Dominant David Takes Opening Victory of FRECA’s Monaco Weekend

Hadrien David controlled the opening race of the Monaco weekend to take his first victory of the 2022 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine season on Saturday.

The R-ace GP driver held off the challenge of championship leader Dino Beganovic despite a mid-race red flag, caused when a collision between Esteban Masson and Sami Meguetounif blocked the track at the Grand Hotel Hairpin.

Despite the intervention, David was able to pull a gap at the restart and was able to close out the victory ahead of Prema Racing’s Beganovic, who continues his record of finishing inside the top two in every race of the season to date.

Closing out the podium was Van Amersfoort Racing’s Kas Haverkort, with the Dutchman holding off the challenge of ART Grand Prix’s Gabriele Mini to finally take his maiden top three finish in the championship.  Haverkort had finished third in the last round at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari but was later disqualified on a technicality.

Mini ended fourth ahead of MP Motorsport’s Michael Belov and R-ace GP’s Gabriel Bortoleto, while Mari Boya placed seventh for ART Grand Prix ahead of team-mate Laurens van Hoepen, the Dutchman claiming his first points of the season and the rookie victory at the same time.

Closing out the points were Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroili and Arden Motorsport’s Red Bull-backed Mexican, Noel León, the latter taking his first points of the season in tenth, just ahead of Edoardo Barrichello.

Aside from the interruption when MP Motorsport’s Meguetounif tried and optimistic move on FA Racing’s Masson at the hairpin, it was a pretty clean race, with every driver who started reaching the chequered flag.

This included Prema Racing’s Paul Aron down in twenty-fifth, the Estonian having his one and only outing of the weekend after a suspension failure caused a crash in Qualifying and left him outside the cut off point to compete in both races. Only twenty-eight cars can compete in Monaco due to the tight confines of the track, meaning nine cars will miss out competing in each race.

It means Aron, a protégé of the Mercedes-Benz Junior Team, could fall a significant number of points behind in the championship this weekend, particularly as team-mate Beganovic holds pole position for Sunday’s second race in the principality.

But on Saturday, it was all about David, who moves up to second place in the Drivers’ Championship thanks to his victory, albeit forty-eight points behind Ferrari Driver Academy’s Beganovic.

Circuit de Monaco Race 1 Result