
Photo: FRME
Freddie Slater made it two victories out of three from the opening Formula Regional Middle East round at Yas Marina Circuit by winning the weekend’s concluding night race.
The Mumbai Falcons driver started from pole and went unchallenged throughout, winning the 16-lap race by 3.437 seconds.
R-ace GP’s Ugo Ugochukwu made the best start from sixth on the grid, but broke his front wing on the car of Mumbai Falcons’ Rashid Al Dhaheri. He made it up to fourth, while Al Dhaheri went wide at turn one with his damage.
Ugochukwu and PHM Racing’s Everett Stack then went off in the hotel section, with Ugochukwu starting to lose places as his wing detached itself. The safety car was called out due to Stack stopping, helping Al Dhaheri and Ugochukwu slightly as they pitted.
Racing resumed on lap three, and Slater immediately pulled away from ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire. Pinnacle Motorsport’s Ernesto Rivera and Jesse Carrasquedo Jr were third and fourth, with Mumbai Falcons’ Reza Seewooruthun, ART GP’s Jin Nakamura and Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael filling the next positions.
Carrasquedo tried passing Rivera at the inside of turn one on lap eight, and cleared him later in the lap, while Nael went around the outside of Nakamura at the last chicane on lap nine. He did the same to Seewooruthun on lap 10, then got ahead of Rivera before even reaching the braking zone there on lap 12 while still taking the outside line.
He did not have enough time to chase down Carrasquedo, but put 10s between himself and Rivera in the remaining four laps.
Rivera held off PHM’s Brando Badoer and ART GP’s Taito Kato in a photo finish, the pair’s progress held up by Evans GP’s Aaron Cameron. On lap eight, Cameron went off in the hotel section then spent the rest of the lap holding off Kato. Badoer tried a double move at the chicane but failed.
A lap later the same error was made by Cameron, but had less pressure when Badoer was pressuring Kato on lap 12. They then came up to Nakamura, who Badoer quickly passed while Cameron dropped back and found himself defending from ART GP’s Kanato Le.
Kato dived down Nakamura’s inside at the hairpin on lap 13, then they banged wheels en route to the last chicane where Nakamura went off and passed two cars. He let Badoer back past, and although he lost out to Kato at the chicane on lap 14 there was not a net loss of position as both passed Seewooruthun.
Le had spent many laps attacking Pinnacle’s Giovanni Maschio, then got stuck behind Cameron who kept on locling up and going off before he spun Le at the final chicane on lap 14.
Ugochukwu’s recovery ended when he joined team-mate Akshay Bohra in retirement.
Race results (16 laps)
Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Freddie Slater | Mumbai Falcons | 31m33.458s |
2 | Evan Giltaire | ART Grand Prix | +3.437s |
3 | Jesse Carrasquedo Jr | Pinnacle Motorsport | +7.613s |
4 | Theophile Nael | Sainteloc Racing | +12.181s |
5 | Ernesto Rivera | Pinnacle Motorsport | +22.799s |
6 | Brando Badoer | PHM Racing | +22.995s |
7 | Taito Kato | ART Grand Prix | +23.011s |
8 | Jin Nakamura | R-ace GP | +25.851s |
9 | Reza Seewooruthun | Mumbai Falcons | +32.010s |
10 | Jack Beeton | Mumbai Falcons | +36.128s |
11 | Enzo Deligny | R-ace GP | +36.849s |
12 | Aditya Kulkarni | Akcel GP | +39.979s |
13 | Aaron Cameron | Evans GP | +40.332s |
14 | Kanato Le | ART Grand Prix | +40.622s |
15 | Giovanni Maschio | Pinnacle Motorsport | +41.902s |
16 | Kai Daryanani | Evans GP | +43.308s |
17 | Rashid Al Dhaheri | Mumbai Falcons | +43.398s |
18 | Yaroslav Veselaho | Sainteloc Racing | +44.113s |
19 | Ruiqi Liu | Origine Motorsport | +50.381s |
20 | Finley Green | Pinnacle Motorsport | +51.509s |
21 | Lorenzo Castillo | Sainteloc Racing | +51.616s |
22 | Jaden Pariat | Akcel GP | +55.851s |
23 | Zhongwei Wang | Origine Motorsport | +56.763s |
Ret | Ugo Ugochukwu | R-ace GP | |
Ret | Akshay Bohra | R-ace GP | |
Ret | Everett Stack | PHM Racing | |
Fastest lap: Slater, 1m50.416s
Championship standings |