The seemingly unstoppable march towards the FRECA title for Rafael Camara came to an abrupt halt this weekend, as Tuka Taponen crushed the opposition at the Hungaroring to kick off his title campaign.
Finlay McSporran
Published: 17:32, 24th June 2024
Race 1
Taponen would get his weekend started in the best possible manner, taking pole position for race 1 during a particularly wet qualifying session that saw championship leader Camara qualify 8th with a lot of ground to make up during the race.
Conditions would improve for the race, and with Camara starting in 8th, Taponen had a great opportunity to eat into his title lead. The Ferrari junior got a good launch and held off teammate Zachary David to lead into turn one, while Camara was still in 8th.
Camara slowly made his way up the order as the race went on, passing Peugeot and Giltaire to get up to 6th by lap 16, and With just 1 minute to go, took advantage of a brilliant battle for second between Zachery David, Badoer, Deligny and Giusti to move up to P4.
The chaos behind meant that Taponen was unchallenged in front as he cruised home to a second win in the Formula Regional European Championship.
Race 2
Qualifying for race 2 would get underway in dry conditions compared to Saturday’s session, however it was a familiar name at the top of the table, with Taponen securing his second FRECA pole position. Alongside him however would be title rival Camara looking to get things back on track after a season worst finish of 4th in race 1, showing how consistent he’s been.
This didn’t seem to phase Taponen however, as he stayed ahead of Camara going into turn 1, while Ugo Ugochukwu got passed him for P2 and tried to take the lead off of Taponen but couldn’t find a way passed.
The safety car was out halfway through the race as Nicola Lacorte hit the Iron dames of Marta Garcia, taking them both out of the race and bunching the pack up. The safety car came in with just 2 minutes to go and as they barrelled down to turn 1 an almighty send from Camara got him alongside Ugochukwu, the teammates making contact as Camara muscled his way into second at the expense of Ugochukwu who was forced off the track and lost out on a podium to Brando Badoer.
The action behind allowed Taponen to cruise home to a second consecutive Freca win ahead of championship leader Camara, with the gap between them in the championship down from 73 to 46 points, which gives us hope that we might yet have a title fight on our hands.
Brando Badoer came home in 3rd for Van Amersfoort with Redbull junior driver Enzo Deligny finishing 7th as the top rookie.
Next up – Freca returns on the 14th of July for round 5 at Mugello, while the Redbull ring plays host to the Austrian Grand Prix this week.
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