Slater wins after Deligny has two slow moments in FREC race two

Photo: ACI Sport

Freddie Slater won the second Formula Regional European Championship race at the Hungaoring following too unusually slow moments for long-time leader Enzo Deligny.

R-ace GP’s Deligny and Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri started on the front row, with the two main title contenders Slater (Prema) and Matteo De Palo (Trident) on the row behind.

De Palo tried the outside line into the opening corner to go for third, and although Slater was initially boxed in he then had the outside line for turn two where he swept past Al Dhaheri.

Deligny built 1.6-second gap in two laps, and incrementally increased it until the safety car came out on lap seven due to Prema’s Jack Beeton spinning at turn one and then having his car set on fire before he could get going again.

It was a two-lap intervention, with racing resuming on lap nine. A 1.6s lead was built by Deligny again in just two laps, and he had grown it to two seconds when on lap 13 he excessively slowed on the approach to turn 12 and Slater went past.

Deligny dived past past Slater into turn one two laps later, showing he still had the pace to be up front, but then on lap 17 the same thing happened on the approach to turn 12 and this time he fell behind Slater, Al Dhaheri and De Palo.

He quickly got back ahead of De Palo, but finished 2.8s behind the winner. De Palo’s fourth place means he is now only point ahead of Slater in the title race.

The positions behind were settled at the start, with the next battles for position being for ninth. Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi challenged CL Motorsport’s Michael Belov ahead on the restart, and behind his team-mate Pedro Clerot was overtaken for 10th by ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato late on.

Race results (19 laps)