Formula Regional Oceania, FR Middle East and F4 Middle East continued their seasons over the past week as championship contenders began to emerge in each. Feeder Series reviews all the action over the past five days.

By Feeder Series

The Formula Middle East package’s midweek round came to an end with an FR Middle East race that was the latest single-seater race ever held at the Yas Marina Circuit. Evan Giltaire showed his mettle in that 11 p.m. contest to steal the drivers’ championship lead, while Emanuele Olivieri took his second double win to extend his points advantage in F4 Middle East. 

From Friday onward, the attention turned to Oceania and the Manfeild round of FR Oceania, which marked the season’s midpoint. Despite heavy rain on Sunday that threatened to mix up the order, all three drivers who triumphed were repeat victors, with Arvid Lindblad winning the first and third races and Zack Scoular winning the reverse-grid contest in between.

1. FRegional Middle East: Giltaire comes out on top as Slater suffers misfortune
2. F4 Middle East: Olivieri extends championship lead after dominant second round
3. FRegional Oceania: Lindblad maintains points lead as season hits midpoint at Manfeild

FRegional Middle East: Giltaire comes out on top as Slater suffers misfortune

Round two of the 2025 FR Middle East Championship delivered a dramatic swing in the drivers’ standings. Evan Giltaire dominated the Corkscrew layout of the Yas Marina Circuit with two wins, closing the points gap as Slater struggled for pace in race one and overhauling the Briton after he retired from race three. 

Slater pulled off another masterclass in the first qualifying session, finishing more than four tenths of a second ahead of the field. Yet he only managed fifth in the second session after failing to improve on his final run as Giltaire claimed pole by 0.376 seconds.

The pair got strong starts to the first race and were side by side going into the first corner before Giltaire backed off to avoid contact. The Frenchman’s next overtaking opportunity came on lap four, after a safety car restart, but he fell short again after taking the outside line heading into Turn 9.

Giltaire stayed close to Slater until lap 10, when Slater locked up at Turn 6 and lost momentum on exit. That enabled Giltaire to overtake him by taking the inside line at Turn 9 as teammate Rashid Al Dhaheri also went ahead of him to take second place.

The top two finished in those positions, with ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato in the final podium spot, as Slater ended up fifth. 

Thursday’s reverse-grid race saw PHM Racing’s Brando Badoer win his first single-seater race by leading from lights to flag and finishing 4.577s ahead of Saintéloc Racing’s Théophile Naël. 

After suffering from a fever last weekend, Jack Beeton recovered to finish on the podium despite a bad start to the race. The Australian overtook Ugo Ugochukwu at Turn 9 on lap 14 to finish third, marking his second points finish of the season. 

Race one winner Giltaire pulled into the pits and retired at the end of the formation lap because of a clutch issue. His absence gave Slater an opportunity to regain some points, but the Mumbai Falcons driver struggled with tyres in the cold conditions and only finished sixth.

Another swing came at the start of race three. In attempting to overtake Enzo Deligny at Turn 6, however, Kato outbraked himself and hit Slater, then fifth, into a spin. Slater continued the race at the back of the field for a few laps but ended up retiring on lap four after a collision with Finley Green, for which the 16-year-old received a three-place grid penalty for his next race. 

At the front, Giltaire maintained his lead heading into the first corner as Ugochukwu made up two positions to slot into second. Ugochukwu challenged and passed Giltaire at Turn 6 on lap 11 before disappearing into the distance. Then, on lap 15, Ugochukwu crashed into the barriers at Turn 1 because of an issue with his brakes, which led to another safety car period.

That remained in place until the end of the race, giving Giltaire the win, Badoer second and Deligny third with his second podium this season. Giltaire also leads the standings with 110 points, ahead of Slater with 98, Badoer with 92 and the departing Naël with 84.

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Freddie Slater,1:41.586	Evan Giltaire, +0.435s	Rashid Al Dhaheri, +0.460s
Qualifying 2	Evan Giltaire, 1:40.953	Brando Badoer, +0.376s	Rashid Al Dhaheri, +0.452s
Race 1 (17 laps)	Evan Giltaire, 30:31.824	Rashid Al Dhaheri, +2.100s	Taito Kato, +4.628s
Race 2 (17 laps)	Brando Badoer, 31:21.676	Théophile Naël, +4.577s	Jack Beeton, +9.423s
Race 3 (17 laps)	Evan Giltaire, 32:30.626	Brando Badoer, +0.385s	Enzo Deligny, +0.993s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Evan Giltaire, 110	Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited, 158	Freddie Slater, 134
P2	Freddie Slater, 98	ART Grand Prix, 144	Rashid Al Dhaheri, 122
P3	Brando Badoer, 92	PHM Racing, 92	Ernesto Rivera, 103
P4	Théophile Naël, 84	R-ace GP, 91	Reza Seewooruthun, 82
P5	Rashid Al Dhaheri, 66	Saintéloc Racing, 84	Taito Kato, 74
P6	Enzo Deligny, 50	Pinnacle Motorsport. 78	Jack Beeton, 73
P7	Kanato Le, 46	Evans GP, 3	Kai Daryanani, 44
P8	Jesse Carrasquedo, 41	Origine Motorsport, 2	Akshay Bohra, 43
P9	Ugo Ugochukwu, 41	Akcel GP, 2	Aditya Kulkarni, 34
P10	Ernesto Rivera, 37		Everett Stack, 28

Report by Tori Turner

Read the previous round’s report here.

F4 Middle East: Olivieri extends championship lead after dominant second round

R-ace GP’s Emanuele Olivieri extended his points lead to 41 after the second round of F4 Middle East as the championship picture came into sharper focus.

Olivieri and Alex Powell also pushed R-ace GP to the top of the teams’ standings, though the efforts of Kean Nakamura-Berta and Tomass Štolcermanis have kept Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited just 16 points behind.

Olivieri started the weekend by taking double pole position, the first by 0.134s and the second by a whopping 0.493s. Despite pressure from Nakamura-Berta at the start of the first race, Olivieri held his position.

The stricken car of Taha Hassiba, damaged after a collision with younger brother Tamim Hassiba on the opening lap, caused a safety car deployment on lap two. On lap three, after the restart, Nakamura-Berta attempted to pass Olivieri for the lead but cut the chicane and was forced to give the place back.

Štolcermanis caught Nakamura-Berta in the closing stages of the race, ultimately passing him for second in the final chicane on the last lap. The teammates were separated by just 0.015s at the line, while Powell finished fourth after a strong start from seventh.

At the start of race two, reverse-grid polesitter August Raber built an immediate gap while Oleksandr Bondarev held second before being passed by Reno Francot on lap five. A safety car was called just afterwards, and on the two laps after the restart Bondarev lost further positions to Powell, Olivieri, Nakamura-Berta and Štolcermanis, eventually finishing the race in seventh. 

Olivieri caught up to Powell with just under five minutes remaining, and the teammates battled over third for the remaining laps. Olivieri momentarily got past at the end of lap 12, but Powell took the position back into Turn 9 and joined winner Raber and runner-up Francot in standing on the podium for the first time this year. 

The chaotic final race started with an accident. Raber, starting 16th, stalled in his grid box, and Kyuho Lee, Bader Al Sulaiti and F4 Middle East newcomer Aqil Alibhai were all involved in the resulting collision. The race was red flagged after two laps under the safety car to recover the stranded cars. 

On the restart, Powell used the outside line at Turn 9 to pass Francot and Štolcermanis and put himself into the podium positions behind front-row starters Olivieri and Nakamura-Berta. Štolcermanis then went off track at Turn 11, falling to 21st.

After two further safety car deployments, the race eventually restarted with three laps remaining. On the penultimate tour, Francot cut Turn 7 while attempting to pass Powell for third and had to concede the position after emerging in front. That put the Akcel GP driver in the clutches of Sebastian Wheldon, who finished less than a tenth behind him.

Olivieri, on 159 points, leads Nakamura-Berta on 118 entering the third round in Dubai. Štolcermanis holds third despite failing to score in the final race with 13th, while three strong races from Francot put him fourth on 82 points and make him a wild card for the championship. 

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Emanuele Olivieri, 1:47.207	Kean Nakamura-Berta, +0.134s	Tomass Štolcermanis, +0.284s
Qualifying 2	Emanuele Olivieri, 1:46.580	Kean Nakamura-Berta, +0.493s	Tomass Štolcermanis, +0.557s
Race 1 (15 laps)	Emanuele Olivieri, 30:36.046	Tomass Štolcermanis, +5.915s	Kean Nakamura-Berta, +5.930s
Race 2 (16 laps)	August Raber, 30:36.877	Reno Francot, +0.651s	Alex Powell, +2.561s
Race 3 (12 laps)	Emanuele Olivieri, 29:56.647	Kean Nakamura-Berta, +1.522s	Alex Powell, +6.514s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Emanuele Olivieri, 159	R-ace GP, 210	Chi Zhenrui, 136
P2	Kean Nakamura-Berta, 118	Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited, 204	Oleksandr Bondarev, 108
P3	Tomass Štolcermanis, 86	Akcel GP by PHM Racing, 83	Salim Hanna, 94
P4	Reno Francot, 82	Yas Heat Racing Academy, 81	Cole Hewetson, 86
P5	Alex Powell, 69	Prema Racing, 80	David Cosma Cristofor, 79
P6	Sebastian Wheldon, 51	Evans GP, 25	Yuta Suzuki, 69
P7	Adam Al Azhari, 48	Xcel Motorsport, 8	Kyuho Lee, 63
P8	August Raber, 33	Pinnacle Motorsport, 6	Emily Cotty, 44
P9	Oleksandr Savinkov, 33	QMMF, 0	Abdullah Ayman Kamel, 32
P10	Chi Zhenrui, 29		Taha Hassiba, 24

Report by Calla Kra-Caskey

Read the previous round’s report here.

FRegional Oceania: Lindblad maintains points lead as season hits midpoint at Manfeild

Arvid Lindblad once again extended his FR Oceania championship lead with wins in races one and three in Manfeild. 

Lindblad narrowly took pole in the first qualifying session, only 0.112s faster than M2 Competition teammate Nikita Johnson, and dominated the first race, crossing the line 5.931s ahead of Johnson.

Mtec’s Josh Pierson finished third on track but was given a five-second penalty afterwards, promoting Patrick Heuzenroeder to third. Tommy Smith, stepping in for Will Brown, finished fifth on his return to the championship.

Sunday’s sessions were affected by mixed weather conditions. In the reverse-grid race, Zack Scoular started from pole, opting to start on wet tyres while championship leader Lindblad went for the slicks. Alex Crosbie put compatriot Scoular under pressure for the lead at the start, but Scoular edged ahead after Turn 1 and immediately started to build a gap. 

He held a nearly 14-second advantage when the safety car came on lap 12 because of a collision the lap before between Crosbie and Sebastian Manson, who were fighting for fifth. Crosbie returned to the race after a pit stop and finished 16th, two laps down, while Manson was forced to retire after sustaining damage to his right-rear suspension.

The rain started to fall again during the safety car period, and Lindblad and others on slick tyres had little opportunity to come into the pits and change to wet tyres. Scoular got a good launch off the restart and maintained his lead until the end of the race, taking his second win in the championship 0.713s ahead of Johnson.

Pierson rounded out the podium for the second race, while Lindblad dropped down the order as the rain got heavier and finished the race in 14th. 

Lindblad took pole for the third race in wet conditions by only two-thousandths of a second over Johnson. The race started under the safety car but was stopped on the fifth lap because of poor weather conditions. Conditions improved about 20 minutes later, and the race resumed under the safety car. 

The safety car finally came in on lap eight, and Lindblad got a good launch off the start. He started to build a gap over Johnson until the safety car came out again at the end of lap 10 as James Lawley spun and was stranded in the grass. 

The safety car was withdrawn with 13 laps remaining. Lindblad led from there and crossed the chequered flag 2.120s ahead of Johnson, taking his fifth win of the championship and the Dan Higgins Trophy along with it. Heuzenroeder rounded out the podium with another third-place finish. 

Lindblad continues to lead the drivers’ standings with 236 points. After taking three second-place finishes at Manfeild, Johnson now sits second in the championship standings with 196 points as Scoular completes the top three with 191 points. 

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Arvid Lindblad, 1:03.693	Nikita Johnson, +0.112s	Josh Pierson, +0.165s
Race 1 (22 laps)	Arvid Lindblad, 23:44.307	Nikita Johnson, +5.931s	Patrick Heuzenroeder, +10.762s
Qualifying 2	Arvid Lindblad, 1:08.553	Nikita Johnson, +0.002s	Sebastian Manson, +0.246s
Race 2 (22 laps)	Zack Scoular, 27:12.735	Nikita Johnson, +0.713s	Josh Pierson, +5.827s
Race 3 (27 laps)	Arvid Lindblad, 37:54.989	Nikita Johnson, +2.120s	Patrick Heuzenroeder, +7.244s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Arvid Lindblad, 236	M2 Competition, 467	Zack Scoular, 191
P2	Nikita Johnson, 196	Mtec Motorsport, 393	Enzo Yeh, 99
P3	Zack Scoular, 191	Giles Motorsport, 233	Nicolas Stati, 61
P4	Josh Pierson, 167	Kiwi Motorsport, 125	Barrett Wolfe, 38
P5	Patrick Heuzenroeder, 165
P6	Matías Zagazeta, 139
P7	Sebastian Manson, 129
P8	Michael Shin, 110
P9	Will Brown, 109
P10	Enzo Yeh, 99

Report by Kaylene Lau 

Read the previous round’s report here.

Header photo credit: Formula 4 Middle East Championship