Giltaire and Olivieri Shine in Abu Dhabi to Lead Formula Middle East Rankings

 

• Second victory gives Evan Giltaire Formula Regional points advantage

 

• Brando Badoer runs Giltaire close after success in earlier race

 

• Emanuele Olivieri wins again after first-time honours for August Raber

 

Formula Middle East’s reputation for drama and excitement continued unbounded for the second day of round two at the Yas Marina Circuit. On the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix venue’s Corkscrew layout, Evan Giltaire snatched the Formula Regional Middle East Championship lead away from Freddie Slater, and Emanuele Olivieri was again top of the pile to extend his lead in the Formula 4 Middle East Championship.

In the final race of the event, which finished just 20 minutes before midnight under the floodlights, Giltaire looked to have no answer to Ugo Ugochukwu, who had taken the race lead at half-distance. But when the American went off the road with two and a half laps remaining, and the safety car was called as a result, victory was assured for ART Grand Prix’s 18-year-old French ace. Closing fast on Giltaire at the time of the safety car was Brando Badoer, the 18-year-old Italian continuing an excellent evening that had begun by taking his PHM Racing car to a convincing victory in race two.

By contrast, Slater was out of luck. Representing the Prema-run Mumbai Falcons Racing team, the Briton finished sixth in race two and was then taken out of contention in the finale when he was hit by another driver. Although he still leads the Rookie standings, Slater has now slipped 12 points behind Giltaire in the overall championship, and is six ahead of third-placed Badoer. Such a situation did not look likely for Giltaire earlier in the day, when he was hugely disappointed not to even start the second race.

Sixteen-year-old Italian Olivieri kept everything calm aboard his R-ace GP car in an eventful final Formula 4 race to defeat his main title rival Kean Nakamura-Berta to the chequered flag. Earlier on, Olivieri had risen from 10th on the reversed grid to fourth in race two, in which 16-year-old Swedish-Emirati August Raber took his maiden F4 race victory for the Xcel Motorsport-affiliated Yas Heat Racing Academy. Olivieri now leads the championship from Mumbai Falcons Racing starlets Nakamura-Berta and Tomass Štolcermanis, who are second and third, by 41 and 73 points respectively. The consistent Chi Zhenrui, driving for Prema Racing, leads the way in the Rookie class. Following the first two quickfire rounds, there is now a break of a week and a half before the young stars of the future do battle again at Dubai Autodrome on February 8-9.


 

 

Formula Regional Middle East

 

 

Race 2

With 10 podium finishes across the Formula Regional Middle East and European championships under his belt from 2024, Brando Badoer would not have been too enthralled to earn his first pole position this year by virtue of finishing 10th in the opening race of the weekend. But the Italian, part of the McLaren F1 team’s junior driver academy, reminded everyone of his ability in the race.

Badoer simply disappeared from the pack in the early stages while a mighty war raged for second. First, Jin Nakamura, from fifth on the grid, sailed around the outside of Jack Beeton and front-row starter Théophile Naël at the first corner to move into the runner-up spot. Then Naël got his revenge and grabbed the position back into Turn 6. Nakamura was not done yet and, after they flashed across the start-finish line, the Japanese attempted to go back around the outside of Naël’s Saintéloc Racing car at Turn 9, only for Ugo Ugochukwu to spy a chink of light and move up to third at Nakamura’s expense. The Japanese attempted to fight back at Turn 12 and, although there was minor contact with R-ace team-mate Ugochukwu, each emerged unscathed – albeit Nakamura had now lost a further position to Beeton.

Shortly after this, the safety car was called out to retrieve the stranded car of Lorenzo Castillo, who had been involved in a collision with Jaden Pariat. Bearing in mind Naël had been closing the gap to Badoer, it looked like the battle was on for victory. Not so. While Naël stayed within a second of Badoer for almost four laps, the Frenchman soon began to drop time to the leader. In the end, he had to settle for a comfortable second place, 4.577 seconds adrift. This was not only Badoer’s 11th podium finish in Formula Regional – it was his first win in the category.

It was Beeton who completed the podium, thanks to the Australian Mumbai Falcons driver’s fabulous move on Ugochukwu around the outside into Turn 9 with four laps remaining. Ugochukwu, indeed, had to keep a weather eye on the pursuing Rashid AL Dhaheri in the closing stages before securing fourth place, Mumbai Falcons’ local Abu Dhabi racer moving up when Nakamura lost three positions at half-distance.

That incident dropped Nakamura to eighth, behind Mumbai Falcons’ two British drivers: sixth-placed Freddie Slater and Reza Seewooruthun in seventh. Nakamura’s presence prompted something of a respite for Seewooruthun, who had been under mountains of pressure from the cars behind for the first half of the race. Slater, meanwhile, had survived a battle with Taito Kato immediately following the restart that sent the Japanese to the pits with a damaged front wing.

As in Wednesday’s opening race, Slater lost pace as the race wore on, but did a fine job to hang onto sixth from team-mate Seewooruthun and Nakamura. Slater also completed the Rookie class podium behind winner Beeton and runner-up AL Dhaheri. Despite the disappointing overall result, Slater extended his championship lead over Evan Giltaire, who did not even start the race due to a clutch issue.

Another to fade was Enzo Deligny, with Japanese Kanato Le (ART) moving up to ninth and Pinnacle Motorsport-run Mexican Jesse Carrasquedo to 10th. Behind 11th-placed Frenchman Deligny (R-ace) at the finish was the final driver in the points, Pinnacle’s Mexican Red Bull Junior Ernesto Rivera.

Race 3

Evan Giltaire had dominated qualifying for this race, and the ART Grand Prix driver looked a strong bet to make it two wins from this round to follow his victory from Wednesday. A welcome upsurge in form from Brando Badoer put the PHM Racing driver in the other front-row slot, and also looking for his second win of the event.

Badoer had no answer, however, to a determined Ugo Ugochukwu at the start, the American sweeping around the outside of his fellow McLaren F1 protégé at the first corner to tuck in behind Giltaire in second place. Badoer was third, ahead of Rashid AL Dhaheri. Behind them, Taito Kato had designs on the sixth position of Enzo Deligny, and made a neat move going into Turn 6, but the problem was that fifth-placed Freddie Slater was turning into the corner and was knocked into a spin by the Japanese. Further back, another incident left Yaroslav Veselaho stranded, and the safety car was required while the Ukrainian’s car was retrieved. Kato pitted for a new front wing before rejoining adrift of the field, while Slater continued, but retired with damage one lap after the restart.

The race looked to be settling down soon after the green flags flew, with Giltaire taking five laps to extend a one-second margin over Ugochukwu but looking quite comfortable out front. No sooner had he done that than the R-ace GP driver began to slash the gap. Soon Ugochukwu was on the tail of Giltaire, and he moved into the lead with a tidy manoeuvre at Turn 6 on the 11th lap.

It appeared that Giltaire was now struggling for grip, and Ugochukwu was almost four seconds in front when they started the 15th of what looked set to be 17 laps. Then there was a dramatic twist. Ugochukwu went off the road at Turn 1, and his car came to rest up against the barrier. Now it looked as though Badoer had a strong chance of winning – he had been gaining on Giltaire all the time and was just 1.4s behind with two laps to go, only for the safety car to return to the track because of Ugochukwu’s incident. Giltaire’s win was therefore secure, with Badoer second.

Deligny came through nicely to take third ahead of Theophile Naël, while an all-Rookie battle for fifth went the way of Ernesto Rivera, who fought Reza Seewooruthun to take the class spoils from the Briton. Others to fade from strong positions were AL Dhaheri and Jin Nakamura, leading to some hectic multi-car battles as the field bunched up. Kanato Le emerged from these to take seventh, with Jesse Carrasquedo finishing eighth. Carrasquedo was issued with a five-second penalty after the race for gaining an unfair advantage, moving Nakamura and third-placed Rookie Al Dhaheri up to eighth and ninth. Akshay Bohra (R-ace GP), Origine Motorsport’s Chinese racer Liu Riuqi and Pinnacle-run Italian Giovanni Maschio were classified 10th, 11th and 12th respectively to gain their first points of the campaign.

 

Formula 4 Middle East

 

 

Race 2

August Raber lined up on pole position on the reversed grid, with Oleksandr Savinkov alongside him. Here was their opportunity for a maiden F4 ME victory, and it was Raber who grasped it with a perfect start, while Oleksandr Bondarev got into second place. Into the first corner, fifth-starter Reno Francot pulled off a mighty manoeuvre to go around the outside of both Martin Molnár and Savinkov, and moved into third.

 

Raber looked comfortable at the front, while Prema Racing’s Ukrainian Williams F1 junior Bondarev was initially unchallenged in second. But as the race settled down, so Francot began to close, and the Dutchman made a superb pass on Bondarev to take second place at Turn 6 – moments before the safety car was called. With Seth Gilmore in the barrier, his car needed retrieval, and now Francot’s AKCEL GP/PHM Racing machine was right on the tail on Raber.

 

The restart was thrilling. R-ace GP’s Jamaican-American Alex Powell swept around the outside of Bondarev at Turn 9 to grab third position, and the Mercedes F1-supported youngster very nearly demoted Francot too. This action brought Kean Nakamura-Berta onto Bondarev’s tail, but the Mumbai Falcons driver got boxed in at Turn 1, allowing Emanuele Olivieri to sweep around his outside. Olivieri was not finished yet, and dived down the inside of Bondarev at the bottom of the Corkscrew to snatch fourth. Bondarev soon dropped to seventh, with Nakamura-Berta and Tomass Štolcermanis both getting in front of him.

 

Up at the front, Francot inched closer and closer to Raber, but then the Dubai-based racer began to extend a small cushion. It all looked to be in the bag for Raber, and a last-ditch speculative move at Turns 6 and 7 from Francot did not pay off, the Dutchman finishing 0.651 seconds behind and Raber claiming victory. Behind them, Powell and Olivieri swapped places a few laps from the finish before Powell got back in front to lead home his R-ace team-mate for third, the Mumbai Falcons pair of Nakamura-Berta and Štolcermanis just behind in fifth and sixth.
 

Bondarev held on to seventh to secure a Rookie class win, with fellow Ukrainian Savinkov (R-ace) eighth, Hungarian Molnár ninth for Evans GP, and Chi Zhenrui the second Rookie home in 10th. Dubai’s Adam AL Azhari came home 11th in his Yas Heat car, with Prema Racing’s American Sebastian Wheldon, from 25th on the grid following his first-race retirement, making excellent progress to claim the final point in 12th. Next up was the third Rookie, South African Cole Hewetson (Xcel Motorsport).

Race 3

Once again Emanuele Olivieri was fastest in qualifying to sit on pole position, and he did his usual trick of converting that into the race lead ahead of fellow front-row starter Kean Nakamura-Berta and Tomass Štolcermanis. Behind then, Reno Francot again made good progress at the start, passing Alex Powell to take fourth.

 

Unfortunately, August Raber, winner of the second race, had stalled on the grid. While the rest of the field did their best to avoid the stricken car, it was in vain and Kyuho Lee, Aqil Alibhai and Bader Al Sulaiti all got mixed up in the accident, and Raber’s day turned from joy to despair.
 

Due to the length of time required to clear up the stranded cars, the race was red-flagged and everyone returned to the pits. At the restart the driver to watch was Powell. While Olivieri led from Nakamura-Berta, Powell dived around the outside of Francot into Turn 9 to take fourth, then kept that line and also drew level with third-placed Štolcermanis. Powell had the inside line for the following right-hander, and Štolcermanis – stuck on the outside – found his car snapping into a spin down the field.

 

Further round, at the Corkscrew, contact as Oleksandr Bondarev passed Martin Molnár led to the Hungarian spinning out, and once again the safety car was called. This time, there was an incident even before the field took the green flags. While Olivieri led away again, Tiago Rodrigues found himself sidelined in the run-off at Turn 6, and the safety car returned to the track once again.

There were three laps of racing from the final restart, and Olivieri did everything right to lead home Nakamura-Berta by 1.522 seconds. After his earlier heroics, Powell faded late on. With just over a lap to go, Francot tried to grab third place around the outside of Turn 6, but he could not keep the car within the confines of the track and had to cede the place back. This he did exquisitely, since Sebastian Wheldon was also snapping at his heels. Powell hung on for third, while Francot pipped Wheldon to fourth.

 

Colombian Salim Hanna came home sixth for Rookie class glory in his Mumbai Falcons car ahead of Adam AL Azhari, and Oleksandr Savinkov passed Rookie runner-up Chi Zhenrui for eighth on the final lap. Oleksandr Bondarev was 10th to complete the Rookie podium, while a last-lap move carried Cole Hewetson past Indian Arjun Chheda (Mumbai Falcons) for 11th. An impressive recovery from Štolcermanis was unrewarded – from 21st when he spun, he missed out by just one place on the points by finishing 13th.