The Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine returned to action this afternoon for the penultimate race of the season at Monza, the stage for the tenth double-header round of the series organized and promoted by ACI Sport and Alpine Racing.
The first race at the Temple of Speed was undoubtedly one of the most thrilling of the season, delivering excitement and action to the series’ supporters right up to the checkered flag. The undisputed protagonist of this part of the weekend was the young McLaren Driver Development talent, Ugo Ugochukwu, who, starting from pole position, secured his first victory in the international series. Behind the Italian-American driver, his teammates from Prema Racing, Rafael Camara and James Wharton, completed the all-red podium, celebrating a stunning triple finish in a season where the team clinched the team title with a round to spare.
The two drivers from the Grisignano di Zocco-based team put on a show, battling in the early stages for second and third places with Roman Bilinski (Trident), who also caught the spotlight later on for another intense duel with Théophile Naël. The Saintéloc Racing driver managed to finish in fourth place. A solid performance came from Evan Giltaire (ART Grand Prix), who, after starting from seventh on the grid, managed to stay with a group of eight cars that fought closely for the podium throughout most of the race. The Frenchman skillfully worked his way up to fifth place, earning him the rookie win, keeping his hopes alive in the fight for the top spot in the rookie standings, currently led by Noah Strømsted (RPM). Strømsted, however, finished the race without points following a multi-car collision after the restart from the sole safety car period (brought out after Nicola Lacorte spun and became stranded in the gravel at the first chicane). The incident involved Ruiqi Liu (Trident) and Pedro Clerot (Van Amersfoort Racing), also at the first corner, and subsequently Strømsted and Matteo De Palo (Saintéloc Racing), both forced to retire.
Valerio Rinicella (MP Motorsport) also delivered a strong performance, overtaking Bilinski on the final lap, leaving the Trident driver to settle for seventh. After the race, Enzo Peugeot (Saintéloc Racing) moved up to eighth following a two-position penalty handed to Nikhil Bhora (MP Motorsport) for exceeding track limits at Turn 5 and gaining an advantage over both the French driver and Tuukka Taponen (R-ace GP), who consequently took ninth place.
All attention now turns to tomorrow’s second race, where the drivers who will complete the overall podium of the series and the winner of the rookie title will be revealed. The starting grid for the final race of the year will be determined based on the second qualifying session of the weekend, set for tomorrow morning at 8:30. Both the qualifying session and the races will be broadcast live on the championship’s official YouTube page and through the TV broadcasters covering the series.
Ugo Ugochukwu – Prema Racing
“I had a good safety car restart at the beginning and managed to create small gap, they were fighting a bit behind so I used my chance to get a bit of a gap and get out of the slipstream. In the second part of the race Rafa was really quick, so he was keeping me on my toes and I had to keep pushing every lap. And then the one lap shootout at the end, again I was just focusing on the restart, making no mistakes and yeah I just brought it home. I’m really happy to get the win here at Monza, the pace has been good all weekend in mixed conditions so I knew we had a really good chance and we’ve managed to extract the maximum possible and take the win. I’m looking forward to tomorrow as well, hopefully, a bit more rain, and we can finish the season really on a high”.
Rafael Camara – Prema Racing
“The 1-2-3 was very good, the whole team we were very fast this weekend. Unfortunately, we didn’t do qualifying today because of the weather. We knew there was a chance CT2 could be qualifying, so we I think managed to do a good job there. The race pace was very good, I think lap by lap we were catching Ugo a bit. Yeah of course the target to win, the last lap, yes it was close, but Ugo did a good race. Now I’m looking forward to tomorrow, hopefully, we can do the same job or even better!”
James Wharton – Prema Racing
“Yeah it’s incredible, it’s a goodbye weekend for me for the team so to get a 1-2-3 is incredible. I’ve secured top 3 in the championship, now I just need to make sure I finish tomorrow in the points and hopefully take P2. A 24-point lead going into tomorrow is all I can hope for. I just need to keep my nose clean as I’ve done for last few rounds now so I’m feeling quite comfortable. Today I didn’t quite have the pace so we tried something and it definitely didn’t work so I had to defend a lot at the start which allowed Rafa and Ugo to drive away, but I am confident tomorrow I can be as fast and hopefully get a race win to finish the season”.
Evan Giltaire – ART Grand Prix
“I am happy about the final result of this race, honestly not the result we wanted in the rain because as a team we have always been very strong the whole year and especially here in Monza from the start of Collective Tests. With the lack of speed we had in this race I am happy to finish 5th, at the beginning of the race we were very fast, but I think we were too high in pressure to be honest there was not a lot of water on the track. At the beginning, we were fast but then we had a collision and then to come back with the lack of speed was a bit difficult but the final result is good P5 with a rookie win. I think my opponent for the Rookie championship is a bit low, so that is something good for me but I’m not looking at it for the moment to be honest. I’m just focusing on what I have to do for tomorrow make it all the win this race, the final race of the season. That’s my goal and we will see at the end the result of the championship.”