Kato and Craigie take breakthrough maiden victories at Dubai Autodrome

• Honda-backed Taito Kato leads home Alexander Abkhazava in Formula Regional Middle East Trophy
• Mercedes F1 junior Kenzo Craigie resists pressure from UAE4 Series leader Oleksandr Bondarev
• Decisive Rookie class wins for Kean Nakamura-Berta and Craigie ahead of Sunday action

 

Dubai, January 31, 2026: It was breakthrough day at Dubai Autodrome on Saturday’s opening salvo of race action for the third round of the Formula Regional Middle East Trophy (FRME) and UAE4 Series. Honda-backed Japanese talent Taito Kato was the man on form in Formula Regional to claim his maiden win in the series. Meanwhile, Mercedes Formula 1 junior Kenzo Craigie scooped UAE4 laurels – the first outright victory in car racing for the young English talent on only his third race weekend out of karts.

 

The 18-year-old Kato took pole position in his ART Grand Prix car and led a tense race from start to finish. He headed Kazakhstan’s Alexander Abkhazava of MP Motorsport and Williams F1 protégé Kean Nakamura-Berta, the London-born Japanese-Slovakian who races for the Prema-run Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited team.

 

Fourth place earned more valuable points for R-ace GP’s Abu Dhabi talent Rashid Al Dhaheri, the Mercedes F1-backed driver who therefore keeps a healthy lead in the FRME standings, although the gap over Nakamura-Berta has been trimmed from 35 points to 32. Nakamura-Berta took a Rookie win to extend his lead in that division.

 

Craigie, driving for R-ace GP, had to soak up immense pressure from UAE4 Series leader Oleksandr Bondarev. After a lengthy safety car, the 15-year-old came under attack repeatedly from Williams F1 protégé Bondarev’s Mumbai Falcons car, but was unfazed on his way to a popular victory. Just behind them in third was Andy Consani, who like Craigie is a Mercedes-backed driver with R-ace GP. Frenchman Consani therefore keeps the pressure on Bondarev in the points, the gap enlarged only slightly from 17 to 20. Craigie also took Rookie honours to extend his advantage there.

 

Action continues with two more races for each series on Sunday at Dubai Autodrome, with the action hotting up before one final event at Lusail in Qatar on February 12-13.

 

Formula Regional Middle East Trophy

Race 1

1st Taito Kato/ART Grand Prix

2nd Alexander Abkhazava/MP Motorsport

3rd Kean Nakamura-Berta/Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited

 

UAE4 Series

Race 1

1st Kenzo Craigie/R-ace GP

2nd Oleksandr Bondarev/Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited

3rd Andy Consani/R-ace GP

 

 

 

Formula Regional Middle East Trophy

 

Race 1

Taito Kato put everything together to take pole position ahead of Alexander Abkhazava, but there was a quicker lap for Kean Nakamura-Berta. The Mumbai Falcons Limited driver moved to the top of the timing screens at the end of the session, only for that lap to be deleted for a track limits breach.

 

Kato set off in the lead at the start from Abkhazava and Nakamura-Berta, and kept everything composed for a consummate victory. The gap fluctuated at around a second for most of the race, while Abkhazava had to keep his eyes on his mirrors to look out for the looming Nakamura-Berta. In the end, Kato took the chequered flag 1.335 seconds in front of Abkhazava, with Nakamura-Berta claiming the Rookie class in third overall.

 

Nakamura-Berta had come under serious pressure from series leader Rashid Al Dhaheri and Maksimilian Popov over the course of the opening lap before gradually easing away from this duo. Al Dhaheri also pulled clear of Popov’s Trident car to take fourth. Popov, meanwhile, was one of the focuses of the race – he had to fend off a spirited attack from Japanese Toyota protégé Yuki Sano, who made a bold attempt at Turn 10 to remove him from fifth place with two and a half laps remaining. Popov was unflustered and took fifth, with Sano sixth ahead of his R-ace GP team-mate: Italian Formula Regional debutant Emanuele Olivieri, the reigning F4 Middle East champion who made a strong impression and also finished third in the Rookie division.

 

Newman Chi Zhenrui did a good job to take eighth, the Chinese driver bringing in some welcome points for CL Motorsport, ahead of Rodin Motorsport-run Australian Alex Ninovic and Polish racer Jan Przyrowski (RPM). With Jesse Carrasquedo pulling off track to retire at mid-race, it was Mumbai Falcons’ Colombian charge Salim Hanna who took 11th. Alex Powell held off a monster attack from Francisco Macedo to end up 12th in his Pinnacle Motorsport entry. It means the Jamaican-American will line up on pole ahead of Hanna on race two’s reversed grid, together with the pole for race three that he earned by topping the second qualifying session.

 

 

UAE4 Series

 

Race 1

Kenzo Craigie earned his first pole position in car racing, with UAE4 Series leader Oleksandr Bondarev’s final-lap effort falling 0.2 seconds short of the young English driver. Craigie also got the best of the start, while Bondarev had to take to the escape road at Turn 1, re-emerging still in second position. Behind them, Andy Consani twice switched positions with Niccolò Maccagnani in an entertaining battle for third before establishing himself in that position.

 

Then the safety car was called. Scott Kin Lindblom had been stranded in his P5 starting position when his car failed to get away. With 34 drivers behind him on the grid, it would have been a miracle had everyone avoided him, and the inevitable incidents left Lindblom, Roman Felber and Nasser Al Thani all out of the race with damaged machinery. Tenth qualifier Joseph Smith had also sat motionless, but eventually got away unscathed.

 

Before racing resumed, Elia Weiss made contact with Emma Felbermayr on the start-finish straight, the two cars coming to rest at pit lane exit. That served to extend the safety car period, and left time for just five laps of racing once the field was finally unleashed. Weiss was given a grid penalty for race two for causing that incident.

 

Bondarev’s bid to keep in touch with Craigie led to an off-track excursion at Turn 2, and indeed the Ukrainian appeared to be struggling to keep his car on the track, instead turning his attentions to fending off Consani – and also earning a warning for track limits. But once his tyres had switched on, Bondarev slashed the gap to Craigie, and we were treated to an exciting battle for victory. Craigie appeared to have gapped Bondarev with one lap remaining, but the Mumbai Falcons ace came back at him on the final lap. A speculative dive at Turn 10 did not pay off, and Bondarev was also in the tricky situation that he had title rival Consani right behind him – second place would be better than a non-finish. Eventually Craigie held on by 0.402 seconds, with Bondarev second and Consani third.

 

Maccagnani was also in a battle – this one for fourth. The Italian Ferrari Driver Academy talent had Prema Racing’s Romanian prospect David Cosma-Cristofor climbing all over the back of his Mumbai Falcons car, but Maccagnani just about held on. Another fight behind ended with Turkish driver Alp Aksoy (Mumbai Falcons) taking sixth – and second behind Craigie in the Rookie class – ahead of Hitech’s British-Emirati Theo Palmer. Emily Cotty (R-ace GP) ran seventh initially before she was passed at Turn 10 by Palmer, so she placed eighth ahead of fellow Brit Rowan Campbell-Pilling (Pinnacle Motorsport).

 

With Campbell-Pilling penalised ten seconds after the race, the fierce action behind was actually for ninth, with American Payton Westcott (Prema) just holding on at the finish, although she had Iacopo Martinese (PHM Racing) drawing abreast at the finish line, the Italian completing the Rookie podium. Just behind them was Prema’s Spanish McLaren protégé Christian Costoya in 11th, with Briton Jarrett Clark (Xcel Motorsport) next. Clark will therefore start Sunday’s reversed-grid race two from pole with Costoya alongside.