Belov Wins Race Two in Valencia as Saucy Edges Closer to FRECA Title

Michael Belov took his second victory of the 2021 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine season in a processional race around the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, while Grégoire Saucy moved closer to securing the title with another podium finish.

G4 Racing’s Belov, who start from pole position, held onto the lead at the start having taken top spot in Qualifying on Sunday morning, and despite being shadowed for much of the race by race one winner Franco Colapinto, he went on to take the win.

Colapinto withstood a first lap attack from Saucy to maintain second, with the MP Motorsport driver able to stay with Belov up front whilst easily keeping the ART Grand Prix driver behind him.

Saucy’s third place, coupled with a sixth place for closest rival Hadrien David, puts the Swiss racer seventy-eight points clear at the top of the championship standings with only one hundred points left on the table.  He only requires twenty-two points across the final four races to clinch the title.

Isack Hadjar took fourth for R-ace GP, while a fast start from seventh gave Saturday podium finisher David Vidales fifth for Prema Powerteam, ahead of David and his R-ace GP team-mate Zane Maloney. 

Like on Saturday, Maloney made excellent gains from his grid spot to run eighth, and he was responsible for one of the few on-track moves inside the top ten after that as he passed FA Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto for seventh. 

Bortoleto lost momentum and ultimately also lost out to Van Amersfoort Racing’s Mari Boya and ultimately finished down in ninth, while the final point went the way of ART Grand Prix’s Gabriele Mini. After the race, stewards gave Maloney a one-place penalty for going off track and gaining an advantage, which dropped him behind Boya into eighth.

Prema’s Dino Beganovic failed to finish after a technical issue initially saw him slow and hit the pits, and although the team got him back on track again, he pulled out a few laps later to retire.

With under ten minutes to go, the safety car was needed after a collision between MP Motorsport’s Dilano van’t Hoff and Monolite Racing’s José Garfias, but even after the track was cleared and racing resumed, there was no further movements inside the top ten as overtaking proved difficult around the Valencia track.

Circuit Ricardo Tormo Race 2 Result

POS.	NO.	DRIVER	NAT	TEAM	TIME/GAP
1	30	Michael Belov	RUS	G4 Racing	32:03.538
2	43	Franco Colapinto	ARG	MP Motorsport	+1.237
3	26	Grégoire Saucy	CHE	ART Grand Prix	+2.257
4	6	Isack Hadjar	FRA	R-ace GP	+3.379
5	12	David Vidales	ESP	Prema Powerteam	+3.852
6	10	Hadrien David	FRA	R-ace GP	+4.563
7	64	Mari Boya	ESP	Van Amersfoort Racing	+6.172
8	22	Zane Maloney	BAR	R-ace GP	+5.459
9	85	Gabriel Bortoleto	BRZ	FA Racing	+6.663
10	46	Gabriele Mini	ITA	ART Grand Prix	+7.088
11	11	Gianluca Petecof	BRZ	KIC Motorsport	+7.825
12	1	Paul Aron	EST	Prema Powerteam	+8.083
13	8	William Alatalo	FIN	Arden Motorsport	+9.013
14	27	Kas Haverkort	NED	MP Motorsport	+9.373
15	21	Alex Quinn	GBR	Arden Motorsport	+9.504
16	51	Francesco Pizzi	ITA	Van Amersfoort Racing	+10.130
17	19	Andrea Rosso	ITA	FA Racing	+12.721
18	14	Nicola Marinangeli	ITA	Arden Motorsport	+13.129
19	35	Pietro Delli Guanti	ITA	Monolite Racing	+13.926
20	7	Axel Gnos	CHE	G4 Racing	+14.601
21	16	Tommy Smith	AUS	JD Motorsport	+14.844
22	5	Patrik Pasma	FIN	ART Grand Prix	+15.001
23	62	Lorenzo Fluxá	ESP	Van Amersfoort Racing	+15.570
24	2	Nico Göhler	GER	KIC Motorsport	+16.092
25	15	Léna Bühler	CHE	R-ace GP	+17.952
26	91	Eduardo Barrichello	BRZ	JD Motorsport	+18.133
27	72	Bélen Garcia	ESP	G4 Racing	+20.018
28	9	Alexandre Bardinon	FRA	FA Racing	+24.202
29	96	Oliver Gøthe	DEN	MP Motorsport	+27.451
30	41	Emidio Pesce	ITA	DR Formula	+30.691
31	13	Jasin Ferati	CHE	KIC Motorsport	+44.293
RET	99	José Garfias	MEX	Monolite Racing	Retired
RET	77	Dilano van’t Hoff	NED	MP Motorsport	Retired
RET	17	Dino Beganovic	SWE	Prema Powerteam	Retired