Home Formula RegionalFRegional European Championship Taponen makes it two FREC wins from two at the Hungaroring

Taponen makes it two FREC wins from two at the Hungaroring

by Bethonie Waring

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

R-ace GP’s Tuukka Taponen led lights-to-flag for a second consecutive Formula Regional European Championship win at the Hungaroring.

The result meant he made a small indent on the points lead of Prema’s Rafael Camara, who finished second to make it eight podiums from eight races so far this season.

There was little movement at the front of the field throughout the race. Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu took second off the line, jumping ahead of Camara and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Brando Badoer, with gaps of less than a second across the top 10.

The field ran in formation, and bunched up even more when the safety car appeared due to Trident’s Niko Lacorte and Iron Dames’ Marta Garcia colliding. MP Motorsport’s debutant Isaac Barashi also suffered an incident at the same time that left him with rear-right suspension damage.

When racing eventually resumed, Ugochukwu and Camara fought each other and Taponen pulled away. A side-by-side moment led to Ugochukwu running wide, and enabling Badoer to get past him into third.

Camara held off Badoer after that, with Ugochukwu finishing ahead of team-mate James Wharton and ART Grand Prix’s Alessandro Giusti, who both passed R-ace’s Enzo Deligny late on

After being disqualified from race one on Saturday, Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael and Matteo de Palo bounced back to finish ninth and 10th behind VAR’s Pedro Clerot. Their team-mate Enzo Peugeot, who was also lost points to a disqualification in race one, could only come home in 25th place. Sainteloc has appealed the disqualifications.

Race result (17 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Tuukka Taponen R-ace GP 32m55.356s
2 Rafael Camara Prema +1.423s
3 Brando Badoer Van Amersfoort Racing +2.061s
4 Ugo Ugochukwu Prema +4.272s
5 James Wharton Prema +5.204s
6 Alessandro Giusti ART Grand Prix +5.650s
7 Enzo Deligny R-ace GP +6.360s
8 Pedro Clerot Van Amersfoort Racing +6.684s
9 Theophile Nael Sainteloc Racing +7.430s
10 Matteo de Palo Sainteloc Racing +8.549s
11 Michael Belov Trident +9.107s
12 Zachary David R-ace GP +10.905s
13 Evan Giltaire ART Grand Prix +11.186s
14 Nikhil Bohra MP Motorsport +11.898s
15 Noah Stromsted R-P-M +12.300s
16 Kanato Le G4 Racing +12.655s
17 Ivan Domingues Van Amersfoort Racing +13.184s
18 Ruiqi Liu Trident +13.400s
19 Valerio Rinicella MP Motorsport +13.797s
20 Giovanni Maschio R-P-M +14.869s
21 Edgar Pierre R-P-M +15.146s
22 Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi KIC Motorsport +15.991s
23 Alex Sawer KIC Motorsport +17.095s
24 Jesse Carrasquedo G4 Racing +17.443s
25 Enzo Peugeot Sainteloc Racing +18.792s
26 Lena Buhler ART Grand Prix +19.612s
27 Yujia Gao KIC Motorsport +30.323s
28 Yaroslav Veselaho ART Grand Prix +41.404s
Ret Isaac Barashi MP Motorsport
Ret Marta Garcia Iron Dames
Ret Niko Lacorte Trident
Ret Romain Andriolo G4 Racing
Fastest lap: Taponen, 1m41.396s

Championship standings
Camara 169   2 Taponen 113   3 Badoer 79   4 Giusti 72   5 Giltaire 53   6 Wharton 48   7 Stromsted 42   8 Domingues 38   9 Clerot 34   10 Deligny 33