Formula Regional European Championship
With a round of the to go and the overall winner decided in favour of a teammate, Wharton won both races at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya’s Round 9.
The Prema Racing driver was fastest in the first qualifier, his fourth pole position for the season. He snatched the top spot from his teammate Rafael Camara in the final moments, where he edged the Brazilian by 0.01s.
In Race 1, Wharton netted his third win of the season. Not only that, but he moved to third in the points after he had the lead from start to finish.
Camara secured the championship title in Race 2 where after qualifying on pole, Wharton took another lights to flag victory. His victory also allowed him to leapfrog Tuukka Taponen in the standings after the Finnish driver was eliminated at the first corner.
Italian F4
Also at Catalunya was the sixth round of the Italian F4 were Australians Beeton and Gianmarco Pradel with US Racing.
Beeton was the winner of Race 1 and Pradel was inside the top 10 and ninth. At the start, front row starter Indian-American US Racing teammate Akshay Bohra stalled. Then two cars had contact at Turn 1 which caused a safety car. Beeton was second from the start and stayed there after the resumption.
Beeton stalled at the start of Race 2 and was a non-finisher while Pradel improved to finish fifth. The third race marked the first win for Beeton after he had been runner up seven times this season.
“It feels really fantastic to finally win after being P2 seven times and stalling in this morning’s race, where I also started from P2. I’m really happy to have finally gotten my first win, and I hope to get more, this feeling is really special,” Beeton enthused.
It was a double celebration with Pradel in second for an Aussie one-two. Both passed the race’s pole sitter, new champion Freddie Slater. Beeton made his move inside at Turn 1, and shortly after, Pradel was also by after he started sixth.
“It was fantastic to end on a high! P6 to P2 is great, gaining a few positions. To be honest, coming into race, I was just clear. I didn’t really expect too much. To be walking away with this result, it’s huge,” said Pradel.
The FREC and F4 season finales will be at Monza on the last weekend of October.
GB3 & GB4
Both series wrapped up with three races each at Brands Hatch for Patrick Heuzenroeder (JHR Developments) 12th overall in GB3, and Fortec Motorsports’ Jack Taylor ninth in the final points of GB4.
From sixth on the grid for Race 1, Heuzenroeder went wide early on and dropped to 14th before a spin cost him another five places. Ultimately he picked up two places for 17th.
He also had a moment in Race 2 and fell from eight to 10th. The safety car was then called to retrieve two cars from a gravel trap before 10mins of racing which culminated with Heuzenroeder 11th. In the last he started sixth and finished sixth.
Meanwhile Taylor in the GB4 opener dropped to 12th on the first lap but was able to make up two places by the end. In Race 2, Taylor picked up four places on the first lap to be seventh. In the second half of the contest, the young Australian made an error, and eventually finished ninth.
He was off the front row with is teammate for the last race. After he settled into fourth, Taylor was sent into a spin at Druids and with his car beached on the edge of the track, was forced to retire.
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