Trident | +15.251s |
| 12 | Rashid Al Dhaheri | Prema | +16.420s |
| 13 | Yuanpu Cui | Prema | +16.897s |
| 14 | Dion Gowda | Van Amersfoort Racing | +17.815s |
| 15 | Hiyu Yamakoshi | Van Amersfoort Racing | +22.069s |
| 16 | Kacper Sztuka | R-P-M | +23.123s |
| 17 | Giovanni Maschio | R-P-M | +27.022s |
| 18 | Nandhavhud Bhirombhakdi | Trident | +27.568s |
| 19 | Jack Beeton | Prema | +28.011s |
| 20 | Edu Robinson | G4 Racing | +29.189s |
| 21 | Michael Belov | CL Motorsport | +29.840s |
| 22 | Enea Frey | CL Motorsport | +39.522s |
| 23 | Tim Gerhards | Sainteloc Racing | +43.375s |
| 24 | Newman Chi | CL Motorsport | +47.882s |
| 25 | Edouard Borgna | G4 Racing | +48.337s |
| 26 | Yaroslav Veselaho | Sainteloc Racing | +48.760s |
| 27 | Nikita Bedrin | Sainteloc Racing | +57.417s |
| 28 | Saqer Al Maosherji | G4 Racing | +1 lap |
| Fastest lap: Slater, 1m35.886s
Championship standings |
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