Maloney Holds Off Hadjar to win Chaotic Second Monaco FRECA Race

Zane Maloney took his maiden Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine victory on Sunday morning, fending off the challenge of R-ace GP team-mate Isack Hadjar to win race two around the Circuit de Monaco.

The race was immediately red flagged on lap one due to a multiple car crash, initiated by a collision between championship leader Grégoire Saucy (ART Grand Prix) and William Alatalo (Arden Motorsport).  The two drivers touched at Ste Devote before hitting each other again on the run up the hill.  Alatalo was lucky to keep going but Saucy’s weekend was over with a broken suspension.

As those behind slowed up to take avoiding action, a number of other cars found themselves involved in another crash, with Brad Benavides (DR Formula), Dino Beganovic (Prema Powerteam), Tommy Smith (JD Motorsport) and, most spectacularly of all, Nicola Marinangeli (Arden Motorsport) all ending up stopped on track and out of the race. 

Marinangeli was hit by Smith and went into a roll, ending upside down on top of Beganovic’s Prema car. All drivers were able to walk away from the incident without injury, while Emidio Pesce (DR Formula) was also involved but was able to resume the race. 

The race resumed once the track was cleared, and Maloney judged the safety car restart to perfection, pulling a small gap to Hadjar.  It would be a theme throughout the race as the safety car was required twice more before the chequered flag!

Prema Powerteam’s Paul Aron was the cause of the first of these safety car interventions, with the Estonian losing the chance to close the gap on championship leader Saucy by crashing out of the top four at Ste Devote.  The second safety car was needed when Pesce crashed out at Casino Square and Elias Seppänen (KIC Motorsport) stopped with what looked like a mechanical failure at the Nouvelle Chicane.

Maloney held on despite almost constant pressure from Hadjar to take his maiden series victory, while Hadrien David ensured a R-ace GP lockout of the podium by finishing third ahead of Arden Motorsport’s Alex Quinn and KIC Motorsport’s Patrik Pasma.

Prema Powerteam’s David Vidales took sixth ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Thomas Ten Brinke, while the top ten was completed by Van Amersfoort Racing’s Mari Boya, FA Racing’s Andrea Rosso and ART Grand Prix’s Gabriele Mini.  For Rosso, it was his first points finish of 2021.

Despite racing for nineteen laps around the streets of Monaco, the race result was subsequently reduced to ten laps after an appeal from a number of teams.  The clock should not have stopped during the red flag period, and as such, should have finished after thirty minutes from the start, plus a lap.

Luckily, the top ten in the race were unaffected, while full points continued to be given despite the change in race distance, meaning Maloney took home the full twenty-five points on offer.  The only real change in the finishing order was that both Seppänen and Pesce were classified as finishers!