Photo: Dutch Photo Agency
Martinius Stenshorne beat R-ace GP team-mate Tim Tramnitz to win the final race of the Formula Regional European Championship season at Hockenheim and secure second in the standings.
Red Bull junior Tramnitz started from pole position but Stenshorne got a quicker getaway from alongside him on the front row to lead into the first corner.
Tramnitz was challenged for second by Prema’s Rafael Camara and conceded the place by running wide and off-track at Turn 2, before contact with Andrea Kimi Antonelli pushed the Mercedes junior into the run-off area at the Mercedes arena and down the order.
Incidents at the hairpin dominated the race. Contact with Pierre-Alexandre Provost put Marcus Amand out of the race on lap one, before Matias Zagazeta spun Valentin Kluss around. Esteban Masson then collided with Maya Weug – in similar circumstances to his clash with team-mate Emerson Fittipaldi in Saturday’s race – and this triggered the first safety car of the race
On the restart, Camara went side-by-side with Stenshorne into the Mercedes arena for the lead, but the Norwegian remained ahead.
The safety car soon came back out because of another clash at the hairpin involving Ivan Klymenko and Javier Sagrera. At the second restart, Sami Meguetounif spun on entry to the hairpin, forcing Laurens van Hoepen to a stop in avoidance.
With six minutes left on the clock, Camara had another go at Stenshorne into Mercedes but this time lost out to both Tramnitz and Kas Haverkort.
This had implications for the teams’ championship, which Prema led by 25 points over R-ace GP coming into the race. Now, with the French team holding first and second and Camara down to fourth with Antonelli in seventh, the two teams were tied on points – with R-ace GP set to win the title on countback.
One last piece of Antonelli magic would rescue the situation for Prema, the Italian closing a one-second deficit to pass Nikhil Bohra for sixth place on the last lap.
Stenshorne’s win secured him second place to Antonelli in the standings by 22 points over Tramnitz, while Haverkort’s podium was enough for him to take fourth overall by one point ahead of Camara.
Owen Tangavelou matched his season’s best of fifth place for Trident.
Race result (18 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martinius Stenshorne | R-ace GP | |
| 2 | Tim Tramnitz | R-ace GP | +1.106s |
| 3 | Kas Haverkort | Van Amersfoort Racing | +2.089s |
| 4 | Rafael Camara | Prema | +4.057s |
| 5 | Owen Tangavelou | Trident | +4.985s |
| 6 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Prema | +5.888s |
| 7 | Nikhil Bohra | Trident | +6.789s |
| 8 | Victor Bernier | MP Motorsport | +8.726s |
| 9 | Lorenzo Fluxa | Prema | +9.170s |
| 10 | Maceo Capietto | R-P-M | +12.294s |
| 11 | Nikita Bedrin | Van Amersfoort Racing | +13.118s |
| 12 | Roman Bilinski | Trident | +14.232s |
| 13 | Noah Stromsted | R-P-M | +14.515s |
| 14 | Joshua Duerksen | Arden | +14.981s |
| 15 | Evan Giltaire | ART Grand Prix | +15.430s |
| 16 | Ivan Domingues | Van Amersfoort Racing | +15.904s |
| 17 | Alessandro Giusti | G4 Racing | +17.015s |
| 18 | Laurens van Hoepen | ART Grand Prix | +25.887s |
| 19 | Valentin Kluss | Monolite Racing | +25.939s |
| 20 | Enzo Scionti | Monolite Racing | +26.898s |
| 21 | Maya Weug | KIC Motorsport | +27.067s |
| 22 | Tom Lebbon | Arden | +27.499s |
| 23 | Matias Zagazeta | R-ace GP | +29.692s |
| 24 | Emmo Fittipaldi | Sainteloc Racing | +31.757s |
| 25 | Pierre-Alexandre Provost | G4 Racing | +34.224s |
| 26 | Francisco Soldavini | G4 Racing | +40.804s |
| Javier Sagrera | MP Motorsport | ||
| Sami Meguetounif | MP Motorsport | ||
| Giovanni Maschio | Monolite Racing | ||
| Ivan Klymenko | KIC Motorsport | ||
| Esteban Masson | Sainteloc Racing | ||
| Marcus Amand | ART Grand Prix | ||
| Santiago Ramos | R-P-M | ||
| Fastest lap: Haverkort, 1m37.094s
Championship standings |
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