Starting from pole position, the British Prema Racing driver headed UAE’S early leader Rashid Al-Dhaheri (R-ace GP) over the line as American Sebastian Wheldon completed the podium for MP Motorsport having run second for a time.
To underline the highly competitive nature of the championship – which utilises the Formula 1-inspired second-generation Formula Regional Tatuus T-326 complete with the Race Mode push-to-pass system – six different teams featured in the top 10, which was covered 10.636s after 32 minutes of action-packed racing at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.
Behind the leading trio, Wheldon’s team-mate Zhenrui Chi, from China but competing with an Italian licence, finished fourth. Dutchman Reno Francot (CL Motorsport) took fifth ahead of Maksimilian Popov, who was sixth for Trident Motorsport.
Kazakhstan driver Alexander Abkhazava (MP Motorsport) finished seventh as Kai Daryanani (Trident Motorsport) was classified eighth. Brazilian Miguel Costa (RPM) was ninth from 27th on the grid with Japanese driver Yuki Sano (R-ace GP) 10th.
Alex Ninovic finished third on the road for Rodin Motorsport but was demoted to 12th after a 10-second penalty was applied due to the Australian driver being adjudged to have forced a rival driver off the track.
G4 Racing’s Marcus Sæter, from Norway, was the top Rookie, while the FIA FREC’s official Toyota GR Yaris safety car was deployed twice due to on-track incidents.
In the second race of the day, which started with the fastest 12 drivers from Qualifying 1 lining up in reverse order, Al-Dhaheri, who started 11th, triumphed* after on-the-road winner, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Indian driver Dion Gowda, was handed a five-second penalty for a false start.
Reza Seewooruthun, who joined Gowda on the front row of the grid in pole position, was on course to inherit victory before Al-Dhaheri overtook on the penultimate lap. But with Al-Dhaheri’s 100 seconds of Race Mode depleted, Seewooruthun came close to re-passing before settling for second with Ninovic, his Rodin Motorsport team-mate, finishing on the podium for the second time.
Francot, Popov, the delayed Gowda, Chi, Nakamura-Berta, top Rookie Emanuele Olivieri and Daryanini completed the top 10 finishers.
Al-Dhaheri’s winning margin was 1.081s following a race interrupted by two periods running behind FIA FREC’s official Toyota GR Yaris safety car.
Strong start for all-new FIA Formula Regional European Championship
Taking over from the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA), the FIA Formula Regional European Championship (FIA FREC) enjoys the full support of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the global governing body for motor sport and the federation for mobility organisations worldwide.
It’s positioned between Formula 4 and FIA Formula 3 in the FIA Single-Seater Pyramid and caters exclusively for the second-generation Formula Regional Tatuus T-326.
All-new for 2026, the car has been developed by the Italian constructor in partnership with the FIA and follows the aerodynamic philosophy deployed in Formula 1 to encourage closer racing. Its design also represents another step in terms of performance and safety, while the drivers further benefit from the push-to-pass Race Mode system.
FIA FREC is organised and promoted by FIA Member Club Automobile Club d’Italia (ACI) with the Red Bull Ring event the first of eight race weekends for a total of 20 races.
Nakamura-Berta reflects on a history-making race
“There were overtakes left, right and centre, the push to pass seemed quite effective and for sure it was an exciting race for everyone. I’m really happy that we took the win, a great way to start this new championship, a new era of Formula Regional. Off the line and the first lap wasn’t ideal for me, but we just kept our cool, managed to overtake quite quickly for the lead and from there we just had to manage the race. Rashid did a really good move around me, so hats off to that. I had a nice battle with Rashid for a couple of laps, it was good racing and I think we all learned quite a lot about the characteristics of the racing going forward.”
Rashid Al-Dhaheri on his overtaking masterclass
“The journey we’ve had this weekend, and the work we were able to do after Race 1 from understanding what strategically we can do with push-to-pass, helped us to have this amazing win. We were able to do a really good job and it shows that hard work and strategic thinking can pay off. Before the start I said to my trainer that if I can give the best version of myself, we might be able to get the win. Not because we had incredible pace but because I knew how strong this push-to-pass is and how much you can make a difference on this track. It’s the very beginning of this championship but with the car that we have and the possibility of push-to-pass the races are very exciting.”
Qualifying 2 is next from 08:45 tomorrow (Sunday) with the third race of the weekend scheduled to begin at 16:40 over duration of 30 minutes plus one lap. To ensure the most productive track time possible, drivers are split into two groups of 15 with each group allocated 15 minutes of running. Qualifying 2 and Race 3 will be live on YouTube.
Click HERE for final results of Race 1 and the provisional results of Race 2. *=Race 2 results remain provisional.
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