Gabriele Mini Penalty Hands Dino Beganovic Victory in Opening Race at Imola

A penalty for Gabriele Mini denied the Italian his maiden Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine victory despite the ART Grand Prix driver leading from start to finish at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari on Saturday.

The victory ultimately went the way of Prema Racing’s Dino Beganovic, with the race finishing under a red flag, the second of the afternoon, with two additional safety car periods also affecting the race.

During an early red flag for a crash for MP Motorsport’s Sami Meguetounif, it was announced that Mini was under investigation by the stewards for a false start, and they handed the Italian a ten-second time penalty to be applied after the race.  Meguetounif was taken to the medical centre for precautionary checks due to the crash after heavy contact with the barriers.

Beganovic, who managed to pass ART Grand Prix’s Mari Boya early on to run second, thus was in the right place to take his second victory of the season and move clear at the top of the championship standings, while Boya held off the challenge of another Prema driver, Mercedes-Benz protégé Paul Aron for second.

Aron had passed his Prema Racing team-mate Sebastián Montoya and was pressurising Boya for second when the red flags flew just before they were due to start the final lap after a two-car crash between G4 Racing’s Axel Gnos and Arden Motorsport’s Eduardo Barrichello at the first chicane.

This was after the two safety car periods, the first for an incident between FA Racing’s Nicholas Baptiste and Prema Racing’s Hamda Al Qubaisi at the first chicane, while on the restart it was needed again after G4 Racing’s Owen Tangavelou spun into the gravel trap almost at the same place.

Kas Haverkort ended the day in fifth for Van Amersfoort Racing ahead of Arden Motorsport’s Joshua Dürksen, with R-ace GP’s Gabriel Bortoleto sevent ahead of Trident duo Leonardo Fornaroli and Tim Tramnitz. 

The final point on offer went the way of R-ace GP’s Hadrien David, who ended just ahead of team-mate Lorenzo Fluxá and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Joshua Dufek.

Mini’s penalty relegated him from first on the road to twenty-eighth in the final standings, bad luck for a driver still seeking his first overall victory in Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine.  He’ll be looking for better luck in Sunday’s second race at Imola, while Beganovic will be seeking to continue his strong start to the year that has seen him take two victories and a second place in the opening three races.

Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari Race 1 Result

POS.	NO.	DRIVER	NAT	TEAM	TIME/GAP
1	18	Dino Beganovic	SWE	Prema Racing	41:21.958
2	64	Mari Boya	ESP	ART Grand Prix	+0.349
3	3	Paul Aron	EST	Prema Racing	+0.693
4	58	Sebastián Montoya	COL	Prema Racing	+1.233
5	27	Kas Haverkort	NED	Van Amersfoort Racing	+1.426
6	10	Joshua Dürksen	PAR	Arden Motorsport	+1.889
7	85	Gabriel Bortoleto	BRZ	R-ace GP	+2.257
8	72	Leonardo Fornaroli	ITA	Trident	+2.375
9	70	Tim Tramnitz	GER	Trident	+2.710
10	26	Hadrien David	FRA	R-ace GP	+3.064
11	16	Lorenzo Fluxá	ESP	R-ace GP	+3.443
12	13	Joshua Dufek	CHE	Van Amersfoort Racing	+3.868
13	5	Macéo Capietto	FRA	Monolite Racing	+4.027
14	4	Roman Bilinski	POL	Trident	+4.448
15	30	Michael Belov		MP Motorsport	+4.882
16	55	Pietro Delli Guanti	ITA	Race Performance Motorsport	+5.709
17	11	Levente Révész	HUN	Van Amersfoort Racing	+6.074
18	7	Axel Gnos	CHE	G4 Racing	+6.338
19	91	Eduardo Barrichello	BRZ	Arden Motorsport	+6.591
20	42	Laurens van Hoepen	NED	ART Grand Prix	+6.884
21	77	Dilano van ‘t Hoff	NED	MP Motorsport	+7.212
22	19	Noel León	MEX	Arden Motorsport	+7.559
23	9	Esteban Masson	FRA	FA Racing	+7.835
24	21	Patrick Pasma	FIN	KIC Motorsport	+8.293
25	65	Keith Donegan	IRE	Race Performance Motorsport	+8.611
26	8	Matías Zagazeta	PER	G4 Racing	+8.950
27	28	Francesco Braschi	ITA	KIC Motorsport	+9.237
28	46	Gabriele Mini	ITA	ART Grand Prix	+9.572
29	24	Cenyu Han	CHN	Monolite Racing	+10.212
30	6	Pietro Armanni	ITA	Monolite Racing	+10.696
31	92	Owen Tangavelou	FRA	G4 Racing	+2 Laps
32	68	Santiago Ramos	MEX	KIC Motorsport	+2 Laps
N/C	12	Victor Bernier	FRA	FA Racing	+3 Laps
RET	88	Hamda Al Qusaibi	UAE	Prema Racing	Retired
RET	35	Nicolás Baptiste	COL	FA Racing	Retired
RET	17	Sami Meguetounif	FRA	MP Motorsport	Retired