Photo: Dutch Photo Agency
R-ace GP’s Tuukka Taponen managed his tyres in hot conditions to win Formula Regional European Championship race one at Mugello from pole.
Taponen almost lost the lead at the start, as Van Amersfoort Racing’s Brando Badoer made a stonger getaway and ran alongside him on the run to turn one, but after outdoing him on the brakes he then did not have to worry about the driver in his mirrors until lap five when there was a safety car restart following an interruption to the race caused by Race Performance Motorsport’s Giovanni Maschio crashing out at turn one with broken front-left suspension after contact with Trident’s Niko Lacorte.
On the restart it was Badoer’s team-mate Pedro Clerot in third who was the fastest of the lead group, and he nosed ahead of Badoer but since he was on the outside line for turn one then dropped back behind.
The gap between the top two closed up on lap eight as Badoer set a new fastest lap, but he could not sustain his challenge and after never being more than 0.9 seconds behind Taponen he got dropped by the leader on lap 13 who in the remaining laps opened up a margin of 3.857s.
Ivan Domingues hassled his team-mate Clerot on laps 11 and 12, then again on lap 16 when he blasted past Clerot down the pit straight to take third long before reaching the turn one braking zone.
Prema’s points leader Rafael Camara lost out to Domingues on the restart and stayed in fifth thereon, with Trident’s Michael Belov in sixth.
MP Motorsport’s Nikita Bedrin took seventh from R-P-M’s Noah Stromsted on the restart, and Prema’s James Wharton cleared Stromsted on lap eight. Wharton later caught and passed Bedrin too.
A fast-starting Ugo Ugochukwu could do no better than 10th, two places higher than where he was on the grid, and KIC Motorsport’s Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi faded to 14th after initially being in the top 10.
ART Grand Prix’s Lena Buhler retired at the side of the track a few laps from the end, and contact between Iron Dames team-mates Doriane Pin and Marta Garcia led to them finishing 26th and 31st.
Race result (17 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tuukka Taponen | R-ace GP | 31m48.553s |
| 2 | Brando Badoer | Van Amersfoort Racing | +3.857s |
| 3 | Ivan Domingues | Van Amersfoort Racing | +6.683s |
| 4 | Pedro Clerot | Van Amersfoort Racing | +8.315s |
| 5 | Rafael Camara | Prema | +8.443s |
| 6 | Michael Belov | Trident | +9.564s |
| 7 | James Wharton | Prema | +11.612s |
| 8 | Nikita Bedrin | MP Motorsport | +13.002s |
| 9 | Noah Stromsted | R-P-M | +13.817s |
| 10 | Ugo Ugochukwu | Prema | +17.334s |
| 11 | Alessandro Giusti | ART Grand Prix | +18.681s |
| 12 | Zachary David | R-ace GP | +19.980s |
| 13 | Ruiqi Liu | Trident | +20.319s |
| 14 | Nadhavud Bhirombhakdi | KIC Motorsport | +23.812s |
| 15 | Valerio Rinicella | MP Motorsport | +26.197s |
| 16 | Enzo Peugeot | Sainteloc Racing | +28.439s |
| 17 | Kanato Le | G4 Racing | +29.951s |
| 18 | Enzo Deligny | R-ace GP | +31.107s |
| 19 | Matteo De Palo | Sainteloc Racing | +31.125s |
| 20 | Niko Lacorte | Trident | +32.944s |
| 21 | Nikhil Bohra | MP Motorsport | +33.453s |
| 22 | Evan Giltaire | ART Grand Prix | +33.984s |
| 23 | Theophile Nael | Sainteloc Racing | +34.253s |
| 24 | Romain Andriolo | G4 Racing | +34.700s |
| 25 | Edgar Pierre | R-P-M | +35.097s |
| 26 | Doriane Pin | Iron Dames | +37.218s |
| 27 | Yaroslav Veselaho | ART Grand Prix | +38.861s |
| 28 | Alex Sawer | KIC Motorsport | +39.467s |
| 29 | Yujia Gao | KIC Motorsport | +46.796s |
| 30 | Alvaro Cho | G4 Racing | +52.506s |
| 31 | Marta Garcia | Iron Dames | +1m02.415s |
| Ret | Lena Buhler | ART Grand Prix | |
| Ret | Giovanni Maschio | R-P-M | |
| Fastest lap: Badoer, 1m45.279s
Championship standings |
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