Isack Hadjar Unstoppable in Opening FRECA Encounter in Monaco

Isack Hadjar converted his maiden Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine pole position into his maiden victory, with the Frenchman cruising to the win at the Circuit de Monaco on Saturday.

Hadjar had taken pole position for race one by topping his group in Qualifying on Friday, and once he navigated the start, he was able to pull a gap to his R-ace GP team-mate Zane Maloney to take the victory. 

Even a safety car intervention, caused by Nicola Marinangeli being spun around at the Nouvelle Chicane by Brad Benavides could not prevent Hadjar from dominating.  On the restart, Hadjar pulled away and eventually took the chequered flag 7.401 seconds clear of Maloney.  Incidentally, Benavides will drop three places on the grid for Sunday’s race for spinning Marinangeli.

Paul Aron denied R-ace GP a podium lock-out by holding off Hadrien David throughout the twenty-one-lap race, with the Prema Powerteam driver finishing less than half a second ahead of the Frenchman despite appearing not to have the same kind of pace as his rival.

Similarly, the battle for fifth place was also a close affair, with Patrik Pasma of KIC Motorsport holding off the challenge of Arden Motorsport’s Alex Quinn throughout the race.  Prema Powerteam’s David Vidales and Arden’s William Alatalo ended seventh and eighth, while the top ten was completed by Van Amersfoort Racing’s Mari Boya and ART Grand Prix’s Gabriele Mini.

Just missing out on points was Monolite Racing’s Pietro Delli Guanti in eleventh, with the Italian edging out KIC Motorsport’s Elias Seppänen, FA Racing’s Andrea Rosso and a whole host of other cars that finished almost nose to tail between eleventh and seventeenth.

Championship leader Grégoire Saucy had been running inside the points but a late moment heading into the first corner left him way down the field in twenty-second place at the chequered flag.  He will head into Sunday’s second race hopeful of turning around his Monaco fortunes.

Circuit de Monaco Race One Result

POS.	NO.	DRIVER	NAT	TEAM	TIME/GAP
1	6	Isack Hadjar	FRA	R-ace GP	32:56.410
2	22	Zane Maloney	BAR	R-ace GP	+7.401
3	1	Paul Aron	EST	Prema Powerteam	+10.400
4	10	Hadrien David	FRA	R-ace GP	+10.863
5	5	Patrik Pasma	FIN	KIC Motorsport	+13.385
6	21	Alex Quinn	GBR	Arden Motorsport	+13.613
7	12	David Vidales	ESP	Prema Powerteam	+17.151
8	8	William Alatalo	FIN	Arden Motorsport	+17.700
9	64	Mari Boya	ESP	Van Amersfoort Racing	+18.428
10	46	Gabriele Mini	ITA	ART Grand Prix	+18.791
11	35	Pietro Delli Guanti	ITA	Monolite Racing	+25.151
12	58	Elias Seppänen	FIN	KIC Motorsport	+27.235
13	19	Andrea Rosso	ITA	FA Racing	+27.552
14	27	Kas Haverkort	NED	MP Motorsport	+28.037
15	51	Francesco Pizzi	ITA	Van Amersfoort Racing	+28.726
16	23	Thomas Ten Brinke	NED	ART Grand Prix	+29.139
17	17	Dino Beganovic	SWE	Prema Powerteam	+29.373
18	96	Oliver Gøthe	DEN	MP Motorsport	+31.040
19	7	Axel Gnos	CHE	G4 Racing	+47.375
20	15	Léna Bühler	CHE	R-ace GP	+47.675
21	55	Alessandro Famularo	VEN	G4 Racing	+51.106
22	26	Grégoire Saucy	CHE	ART Grand Prix	+52.890
23	85	Gabriel Bortoleto	BRZ	DR Formula	+56.698
24	71	Brad Benavides	USA	DR Formula	+1:08.939
NC	91	Eduardo Barrichello	BRZ	JD Motorsport	+8 Laps
RET	14	Nicola Marinangeli	ITA	Arden Motorsport	Retired
RET	13	Jasin Ferati	CHE	Monolite Racing	Retired
RET	62	Lorenzo Fluxá	ESP	Van Amersfoort Racing	Retired