Clean racing illuminated the past weekend of racing across Europe, North America, South America and Asia at both the regional and national levels. Feeder Series reviews the action across seven series.

By Feeder Series

The mid-summer lull in F1, F2 and F3’s action meant that other series got to shine, and that was especially true in Europe. The Circuit Paul Ricard, which once hosted all three series, featured FRegional Europe, Euroformula Open and the renamed E4, all of which left the weekend with different drivers at the head of the standings.

A new champion was crowned in USF Pro 2000’s Toronto round, and USF2000’s title race also swung in one driver’s favour as he won both races while his rival retired from both. Brazilian F4 may only have had two rounds, but one driver has nearly twice the points of his rivals after a win and two podiums at Velocitta.

As for the Kyojo Cup, the points at present indicate a dead heat at the top. Keep reading to find out what unfolded in all seven series.

1. FRegional Europe: Slater dominates and retakes points lead at season’s halfway point
2. Euroformula Open: Kucharczyk becomes new points leader with triple podium
3. E4: Gomez claims early points lead as Francot takes race two victory
4. USF Pro 2000: Garcia becomes youngest champion in USF Pro 2000 history as De Tullio takes fourth win of the season
5. USF2000: Jeffers sweeps both races at Toronto as Schrage falters
6. Brazilian F4: Dall’Agnol dominates at Velocitta to take 45-point advantage
7. Kyojo Cup: Onaga wins final to tie Shimono on points after round two

FRegional Europe: Slater dominates and retakes points lead at season’s halfway point

Freddie Slater took both pole positions and race wins in FRegional Europe’s fifth round at Le Castellet, becoming the first driver to sweep a race weekend in the series since James Wharton in Barcelona in late September last year.

In doing so, the Prema driver reclaimed the championship lead after being stripped of it at the Hungaroring by Matteo De Palo, who is now second in the standings, 20 points behind. 

De Palo went fastest in his qualifying group on a drying track following a late-session red flag for Zachary David’s crash at Turn 8. Group B’s Slater went faster than him by almost two seconds on his first lap, guaranteeing his group pole position. His final lap of a 1:57.351 was the fastest of the weekend, 0.272s ahead of Akshay Bohra’s best.

Slater led race one from lights to flag, making a statement by taking victory with an almost eight-second gap over front-row starter De Palo.

At the start, CL Motorsport’s Michael Belov made up a place to take third but soon lost the position to Taito Kato around the outside of Signes. Bohra then took fourth from Belov down the main straight and Clerot followed him on the back straight later that lap. They remained close for the rest of the race while chasing Kato, but the Japanese driver ended up rounding out the podium.

Despite the change in order between groups that meant group B went first, Slater secured pole position nevertheless in qualifying two. He had an advantage of 0.054s over teammate and group A pacesetter Al Dhaheri, who sat out race one after getting a puncture at the end of qualifying one.

As the lights went out for race two, De Palo passed Clerot for third second row before Bohra, who had started fifth, jumped ahead at Turn 3. Clerot repassed De Palo at Turn 1 on lap three, and Evan Giltaire also got a better exit from Turn 2 and overtook him into Turn 3.

An incident involving Giovanni Maschio and Doriane Pin down the main straight on lap three brought out the first and only safety car of the round, which later turned into a red flag period on lap five.

Slater led Al Dhaheri, Bohra and Clerot at the restart, and they remained in those positions until the end of the race. Behind them, an intense fight broke out for fifth position on the ninth lap between De Palo, Giltaire and Jin Nakamura, and the Italian driver received a one-place post-race penalty for gaining an advantage on the Frenchman off track. That, added to Giltaire’s earlier penalty for passing De Palo off track on lap one, promoted the Japanese racer to fifth. 

Behind Slater on 168 points and De Palo on 148, Clerot on 106 snatched third from Deligny, who spun at the Nord Chicane on the opening lap of race two but recovered from 22nd to 10th after the red flag to leave with 97 points. 

Report by Francesca Brusa

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1, Group A	Matteo De Palo, 1:59.332	Michael Belov, +0.244s	Taito Kato, +0.300s
Qualifying 1, Group B	Freddie Slater, 1:57.351	Akshay Bohra, +0.272s	Pedro Clerot, +0.529s
Race 1 (17 laps)	Freddie Slater, 33:41.620	Matteo De Palo, +7.917s	Taito Kato, +9.303s
Qualifying 2, Group B	Freddie Slater, 1:57.440	Pedro Clerot, +0.173s	Akshay Bohra, +0.197s
Qualifying 2, Group A	Rashid Al Dhaheri, 1:57.494	Matteo De Palo, +0.018s	Enzo Deligny, +0.137s
Race 2 (15 laps)	Freddie Slater, 41:07.194	Rashid Al Dhaheri, +0.504s	Akshay Bohra, +1.261s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Freddie Slater, 168	Prema Racing, 259	Dion Gowda, 18
P2	Matteo De Palo, 148	Van Amersfoort Racing, 194	Ean Eyckmans, 0
P3	Pedro Clerot, 106	R-ace GP, 189	Tim Gerhards, 0
P4	Enzo Deligny, 97	ART Grand Prix, 157	Édouard Borgna, 0
P5	Evan Giltaire, 91	Trident, 156	Edu Robinson, 0
P6	Hiyu Yamakoshi, 78	Saintéloc Racing, 21	Saqer Al Maousherji, 0
P7	Rashid Al Dhaheri, 75	CL Motorsport, 6	Arthur Aegerter, 0
P8	Akshay Bohra, 68	RPM, 4
P9	Taito Kato, 47	G4 Racing, 0
P10	Jin Nakamura, 31	Akcel GP, 0

Read the previous round’s report here.

Euroformula Open: Kucharczyk becomes new points leader with triple podium

BVM Racing’s Tymek Kucharczyk took his fourth win of the Euroformula Open season at the Circuit Paul Ricard and finished no lower than third the rest of the weekend to leave with a 17-point advantage over Yevan David.

The Pole took his fourth pole of the season on Saturday and held the lead at the start of race one as BVM teammate and series debutant Preston Lambert, starting sixth, kept title contender Michael Shin at bay. Shin’s race, however, only lasted two laps as contact with Edward Pearson at Signes forced both of them into retirement and caused a safety car deployment.

Following the neutralisation, Kucharczyk pulled away to win by 3.401 seconds over David and José Garfias, who rounded out the podium. Diego de la Torre and Fernando Barrichello concluded the top five ahead of Lambert, who finished sixth on debut after a hard-fought battle with Everett Stack after the restart.

Lambert, starting on reverse-grid pole in race two, held the lead at the start and kept Barrichello behind him in the opening stages. The order in the top five remained the same until lap six, when Garfias and David made contact at the final corner while fighting over third. The collision left the Sri Lankan with front wing damage and dropped both out of the points, where they ultimately finished.

The American’s reign at the front ended with three laps to go, when Barrichello overtook him at Bendor after he ran wide on the exit of Beausset. Barrichello then kept the lead to take his long-awaited first win of the season ahead of Lambert and Kucharczyk, who collided with Barrichello on the cooldown lap. 

Lambert was once again on reverse-grid pole for race three alongside Pearson, who stalled at the start. The American, however, lost the lead to Garfias heading to the first corner.

After getting past Barrichello by the end of lap two, both Shin and David began catching up to the leading duo of Garfias and Lambert. While Shin was able to pass Lambert for second at Beausset on lap four, David spun after making contact with Lambert at Turn 4 on lap six and had to pit to replace his rear-right tyre, whilst the latter retired with front wing damage.

Motopark’s troubles didn’t end there. On lap nine, Shin’s front wing broke entering Turn 4 after he hit a bollard, which forced him to pit for repairs as well.

While the two Motopark drivers faltered, Garfias led every lap to take his third win of the season ahead of Kucharczyk and Barrichello. Stack and series debutant Gino Trappa rounded out the top five, whilst Shin and David closed out the points-paying positions in ninth and 10th.

Kucharczyk now holds a 17-point advantage over David and 18-point advantage over Shin, while Garfias now sits 37 behind the Pole with his win in race three. In the teams’ championship, Motopark retains the lead on 197 points, 65 ahead of BVM and 78 ahead of Nielsen Racing.

Report by Marco Albertini

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Tymek Kucharczyk, 1:54.617	Yevan David, +0.297s	Fernando Barrichello, +0.386s
Race 1 (15 laps)	Tymek Kucharczyk, 31:01.171	Yevan David, +3.401s	José Garfias, +7.928s
Race 2 (15 laps)	Fernando Barrichello, 29:15.676	Preston Lambert, +0.629s	Tymek Kucharczyk, +1.157s
Race 3 (15 laps)	José Garfias, 29:11.366	Tymek Kucharczyk, +2.179s	Fernando Barrichello, +13.857s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Tymek Kucharczyk, 230	Team Motopark, 197	Yevan David, 136
P2	Yevan David, 213	BVM Racing, 132	Everett Stack, 108
P3	Michael Shin, 212	Nielsen Racing, 119	Preston Lambert, 18
P4	José Garfias, 193	NV Racing, 3	Gino Trappa, 18
P5	Fernando Barrichello, 149
P6	Edward Pearson, 147
P7	Everett Stack, 116
P8	Diego de la Torre, 97
P9	Shawn Rashid, 41
P10	Finley Green, 31

Read the previous round’s report here.

E4: Gomez claims early points lead as Francot takes race two victory

For the second year in a row, a US Racing driver took the lead in Italian F4’s sister series after a solid first round. Gabriel Gomez followed in Akshay Bohra’s footsteps to achieve two wins in the first round of E4, while Reno Francot claimed victory in race two as the sole entry for PHM Racing. 

After topping qualifying, Prema Racing’s Kean Nakamura-Berta and Sebastian Wheldon lined up on the front row for race one, but their tenure at the front didn’t last long as Gomez overtook them both by the first corner.

While defending seventh place down the main straight on lap three, Enea Frey locked up and hit Alex Powell at Turn 1. The incident did not require a safety car intervention but still forced both drivers to retire. Maksimilian Popov was hit by Powell’s spinning car and eventually retired from the race himself with four laps remaining.

On lap seven, Reno Francot overtook Oleksandr Bondarev, who had lost position to Kabir Anurag at the start, for fifth place in the final segment of the circuit. Out front, Gomez took victory in race one followed by Nakamura-Berta and Wheldon. 

Nakamura-Berta took pole position in qualifying two, meaning he started up front for race two as well. By his side was not his teammate but Francot, the only entry for PHM fresh off an impressive comeback in Italian F4 last weekend at Mugello. The Slovakian-Japanese driver maintained the lead at the start while Francot lost position to third-place starter Gomez off the line.

After having regained position on the Brazilian racer on lap eight at Beausset as the top two battled, Francot took the lead of the race from Nakamura-Berta on lap 10 at the same spot. He led until the chequered flag for his first series victory. With one final overtake on lap 14 at the Chicane Nord, Gomez snatched second place from Nakamura-Berta, forcing the Prema driver to settle for the lowest step on the podium. Wheldon finished fourth as Anurag prevailed in a five-way fight with Popov, Powell, Bondarev and Frey in the final laps to take fifth place.

At the start of race three, Gomez maintained the lead as Nakamura-Berta took second position from teammate Wheldon and Bondarev moved up to fourth place. The Williams junior, however, was soon overtaken by Powell at the beginning of lap two, and Andrija Kostić followed him through to claim fifth place at the Chicane Nord on lap five.

While disputing eighth place, Francot and Anurag had earlier made contact there on the opening lap, dropping the Singaporean to the back of the field with damage. Francot continued, passing Popov for seventh on lap seven at Beausset before becoming embroiled in  the fight for sixth with Bondarev on lap 12.

The Dutchman had the best outcome, passing Bondarev at Signes, while the Italian-licenced driver dropped to 10th before being hit by Luca Viisoreanu on the final corner of lap 13, which ended his race. The Romanian received a 25-second post-race penalty and lost 10th place as a result.

As Gomez charged to a lights-to-flag victory, Nakamura-Berta and Wheldon rounded out the top three once again. Gomez on 68 and Nakamura-Berta on 51 are the top two in the drivers’ standings, with Francot on 43 a point ahead of Wheldon.

Report by Francesca Brusa

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Kean Nakamura-Berta, 2:06.128	Sebastian Wheldon, +0.111s	Gabriel Gomez, +0.219s
Qualifying 2	Kean Nakamura-Berta, 2:05.817	Reno Francot, +0.055s	Gabriel Gomez, +0.057s
Race 1 (16 laps)	Gabriel Gomez, 34:06.761	Kean Nakamura-Berta, +0.837s	Sebastian Wheldon, +1.749s
Race 2 (16 laps)	Reno Francot, 34:10.048	Gabriel Gomez, +4.125s	Kean Nakamura-Berta, +4.898s
Race 3 (16 laps)	Gabriel Gomez, 34:06.763	Kean Nakamura-Berta, +1.277s	Sebastian Wheldon, +3.112s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Gabriel Gomez, 68	US Racing, 100	Oleksandr Bondarev, 75
P2	Kean Nakamura-Berta, 51	Prema Racing, 93	Aleksander Ruta, 42
P3	Reno Francot, 43	PHM Racing, 43	Dante Vinci, 30
P4	Sebastian Wheldon, 42	R-ace GP, 14	Zhenrui Chi, 26
P5	Kabir Anurag, 22	Van Amersfoort Racing, 11	Abdullah Kamel, 22
P6	Oleksandr Bondarev, 20	Jenzer Motorsport, 9	Guy Albag, 16
P7	Andrija Kostić, 16	Real Racing, 0	Emily Cotty, 16
P8	Alex Powell, 14	AKM Motorsport, 0	Bader Al Sulaiti, 15
P9	Maksimilian Popov, 8	Viola Formula Racing, 0	Payton Westcott, 14
P10	Enea Frey, 8	Zengő Motorsport, 0	Salim Hanna, 13

USF Pro 2000: Garcia becomes youngest champion in USF Pro 2000 history as De Tullio takes fourth win of the season

Two weeks after Pabst Racing were crowned USF Pro 2000 teams’ champions, Max Garcia won race one at Toronto to clinch the drivers’ title with three races left. Early-season title rival Alessandro de Tullio then fought back to stand on the top step of the podium in race two as Garcia finished a season-low ninth.

Garcia took pole in the first qualifying session and held the lead at the start of race one as De Tullio fell from second to sixth. De Tullio’s race went from bad to worse after his rear-right suspension broke because of contact with Ariel Elkin on lap three, forcing him to retire from the race.

Following a safety car period due to Sebastian Manson’s crash on lap four at Turn 11, Garcia pulled away from Max Taylor and Jacob Douglas. Mac Clark passed Logan Adams shortly after the restart before catching and passing USF Pro 2000 debutant Liam McNeilly for fourth at the final corner complex on lap 13. Adams and Michael Costello then collided at Turn 1 while fighting for sixth on lap 16, forcing both drivers out of the race with suspension damage.

At the restart on lap 20, Douglas took second away from Taylor around the outside of Turn 1. Ahead of them, Garcia led every lap to take his seventh win of the season and, most crucially, the USF Pro 2000 title. Taylor was later disqualified after failing the post-race technical inspection, promoting Clark to third, Frankie Mossman to fourth and series debutant McNeilly to fifth.

Garcia’s run of six consecutive poles came to an end, however, as De Tullio took pole for race two. The Turn 3 Motorsport driver led the field at the start as Garcia spun at Turn 4 and fell to 18th and last.

On lap six, Clark and Taylor collided at Turn 3 and both hit the wall, but the race wasn’t neutralised as Taylor pitted and Clark rejoined the race in 15th. At the same time as Taylor came into the pits to retire, his teammate Mossman took the lead from De Tullio and began working to hold off the Turn 3 Motorsport driver.

Behind the leading duo, Douglas overtook McNeilly for third with two laps to go at Turn 3. By then, however, the cameras were focused on the battle for the lead, which reached a turning point as the final lap began as De Tullio overtook Mossman at Turn 1.

Despite Mossman’s best efforts to take back the position during the rest of the lap, De Tullio took his fourth win of the season ahead of the VRD Racing driver and Douglas, who edged out McNeilly by 1.6546 seconds to take third. Garcia recovered to ninth and Clark to 10th.

While Garcia has clinched the championship with 430 points, the battle for second is still hotly contested. Clark, De Tullio and Douglas are within 25 points of Elkin, who currently sits second on 315 points with 66 more still on offer.

Report by Marco Albertini

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Max Garcia, 1:09.1813	Alessandro de Tullio, +0.1721s	Max Taylor, +0.3431s
Qualifying 2	Alessandro de Tullio, 1:08.4676	Max Garcia, +0.1169s	Max Taylor, +0.4733s
Race 1 (25 laps)	Max Garcia, 34:46.8761	Jacob Douglas, +3.0065s	Mac Clark, +4.8453s
Race 2 (25 laps)	Alessandro de Tullio, 29:38.2426	Frankie Mossman, +0.6457s	Jacob Douglas, +2.1849s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Max Garcia, 430	Pabst Racing, 498	Max Garcia, 430
P2	Ariel Elkin, 315	Turn 3 Motorsport, 297	Ariel Elkin, 315
P3	Mac Clark, 312	TJ Speed Motorsports, 249	Jacob Douglas, 290
P4	Alessandro de Tullio, 302	Exclusive Autosport, 241	Max Taylor, 239
P5	Jacob Douglas, 290	VRD Racing, 214	Michael Costello, 190
P6	Max Taylor, 239	Jay Howard Driver Development, 85	Joey Brienza, 160
P7	Michael Costello, 190	DEForce Racing, 69	Sebastian Manson, 123
P8	Nicholas Monteiro, 185	Comet/NCMP Racing, 64	Carson Etter, 95
P9	Cooper Becklin, 179	FatBoy Racing!, 48	Owen Tangavelou, 74
P10	Frankie Mossman, 168		Brady Golan, 74

Read the previous round’s report here.

USF2000: Jeffers sweeps both races at Toronto as Schrage falters

Exclusive Autosport’s Jack Jeffers extended his points lead over Thomas Schrage by winning both races at Toronto as the latter retired from both. Jeffers now heads to the season finale at Portland with 51 points in hand over Schrage and 56 over Teddy Musella.

However, at the start of the weekend it was Schrage the man to beat, as he took pole for race one and led the field through the opening lap following a delayed start due to fluids on track. Lucas Fecury spun on lap three, but the race continued without a full-course yellow. Sebastian Garzon then spun on the exit of Turn 4 to neutralise the race.

On lap 10, four laps after the restart, Jeffers overtook Musella around the outside of Turn 3 and began hunting down Schrage for the lead. Jeffers finally made the move the next lap at Turn 8. 

As the Exclusive Autosport driver pulled away, Schrage fell into the clutches of Musella, who passed him on lap 18 as they went down to Turn 3. Whilst defending second, Musella ran wide at Turn 3, which caused a chain-reaction incident in which G3 Argyros mounted the back of Schrage’s car. The contact gave the VRD driver a rear-right puncture and forced him into retirement.

Up ahead, Jeffers remained unchallenged as he won by 8.4924 seconds over Eddie Beswick, who took his and Synergy Motorsport’s maiden series podium ahead of Musella. Despite sustaining front wing damage, Argyros finished fourth ahead of the JHDD duo of Brad Majman and Anthony Martella, whilst Schrage was classified 13th.

As Jeffers led race two from pole, Evan Cooley, Schrage, Martella and Beswick all hit the outside wall after hitting damp asphalt at Turn 7 and picked up suspension damage. While the first three came into the pits to retire, Beswick was stranded at Turn 8, and thus the safety car was deployed.

Jeffers led that safety car restart as well as the second one after Garzon’s front wing broke loose on the front straight. Caleb Gafrarar overtook Majman for second at Turn 1 on the second restart on lap eight. Majman then ran wide at Turn 3 on the following lap and fell to fifth by the beginning of lap 10.

Jeffers then pulled out a 3.6798-second gap in the second half of the race to take his fifth win of the season ahead of Gafrarar and Argyros. Musella and Majman rounded out the top five, while Rodrigo and Patricio Gonzalez finished eighth and tenth in their fourth round in the series.

Report by Marco Albertini

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Thomas Schrage, 1:12.0830	Evan Cooley, +0.2085s	Teddy Musella, +0.2986s
Qualifying 2	Jack Jeffers, 1:12.4218	Brad Majman, +0.1047s	G3 Argyros, +0.4347s
Race 1 (20 laps)	Jack Jeffers, 25:51.2007	Eddie Beswick, +8.4924s	Teddy Musella, +8.6835s
Race 2 (20 laps)	Jack Jeffers, 27:13.1453	Caleb Gafrarar, +3.6798s	G3 Argyros, +7.2675s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Jack Jeffers, 353	Exclusive Autosport, 365	Jack Jeffers, 353
P2	Thomas Schrage, 302	VRD Racing, 354	Teddy Musella, 297
P3	Teddy Musella, 297	Pabst Racing, 286	Caleb Gafrarar, 243
P4	G3 Argyros, 260	Jay Howard Driver Development, 274	Evan Cooley, 199
P5	Caleb Gafrarar, 243	DEForce Racing, 110	Anthony Martella, 176
P6	Evan Cooley, 199	Synergy Motorsport, 95	Liam McNeilly, 163
P7	Lucas Fecury, 177	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development, 78	Sebastian Garzon, 159
P8	Anthony Martella, 176	Benchmark Autosport, 74	Eddie Beswick, 154
P9	Liam McNeilly, 163		Jeshua Alianell, 146
P10	Sebastian Garzon, 159		Christian Cameron, 144

Read the previous round’s report here.

Brazilian F4: Dall’Agnol dominates at Velocitta to take 45-point advantage

After dominating the first round of the year in Interlagos, Heitor Dall’Agnol repeated the feat this weekend at Velocitta with another win and two second places. 

The returning Filippo Fiorentino led both the morning and afternoon sessions in practice, but in qualifying, championship leader Heitor Dall’Agnol secured pole with a 0.545-second gap over Pedro Lima.

Race one took place early Saturday morning at an unusually cool 11°C, which made it harder for drivers to warm up their tyres and brakes. Dall’Agnol got a clean start and maintained the lead, followed by Fiorentino close behind. Meanwhile, Rogério Grotta jumped from 11th to fifth on the opening lap.

That same lap, Pietro Mesquita and Ciro Sobral made contact at Curva da Mata, forcing Sobral to retire and bringing out the safety car. After the restart, Dall’Agnol held the lead, but another incident at the first corner involving Mesquita, Celo Hahn and Alceu Feldmann Neto led to a second safety car.

On the next restart, Fiorentino got the better launch and managed to overtake Dall’Agnol via a switchback move into Turn 1. He stayed in front for the remainder of the race and crossed the finish line 0.544 seconds ahead of Dall’Agnol, with Lima more than 13 seconds behind Fiorentino.

In race two, Bernardo Gentil started on pole, with Pedro Lins, the youngest driver in the field, alongside him. ln warmer conditions, Lins took the lead as Gentil’s car stalled at the start, and Murilo Rocha and Ethan Nobels rounded out the top three by the end of the first lap. 

Dal’Agnol, who started seventh, rose to fifth behind Fiorentino.

Unlike race one, race two ran without any safety car interruptions. Lins and Rocha battled for the lead throughout, but Lins managed to take the win. Having gotten past Fiorentino and Nobels earlier in the race, Dall’Agnol overtook Rocha at Turn 2 on the final lap to secure second.

The 15-year-old’s streak did not end there. Starting once again from pole in race three, he maintained the lead at the start. The most interesting fight of the race unfolded in the midfield between Lins, Rocha, Hahn, Sobral, and Nobels, who were disputing fifth.Hahn briefly went off track at Turn 1 on lap six and lost seventh to Sobral. Hahn then retired from the race with five minutes left after going off track again in a battle with Gentil for ninth. 

Despite the frenetic action in the midfield, the racing remained clean, and Dall’Agnol led from start to finish to secure another win ahead of Lima and Fiorentino, who swapped places at Turn 5 on lap two. He leaves Velocitta still at the top of the championship standings with 104 points, holding a 45-point lead over Rocha in second.

Report by Laura Anequini

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Heitor Dall’Agnol, 1:25.967	Pedro Lima, +0.549s	Filippo Fiorentino, +0.604s
Race 1 (20 laps)	Filippo Fiorentino, 32:17.403	Heitor Dall’Agnol, +0.544s	Pedro Lima, +13.018s
Race 2 (15 laps)	Pedro Lins, 21:59.401	Heitor Dall’Agnol, +1.644s	Murilo Rocha, +2.177s
Race 3 (22 laps)	Heitor Dall’Agnol, 31:49.626	Pedro Lima, +6.575s	Filippo Fiorentino, +21.762s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Heitor Dall’Agnol, 104	TMG Racing, 203	Heitor Dall’Agnol, 122
P2	Murilo Rocha, 59	Bassani Racing, 129	Murilo Rocha, 75
P3	Pietro Mesquita, 50	Cavaleiro Sports, 104	Pedro Lins, 70
P4	Ethan Nobels, 47		Pietro Mesquita, 66
P5	Filippo Fiorentino, 46		Pedro Lima, 60
P6	Pedro Lins, 45		Cadi Baptista, 32
P7	Pedro Lima, 45		Celo Hahn, 29
P8	Ciro Sobral, 38		Bernardo Gentil, 28
P9	Rogério Grotta, 31		Christian Helou, 21
P10	Alceu Feldmann Neto, 26		Enricco Abreu, 12

Read the previous round’s report here.

Kyojo Cup: Onaga wins final to tie Shimono on points after round two

Team KCMG’s Miki Onaga has tied Rio Shimono on 52 points in the Kyojo Cup drivers’ standings after the series’ second round. Onaga and TOM’S’ Aimi Saito each won a race, while Team Impul with Dr.Dry’s Shimono came third in both races.

Saito had a difficult opening round, collecting just six points, but she was the driver to beat in the second round. After topping both practice days, she also secured pole position and the three points that come with it. Onaga qualified second, 0.115s behind Saito, while Shimono came third, 0.393s behind Saito.

Shimono had the best getaway from second in the sprint race on Saturday afternoon, fending off TOM’S Hana Burton into Turn 1 before snatching the lead just before Turn 3 by overtaking Saito. Onaga, who started fifth after receiving a three-place grid penalty, rose to fourth on the opening lap, overtaking Aiwin’s Itsumo Shiraishi at Turn 10. 

Onaga then overtook Burton on the second lap for third after attacking her into Turn 10. She initially couldn’t make the move stick but had a better run entering the third sector and overtook Burton in Turn 13. 

A few moments later, Saito attacked Shimono on the run to Turn 1, but she couldn’t pass her around the outside. She then got a better exit from Turn 16 and overtook her just before the start-finish line.

Onaga relegated Shimono to third after an overtake in the first corner on the fifth lap.

Burton was next in line, but she hit Shimono at Turn 10 later that lap, which resulted in her losing her front wing and having to pit.

There were no further changes within the top eight in the final five laps. Saito took her first win of the season and with that topped every session of the weekend until that point. Onaga and Shimono completed the podium.

With the final race’s grid being based on the results of the sprint race, Saito started from pole position ahead of Onaga and Shimono. Saito had a much better start this time, building a gap to Onaga behind. 

At the end of lap one, a safety car was called for an incident at Turn 10 involving Ryu Yamamoto, Maaya Orido, Kelsey Pinkowski and Reina Amaya.

The field returned to racing on lap four, and Onaga instantly put pressure on Saito. She positioned herself on the inside on the start-finish straight and got ahead of Saito at the apex. Saito had a better run to Turn 3 and attempted an attack, but it proved fruitless. 

Saito stayed close to Onaga, even setting faster laps consistently, but she was never close enough to attack again. Onaga thus won her first race of the season and with that inherited the championship lead. Saito remained in second, while Shimono came third. 

Burton started the final race 20th after her incident in the sprint race but moved up to eighth position by the flag, 12.870s behind winner Onaga. 

Report by Finjo Muschlien

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Aimi Saito, 1:45.343	Miki Onaga, +0.115s	Rio Shimono, +0.393s
Sprint race (10 laps)	Aimi Saito, 17:47.427	Miki Onaga, +1.266s	Rio Shimono, +6.875s
Final race (12 laps)	Miki Onaga, 23:33.413	Aimi Saito, +0.781s	Rio Shimono, +6.491s

Standings	Drivers
P1	Rio Shimono, 52
P2	Miki Onaga, 52
P3	Aimi Saito, 32
P4	Kokoro Sato, 26
P5	Ayumu Nagai, 18
P6	Mako Hirakawa, 14
P7	Hana Burton, 11
P8	Itsumo Shiraishi, 9
P9	Riona Tomishita, 8
P10	Kilei Kanemoto, 7

Read the previous round’s report here.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency