Photo: FRegional Middle East
Freddie Slater claimed his fourth Formula Regional Middle East victory at Yas Marina Circuit in race three of the weekend, but is under investigation.
The Mumbai Falcons driver started from pole, and stewards are examining whether he left his grid box early. It was not a rapid start by Slater, as he had to switch to the inside to keep title rival Evan Giltaire at bay.
Giltaire made a quick decision to switch to the outside and tried to get alongside Slater but was forced off. Just behind them, R-ace GP’s Ugo Ugochukwu took third from Mumbai Falcons’ Rashid Al Dhaheri.
Enzo Deligny (R-ace) and Hiyu Yamakoshi (Pinnacle Motorsport) were fifth and sixth, and a battle began to rage between Matteo De Palo (Evans GP) and Taito Kato (ART Grand Prix) for seventh. Kato’s team-mate Kanato Le exited points contention as he pitted for a new nose cone.
De Palo overtook Kato at turn one on lap two, and down the back straight Slater weaved. That helped Ugochukwu get alongside ART GP’s Giltaire, but he could not overtake him.
Kato struck back against De Palo at the hairpin on lap three, and De Palo tried to reclaim seventh at the chicane but failed. PHM Racing’s Everett Stack and Sainteloc Racing’s Nikita Bedrin collided as they went onto the pit straight, and the safety car was summoned on lap four to clear their vehicles.
Racing resumed on lap eight, and Deligny lost out to Yamakoshi by going off. He reclaimed the place on lap nine, and they both gained another spot as Al Dhaheri crashed out. De Palo went into the barriers too, so the safety car returned.
There was enough time for one more lap of racing after that, and Slater kept Giltaire at bay to make an indent into his points lead.
R-ace’s race two winner Akshay Bohra was down in 16th before he retired on the last lap in an incident, with Pinnacle’s Yuanpu Cui also eliminated. Another who had a bad race was PHM’s title contender Brando Badoer, who finished 15th.
Race results (13 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Freddie Slater | Mumbai Falcons | 31m37.728s |
| 2 | Evan Giltaire | ART Grand Prix | +0.813s |
| 3 | Ugo Ugochukwu | R-ace GP | +1.266s |
| 4 | Enzo Deligny | R-ace GP | +1.634s |
| 5 | Hiyu Yamakoshi | Pinnacle Motorsport | +2.497s |
| 6 | Taito Kato | ART Grand Prix | +3.027s |
| 7 | Ernesto Rivera | Pinnacle Motorsport | +3.764s |
| 8 | Ruiqi Liu | Origine Motorsport | +4.020s |
| 9 | Jack Beeton | Mumbai Falcons | +4.130s |
| 10 | Aaron Cameron | Evans GP | +5.032s |
| 11 | Jin Nakamura | R-ace GP | +5.684s |
| 12 | Aditya Kulkarni | Akcel GP | +5.769s |
| 13 | Kai Daryanani | Evans GP | +6.514s |
| 14 | James Hedley | Akcel GP | +6.707s |
| 15 | Brando Badoer | PHM Racing | +7.090s |
| 16 | Kanato Le | ART Grand Prix | +7.229s |
| 17 | Doriane Pin | Mumbai Falcons | +7.382s |
| 18 | Yaroslav Veselaho | Sainteloc Racing | +8.141s |
| 19 | Zhongwei Wang | Origine Motorsport | +8.790s |
| 20 | Finley Green | Pinnacle Motorsport | +10.691s |
| Ret | Yuanpu Cui | Pinnacle Motorsport | |
| Ret | Akshay Bohra | R-ace GP | |
| Ret | Rashid Al Dhaheri | Mumbai Falcons | |
| Ret | Matteo De Palo | Evans GP | |
| Ret | Everett Stack | PHM Racing | |
| Ret | Nikita Bedrin | Sainteloc Racing | |
| Ret | Alex Sawer | Evans GP | |
| Fastest lap: Slater, 1m51.270s
Championship standings |
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