A dominant victory for Italian driver Matteo De Palo with Trident at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. Starting from pole position earned in the morning qualifying, De Palo led from lights to flag to win Race 1 of the seventh round of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine. He left no openings for rivals, even managing the restart perfectly after a Safety Car triggered by an incident involving CL Motorsport’s rookies Zhenrui Chi and Enea Frey, Giovanni Maschio with RPM Motorsport, Al Maosherji with G4 Racing, and Jack Beeton with Prema Racing. The two CL Motorsport rookies were forced to retire, while the others were able to continue.
Thanks to this result, combined with Freddie Slater of Prema Racing finishing outside the points in Race 1, De Palo reclaimed the championship lead. He now sits at 195 points, nine clear of the British driver, remaining at 186. However, further technical checks are required on the car of Nikita Bedrin, classified second in Race 1. While this procedure does not affect the change of leadership in the championship, both the Race 1 classification and the overall standings will remain provisional until the completion of the required checks.
Matteo De Palo: “We had really good pace. Starting from the front row, it was all about keeping the position. The start went very well, I managed a good launch with little wheelspin. It’s kind of easy for that to occur here, because there isn’t much rubber on the track. I built an advantage and then it was just about managing my pace, which was strong, and in the end we won with a good gap. We’re back in the lead now, and for sure it’s a big motivation for me. Tomorrow we need to try to do the same, to build a bigger gap from second in the championship.”
The battle for P2
Behind De Palo, the fight for second place was fierce. Akshay Bohra of R-ace GP started from the front row with Pedro Clerot of Van Amersfoort Racing right behind. Both were early contenders for the podium, but the most intense battle came later between Nikita Bedrin with Saintéloc Racing and Enzo Deligny with R-ace GP. Bedrin managed to get ahead and held off relentless pressure from Deligny in a close and hard-fought chase. At the flag, Bedrin secured second place, improving on his podium at Imola, where he had finished third. Deligny had to settle for P3 but strengthened his third position in the championship standings.
Nikita Bedrin: “I had a pretty good start and a really strong first lap, managing to gain two places. That was great, then after the Safety Car restart, I saw an opportunity and went for it. I think we optimized everything we could in qualifying and in the race, and we got the best result possible today. I’m really happy with that. I defended well at the end and kept my P2. I couldn’t be happier with the race.”
Enzo Deligny: “It was a good race. This track is nice because overtaking is possible, it’s more open than some others. My start was not good, I dropped to fifth, but then I made two good passes to climb back to third. The pace was strong. I tried to pass Nikita, but he defended well. In the end, third place is still a good result.”
The top 10
Pedro Clerot spent much of the race battling for podium positions, then ran fifth behind Bohra before retaking fourth in the final stages. Akshay Bohra finished fifth after coming under heavy attack from a train of cars benefiting from the strong slipstream effect at the Red Bull Ring.
In sixth came Van Amersfoort Racing’s Japanese driver Hiyu Yamakoshi, followed by Prema Racing’s Rashid Al Dhaheri. The Emirati Mercedes junior driver, fought strongly inside the top 10 before finishing seventh. Eighth place went to R-ace GP’s Jin Nakamura, who produced a stunning performance. Starting from the back of the grid after being unable to take part in qualifying, the Japanese climbed 20 positions with a series of decisive overtakes to score valuable points.
Ninth was Frenchman Evan Giltaire with ART Grand Prix, while the final point at stake went to the best rookie of Race 1, Belgian driver Ean Eyckmans with RPM.
Ean Eyckmans: “It was a long race. Overtaking here can be difficult because there is a lot of dirty air. Overall, it’s a good learning phase for me. I’m trying to learn as much as I can for tomorrow. I hope we can qualify better than today and fight for more points in the race.”
Up next
Tomorrow, Sunday, 7 September, it’s race day two. The morning opens again with qualifying, this time with Group B going out first, reversing the order from day one. Then comes the second and final race of the weekend. Qualifying 2 begins at 9:35 AM, followed by Race 2 (30 minutes + 1 lap) at 3:05 PM.
Go to the results page.
Go to the standings page.