First-lap clash stops Camara clean sweep
FORMULA REGIONAL EUROPEAN IMOLA (ITA) 7-8 SEPTEMBER ROUND 7/10
The battle for the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine got physical on a wet track last Sunday at Imola, when a first-corner clash between Ferrari proteges Rafael Camara and Tuukka Taponen delayed the Brazilian and eliminated the Finn. Camara at least recovered to score points in ninth place, one day after taking a brilliant win in the dry.
The Prema Racing car of Camara led all the way from pole on Saturday, but that’s only half the story. While the field circulated early on behind the safety car, notification came of a five-second penalty for a false start. Once the race went green, Camara bolted, and with four laps remaining he had already pulled out the necessary gap to Taponen. The R-ace GP driver had to fend off a challenge from Camara’s Prema team-mate James
Wharton, and a drop of a rear wheel off the track at Tamburello merely hastened Camara’s ability to get the job done.
Red Bull Junior Enzo Deligny (R-ace) won an all-french battle for fourth with Alessandro Giusti (ART GP), with Brando Badoer (Van Amersfoort Racing) in sixth.
Williams-backed Giusti was in the box seat on Sunday when Taponen’s optimistic move on Camara at Tamburello went wrong, while Noah Stromsted snuck his Race Performance Motorsport car up to second. This was how it stayed through two safety car periods, the first to recover Taponen’s car, the second when Evan
Giltaire, who had stormed from 11th on the grid to pressuring Zachary David for third, pulled off on the exit of Variante Alta.
On the second restart, Wharton slithered down the inside of David at Tamburello to secure the Australian his second podium of the weekend. Behind fourth-placed David (R-ace), Prema’s Mclaren protege Ugo Ugochukwu climbed to fifth ahead of Pedro Clerot (VAR) before another safety car meant the race finished under caution.
Trident-run Anglo-pole Roman Bilinski made a strong return after three months out due to breaking two vertebrae in a road accident, taking a seventh and a ninth.