Photo: FRAC
Mumbai Falcons completed a hat-trick in round three of the Formula Regional Asian Championship at Dubai Autodrome after Arthur Leclerc battled through to win for the second time this season.
Pinnacle Motorsport pair Pepe Marti and Dilano van’t Hoff battled off the front row at the start of the 30-minute race, with Marti getting into the lead ahead of van’t Hoff, Leclerc and Hitech GP’s Isack Hadjar – who made an excellent start.
Leclerc eventually was able to sneak his way into second as the Pinnacle duo started battling, before taking the lead briefly, only for Marti to return to the lead shortly after.
The trio were pulling away from the rest of the pack, with Marti a second ahead, before the safety car was called out for Hadjar coming to a stop. At the same time, Paul Aron pitted and Dino Beganovic dropped well down the order.
At the restart with 12 minutes to go, Marti made a crucial mistake into the corner at the end of the back straight, allowing Leclerc through into a lead he wouldn’t look back from.
The gap stayed at around the 1.2-second mark for much of the rest of the race as it calmed right down towards the end. Leclerc extends his championship lead to new second-placed driver Marti to 35 points. Mumbai Falcons swept the weekend, winning a race with each of its three drivers.
Marti and van’t Hoff rounded out the podium ahead of Sebastian Montoya, who took the fastest lap in his final appearance of the season.
Patrik Pasma was fifth ahead of Michael Belov, who was warned for track limits violations, Pierre Louis Chovet, Lorenzo Fluxa, Leonardo Fornaroli and Joshua Dufek.
Nicola Marinangeli and Jak Crawford were just outside of the points, while Beganovic could only recover to finish 15th.
In addition to Hadjar retiring, Aron failed to return to the circuit and Levente Revesz also dropped out early on.
Amna Al Qubaisi failed to start the race after pulling into the pits at the end of the formation lap. Father Khaled picked up a five-second time penalty for a false start, with the Masters’ category he contests won by Salih Yoluc who was 21st overall.
Race results (15 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arthur Leclerc | Mumbai Falcons | 31m04.418s |
| 2 | Pepe Marti | Pinnacle Motorsport | +1.160s |
| 3 | Dilano van’t Hoff | Pinnacle Motorsport | +2.009s |
| 4 | Sebastian Montoya | Mumbai Falcons | +2.936s |
| 5 | Patrik Pasma | Evans GP | +5.033s |
| 6 | Michael Belov | Evans GP | +6.384s |
| 7 | Pierre-Louis Chovet | BlackArts Racing | +8.224s |
| 8 | Lorenzo Fluxa | 3Y by R-ace GP | +9.822s |
| 9 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Hitech GP | +12.609s |
| 10 | Joshua Dufek | Hitech GP | +13.393s |
| 11 | Nicola Marinangeli | Evans GP | +13.550s |
| 12 | Jak Crawford | Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema | +14.766s |
| 13 | Oliver Goethe | 3Y by R-ace GP | +15.501s |
| 14 | Francesco Braschi | 3Y by R-ace GP | +15.953s |
| 15 | Dino Beganovic | Mumbai Falcons | +16.651s |
| 16 | Hamda Al Qubaisi | Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema | +17.048s |
| 17 | Ayato Iwasaki | Pinnacle Motorsport | +17.504s |
| 18 | Frederick Lubin | Evans GP | +18.991s |
| 19 | David Morales | Evans GP Academy | +22.080s |
| 20 | Owen Tangavelou | Hitech GP | +24.288s |
| 21 | Salih Yoluc | Pinnacle Motorsport | +26.246s |
| 22 | Thomas Luedi | BlackArts Racing | +29.247s |
| 23 | Khaled Al Qubaisi | Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema | +31.980s |
| Ret | Isack Hadjar | Hitech GP | |
| Ret | Paul Aron | Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema | |
| Ret | Levente Revesz | Evans GP Academy | |
| Ret | Amna Al Qubaisi | Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema | |
| Fastest lap: Montoya, 1m56.793s
Championship standings |
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