Freddie Slater and Emanuele Olivieri Star on Opening Night in Abu Dhabi
- Freddie Slater leads Rashid Al Dhaheri in Mumbai Falcons Formula Regional 1-2
- Emanuele Olivieri has the measure of competitive Formula 4 field
- Total of 55 drivers fight it out under the Abu Dhabi floodlights
UAE, January 19, 2025: The
Formula Middle East extravaganza kicked off in style at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina
Circuit with superb showcases for the world’s up-and-coming racing talent in
the Formula Regional Middle East (FRMEC) and Formula 4 Middle East (F4ME)
Championships. The Saturday action under the night-time floodlights drew 55
young racers from around the globe, and two 16-year-olds stood proud among
their peers.
British sensation Freddie Slater, last year’s F4 UAE champion who
then went on to claim title glory in the Italian F4 Championship, led the
Formula Regional action from start to finish in his Mumbai Falcons Racing
Limited car. An equally consummate performance was put in during the Formula 4
curtain raiser by exciting Italian Emanuele Olivieri, who strode away from the
field with his R-ace GP machine on his first racing appearance in the Middle
East.
In
FRMEC, Slater led home a 1-2 for the Prema Racing-run Mumbai Falcons squad
ahead of his team-mate, Abu Dhabi’s local hero Rashid Al Dhaheri. Completing
the podium was Frenchman Evan Giltaire with ART Grand Prix. Prema also got two
cars on the podium in F4. Mumbai Falcons’ Anglo-Japanese Alpine Formula 1
protégé Kean Nakamura-Berta finished second to Olivieri, with American
Sebastian Wheldon, the older son of the late IndyCar hero Dan Wheldon, claiming
third place in a car run under Prema’s own name.
Formula Regional Middle East
Race 1
1st Freddie Slater/Mumbai
Falcons Racing Limited
2nd Rashid Al Dhaheri/Mumbai
Falcons Racing Limited
3rd Evan Giltaire/ART Grand Prix
Formula 4 Middle East
Race 1
1st Emanuele Olivieri/R-ace GP
2nd Kean Nakamura-Berta/Mumbai
Falcons Racing Limited
3rd Sebastian Wheldon/Prema
Racing
Formula Regional Middle East
Race 1:
Freddie Slater only
snatched pole position away from Evan Giltaire as one of the last drivers to
take the chequered flag at the end of the opening qualifying session, with the
margin a mere 0.070 seconds. Whether Giltaire could keep that pressure on in the
race will remain a question for now because a spectacular move carried Rashid
Al Dhaheri into second place around the outside of Turn 9 – the first corner
this weekend owing to FRMEC using the alternative start-finish line on the far
side of the circuit from the Formula 1 pits.
Slater was more than a
second in front by the end of the opening lap and he simply carried on pulling
further away from Al Dhaheri. After 17 laps the gap between the duo – who were
also first and second in the Rookie class – at the finish of the race was
7.434s. Giltaire gave pursuit to Al Dhaheri during the early laps as the
leading trio put on a superb display of driving, pulling themselves away from
the action in their wake.
Brando Badoer made his
way up to fourth place on the opening lap, and for most of the race the
Italian’s PHM Racing car looked secure in that position. But Red Bull’s new
Mexican talent Ernesto Rivera had other ideas. Rivera, representing Pinnacle
Motorsport, was seventh on the opening lap, but moved up to sixth next time
around when his compatriot Jesse Carrasquedo lost fifth position by running
wide at Turn 12. Rivera then set off after Ugo Ugochukwu and, midway through
the race, he demoted the 2024 Macau Grand Prix winner at Turn 9.
There was a substantial
gap to Badoer, but Rivera was right with him with a lap remaining. He lost some
ground with a bold attempt at Turn 9 and, despite another last-ditch move that
brought him almost level with the experienced Badoer at the finish, Rivera had
to settle for fifth on his Formula Regional debut, and third in the Rookie
class.
American Ugochukwu, R-ace
GP’s junior driver for the McLaren F1 team, came under further threat from
reigning French F4 champion Taito Kato. The Japanese Honda prospect had his ART
car in front with a lap to go, only for Ugochukwu to get back ahead for sixth
on the road.
Contact during a move on
the inside by Ugochukwu resulted in an off-course excursion for Carrasquedo at
Turn 12, costing the Mexican a position to Kato and leaving him vulnerable to
those behind. The incident resulted in a five second penalty for Ugochukwu,
demoting him to tenth in the final classification and without the benefit of
pole position for the top-ten reverse grid for race two courtesy of a
four-place grid penalty. Carrasquedo eventually dropped to 11th, with Frenchmen
Enzo Deligny (R-ace) and Théophile Naël (Saintéloc Racing) in seventh and
eighth respectively. Another ART-run Japanese, Kanato Le, finished ninth, while
making it three Japanese drivers in the points in 12th was R-ace contender Jin
Nakamura.
Le will start race two on
Sunday from pole position on the reversed grid, while Slater is at the front
again for the third and final race of the weekend after also topping the second
qualifying session.
Formula
4 Middle East
Race
1:
Everything looked rosy for the R-ace GP team in qualifying for the
first race, with Emanuele Olivieri heading a front-row lockout ahead of his
team-mate, American-Jamaican Mercedes F1 protégé Alex Powell. The better start
looked to have been made by Powell, but then suddenly Olivieri regained the
initiative and the sister car was slowing. Powell was in trouble, and was
forced into the pits for the R-ace GP squad to make repairs while the safety
car emerged on track to rescue the car of Fu Yuhao from the barrier.
The unfortunate Powell did rejoin adrift of the back of the field,
and made some good progress once he had caught the tail-enders, but an incident
eventually forced him back into the pits and retirement.
Kean Nakamura-Berta emerged from the first-lap battles in second
place with Latvian team-mate Tomass Štolcermanis making it a temporary 2-3 for
Mumbai Falcons. It appeared that this pair were comfortably keeping Sebastian
Wheldon at arm’s length, but with five laps remaining Štolcermanis suddenly lost
a lot of ground. While Olivieri went on to defeat Nakamura-Berta to victory by
6.571 seconds, attentions turned to the fighting behind.
Wheldon wasted little time in dispatching Štolcermanis at the
Turns 6/7 chicane with four laps to go, and next to challenge the struggling
Baltic talent was his Mumbai Falcons team-mate Salim Hanna. The Colombian got
ahead to take fourth at Turn 9 with three laps remaining, and was followed home
by the Prema car of Chinese racer Chi Zhenrui.
Moving in the opposite direction to Štolcermanis was Reno Francot. The first-lap skirmishes had left the AKCEL GP/PHM Racing-run Dutchman well outside the top 10, but he stormed through the field to snatch sixth place, with Ukrainian Oleksandr Savinkov (R-ace GP) seventh and Štolcermanis fading to eighth. Dubai racer Adam Al Azhari ran as high as sixth for Yas Heat Racing Academy and finished ninth, with South African Cole Hewetson (Xcel Motorsport) and Hungarian Martin Molnár (Evans GP) also part of this spectacular battle on their way to 10th and 11th respectively. Molnár’s Evans team-mate, Macanese Tiago Rodrigues, claimed the final point in 12th.
There was more good news for Hewetson: not only was he third in
the Rookie class behind category winner Hanna and runner-up Chi, but his 10th
place gives him reversed-grid pole position for race two. Powell, after heading
the second qualifying session, has the opportunity to make up for his bad luck
of Saturday from pole position for the weekend’s third race.
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