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wharton wins for the first time as freca title battle heats up at mugello

Jul 15, 2024

Championship leader Rafael Camara struggled once again this weekend, losing out on points to title rival Tuka Taponen as the seasons reaches the halfway point.

Finlay McSporran
Published: 16:26, 15th July 2024

Race 1

Round 5 of the Formula Regional European Championship saw the series head to the beautiful Tuscan hills around the Mugello circuit. While it might have been a different location from last time out at the Hungaroring, it was the same story on track as Tuka Taponen took his third consecutive FRECA pole position, ahead of the Van Amersfoort racing pair of Brando Badoer and Pedro Clerot with Championship Leader Camara starting 4th for race 1.

Taponen and Badoer would get an even start, the pole-sitter taking the inside line in turn one to hold the lead as the top 5 remained in the same position. Further behind, contact for Geovanni Maschio broke his suspension which sent him off at turn one to bring out the safety car. Taponen would nail the restart, leaving the Van Amersfoort pair behind him to fight for second place while Ivan Domingues got passed Camara for 4th.

This allowed Taponen to cruise home for a dominant 3rd consecutive victory, reducing the points deficit to Camara who could only manage P5 behind Clerot who was passed by teammate Domingues for the final spot on the podium with all 3 Van Amersfoort cars finishing in the top 4. A good drive from James Wharton saw him go from 11th to 7th while Prema teammate and McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu finished 10th.

Race 2

Taponen’s dominance came to an abrupt end during qualifying for race 2, as the Ferrari junior driver could only manage P6 and was then demoted a further 2 positions on Sundays grid for impeding Michael Belov. This allowed Branda Badoer to claim his first FRECA pole position, with James Wharton starting second ahead of his teammate Camara who qualified 3rd and looked to claw back the points he lost to Taponen on Sunday.

Pole-sitter Badoer would get a slow start off the line, allowing Wharton to take the race lead going into turn 1 while Camara went round the outside of Badoer to take P2 at the start. Badoer was quick to make up the places he’d lost at the start, passing Camara for 2nd on lap 2 and was now right on the gearbox of Wharton who just couldn’t break away from the Italian in the way that Taponen did on Saturday.

Speaking of Taponen, he was now in 5th place behind Clerot who was fighting with Camara for 3rd. With 5 minutes left Taponen passed Clerot for 4th and was now directly behind his rival Camara as they went down the main straight with Taponen tucked into the slipstream of the Prema. Taponen pulled out of the slipstream as they approached turn 1, trying to go around the outside of Camara however ran out off road, forcing him into the gravel which allowed Clerot to retake P4.

Back at the front, Wharton had managed to fend off the charging Badoer as he crossed the line to for a maiden win in FRECA, with Badoer taking a 5th consecutive P2 finishing ahead of Camara who finished 3rd on the road but dropped down to 5th, behind Taponen, after receiving a post-race penalty for the incident with Taponen which he was believed to be at fault for. This promoted Clerot to P3 as the top rookie from race 2.

With his P4 finish in race 2, Taponen reduces Camara’s title lead even further with just 29 points between them going into the second half of the season.