Photo: FRMEC
Tuukka Taponen claimed the Formula Regional Middle East title with a dominant lights-to-flag victory in the opening race at Dubai Autodrome.
The Ferrari junior headed home team-mate Zachary David, helping earn his R-ace GP squad the teams’ title with two races to spare.
As poleman Taponen made a break at the front, PHM Racing’s Brando Badoer bogged down on the outside of the front row, allowing a fast-starting David up to second from fourth on the grid.
Badoer immediately came under further pressure around the opening lap, losing out to Ugo Ugochukwu before running wide at turn 15, dropping him behind the McLaren junior’s Mumbai Falcons team-mates Rafael Camara and James Wharton.
Badoer lost another place to MP Motorsport’s Bruno del Pino on the next lap, although he was able to reclaim the position on lap three with a dive to the inside at turn 10.
Behind del Pino, Taponen’s sole title rival Taylor Barnard was trying to make up places from 12th on the grid. However, as the PHM driver battled with del Pino he lost out to a move around the outside by Pinnacle Motorsport’s Mari Boya.
The unfortunate del Pino was forced to pit at the end of lap four with a damaged wing, promoting Boya to seventh with Barnard still looking for a way back past.
Out front, having built up a lead of just under 1.5 seconds, Taponen was content to maintain the gap to David in second.
David in turn was not under threat from Ugochukwu and Camara as the three ran line astern, over two seconds clear of Wharton.
Badoer was still trying to make up ground he lost at the start, passing Wharton for fifth on lap seven and while he was able to halve the gap to Camara over the remaining laps he was unable to come within range of the Ferrari protege.
Taponen put in a couple of quick laps at the end to extend his lead to over two seconds once his victory was assured.
In a race short of incident, the rest of the top 10 remained unchanged with Wharton taking sixth ahead of Boya and Barnard.
Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak took ninth for PHM, with MP Motorsport’s Emmo Fittipaldi taking the final points position and pole for the reversed-grid second race.
Race result (16 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tuukka Taponen | R-ace GP | 31m37.635s |
| 2 | Zachary David | R-ace GP | +2.263s |
| 3 | Ugo Ugochukwu | Mumbai Falcons | +3.129s |
| 4 | Rafael Camara | Mumbai Falcons | +3.992s |
| 5 | Brando Badoer | PHM Racing | +6.148s |
| 6 | James Wharton | Mumbai Falcons | +8.969s |
| 7 | Mari Boya | Pinnacle Motorsport | +11.235s |
| 8 | Taylor Barnard | PHM Racing | +17.756s |
| 9 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | PHM Racing | +19.342s |
| 10 | Emmo Fittipaldi | MP Motorsport | +22.852s |
| 11 | Kanato Le | R-ace GP | +24.760s |
| 12 | Enzo Peugeot | Sainteloc Racing | +25.598s |
| 13 | Jesse Carrasquedo | R-ace GP | +27.566s |
| 14 | Costa Toparis | Evans GP | +28.510s |
| 15 | Alexander Abkhazava | Pinnacle Motorsport | +31.951s |
| 16 | Jose Garfias | Sainteloc Racing | +32.753s |
| 17 | Ruiqi Liu | PHM Racing | +36.586s |
| 18 | John Bennett | Evans GP | +37.306s |
| 19 | Giovanni Maschio | Pinnacle Motorsport | +41.417s |
| 20 | Yujia Gao | R&B Racing | +43.714s |
| 21 | Isaac Barashi | MP Motorsport | +46.714s |
| 22 | Yaroslav Veselaho | Xcel Motorsport | +52.328s |
| 23 | Edgar Pierre | Evans GP | +1m00.065s |
| 24 | Zhongwei Wang | R&B Racing | +1m00.748s |
| 25 | Finley Green | Pinnacle Motorsport | +1m03.061s |
| 26 | Bruno del Pino | MP Motorsport | +1m05.402s |
| 27 | Noah Lisle | Xcel Motorsport | +2 laps |
| Ret | Nikhil Bohra | MP Motorsport | |
| Ret | Theophile Nael | Sainteloc Racing | |
| Fastest lap: Taponen, 1m57.535s
Championship standings |
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