Slater wins, De Palo reclaims points lead in FREC race one at Spa

Photo: ACI Sport

Freddie Slater won the first Formula Regional Europe race at Spa-Francorchamps, as Matteo De Palo reclaimed the points lead by finishing second.

The front row was shared by Slater and Enzo Deligny, with Jin Nakamura and De Palo on row two. Nakamura stalled and fell outside of the top 20, and Deligny took the lead down the Kemmel Straight on lap one.

Slater’s opportunity to respond at the final chicane on lap was denied by the safety car being summoned due to Maceo Capietto crashing out before Stavelot.

Racing resumed on lap four, and Deligny weaved down the Kemmel Straight. Further back in the top 10, Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi spun around Pedro Clerot at Les Combes, and racing continued as Clerot got his car going again.

Two laps later, Slater got alongside Deligny but when he got to Les Combes he cut the corner and after rejoining ahead had to return first place to his rival at the Bruxelles hairpin.

Slater’s next opportunity came on lap eight, and he pulled it off as he overtook Deligny as they entered the straight.

The focus for Deligny soon switched to De Palo behind, and the Italian tried passing around the outside at Les Combes on lap 10. Deligny was therefore very defensive on the next lap, but lost out on lap 12 in the same way as he did to Slater.

It was an easy drive for Slater once in the lead, as he pulled away to claim his maiden win by 2.424 seconds.

Evan Giltaire held on to fourth after a race looking in his mirrors, but lost his points lead. He had Enzo Peugeot behind him for the safety car restart, with Akshay Bohra, Hiyu Yamakoshi and Rashid Al Dhaheri the next cars in the train.

Bohra cut Les Combes on lap five after trying to go side-by-side with Peugeot, but rejoined ahead while Peugeot lost out to Yamakoshi. He let both past later in the lap, then overtook Peugeot again at Blanchimont.

Peugeot lost out to Al Dhaheri at La Source and then to Jack Beeton on lap seven, with Kanato Le next to go past him on lap eight. Taito Kato pressured until he demoted Peugeot to outside of the points positions on lap 13.

Yamakoshi cut Les Combes to pass Giltaire on lap nine, so had to hand the position back, and on lap 12 Bohra dived down the inside of Yamakoshi at the final chicane but went too deep and lost sixth to Al Dhaheri.

On the final lap Yamakoshi got alongside Giltaire twice, with the latter running wide out of the last corner, but finished 0.094s behind. Nakamura recovered to 16th place.

Race results (14 laps)