Finlay McSporran
Published: 15:16, 7th October 2025
Title rivals Freddie Slater and Matteo De Palo continued their title fight at the weekend during the penultimate round of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine.
The two title protagonists came into this round level on points, after De Palo closed in on Slater at the previous round in Barcelona.
De Palo would strike the first blow of the weekend, qualifying on the front row for both races, whilst Slater qualified fifth in both sessions.
Frenchman Enzo Delginy qualified on pole for both races, giving him a great chance to get involved in the title fight. He was coming into the weekend third in the standings, albeit 28 points (more than a win) behind Slater and De Palo.
Race 1
Unfortunately, he had to serve a four-place grid penalty for race 1. This was for a safety car restart infringement last time out in Barcelona.
This promoted De Palo to pole position and Slater to fourth, as the race got underway behind the safety car.
The track was deemed to be too wet for a standing start, and after a few laps under yellow, De Palo got the race underway with a rolling start.
This allowed him to maintain the lead, as Slater made up a place to get himself into third behind Akshay Bohra.
The Briton was on the move once again, getting passed Bohra a couple of laps later, and was now directly behind his championship rival.
The battle began with Slater trying get passed De Palo at the turn six hairpin, but was cut off by his rival. He then went for the switch-back manoeuvre which brought him alongside as they approached the fast right-hander of turn 7.
However, in their efforts to stay ahead of each other, both drivers ran wide at the next corner.
This promoted Bohra to the lead of the race and crucially, left Slater in second ahead of De Palo.
The action wasn’t done yet however, and two laps later Freddie was once again lining up a move on race leader Bohra.
The British driver took the lead with a lunge down the inside at the turn 6 hairpin, and went on to win by 3.8 seconds in the end.
Bohra took second with De Palo third to limit the damage.
Behind them, Michael Belov and Saqer Al Masherji were battling all the way to the line. However Al Masherji tried to go round the outside at the final corner but drifted too wide onto the wet patches, which sent him spinning into the gravel.
Race 2
The rain was back again for the second race of the weekend which delayed the start by 15 minutes.
Race 1 winner Slater now had a ten-point advantage in the standings but had work to with his rival on the front row alongside pole-sitter Deligny.
A heavy impact for Ruiqi Liu and Nikita Bedrin brought out an early safety car after the two collided at the first corner.
Thankfully both drivers walked away unharmed, however the incident caused a lot of damage and when the race eventually resumed there was just 15 minutes left.
The green flags didn’t last long however, as Hiyu Yamakoshi ran a little too wide and lost the rear of the car exiting turn 1, a reminder of how treacherous the conditions were.
Thankfully the Van Amersfoort driver managed to keep the engine running and re-joined the track safely.
Meanwhile out in front, Deligny continued to lead De Palo who was in second, with Evan Giltaire in third and Slater now up to fourth.
With ten minutes left of the race, the rain started to come down which made the track even more slippery for the drivers on their slick tyres.
Saqer Al Masherji found the gravel again, this time on the entry to turn one where he lost control under braking and beached himself in the gravel which required intervention.
With the rain intensifying and only a few minutes left, race control made the decision to red flag the session, bringing and early end to the race.
With 75% of the race having been completed, full points could still be awarded which means that the championship now looks like this:
1 – Slater (263)
2 – De Palo (259)
3 – Deligny (233)
4 – Clerot (212)
5 – Bohra (155)
The season finale in Monza gets underway on the 24th of October in just over two weeks time.
Just four points separates Slater and De Palo, whilst a win for Deligny in race 2 gives him an outside chance of taking the title.
A disappointing weekend for Pedro Clerot means that he is now mathematically out of contention.
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