Six junior single-seater championships – Formula Regional Europe, GB3, GB4, Brazilian F4, the Ultimate Cup Series Formula Cup and Nordic 4 – began their 2026 seasons this weekend alongside the returning Super Formula Lights. Feeder Series reviews the action they each produced.

By Feeder Series

As has been the case for much of April, this weekend was about season openers – six of them, in fact. FR Europe, GB3, GB4, Brazilian F4 and UCS Formula Cup all made their bows under beautiful late April conditions. Some early frontrunners have already emerged, though the championships still remain wide open with many more rounds still to take place over 2026.

The only championship not holding its first round was Super Formula Lights, which played out markedly differently. A spectacular flip for Kotaro Shimbara in race three – one of three across this weekend’s racing – ushered in a safety car and eventually a race neutralisation due to rain, though at the end of it all, the championship still has the closest points battle of all the series we covered in detail.

The one we didn’t detail extensively was Nordic 4, which kicked off its 2026 season at Padborg Park with five drivers scoring their maiden podiums. Pole position went to 14-year-old Matteis Stigsen, who went on to win the first race. F5 driver Mille Hoe finished second, and Richard Olson in an Aquila Formula Nova finished third from last on the grid, marking the new Danish-made car’s first podium. The top eight were then reversed for race two, but Stigsen and Hoe drove through the field to finish 1-2 once again as Milla Sjöstrand took third.

Stigsen could not sweep the weekend, however, as he retired from race three following a large crash with Olson, which brought out the red flag. The win instead went to Silas Egedal, followed by Rosanne den Drijver and Hoe for her third podium of the weekend. She leads the standings on 51 points, one ahead of Stigsen and 11 ahead of Den Drijver.

Additional reporting by Mitchell Ash

1. Super Formula Lights: Giltaire takes two wins in wet-weather masterclass
2. FRegional Europe: Consistent Francot takes CL’s first win, drivers’ championship lead
3. GB3: Bedrin dominates as GB3 returns to Silverstone
4. GB4: Green does the double in his debut single seater weekend
5. Brazilian F4: Gentil takes maiden victory, leads championship after opening weekend
6. UCS Formula Cup: Suslov and Boillot dominate in Paul Ricard opener

Super Formula Lights: Giltaire takes two wins in wet-weather masterclass

Evan Giltaire took his second and third wins of the Super Formula Lights season at Autopolis to reduce the gap to championship leader Yusuke Mitsui to just two points.

Giltaire’s B-Max Racing teammate Kotaro Shimbara collected two bonus points for topping both qualifying sessions.

He held the lead off the line in race one ahead of Mitsui, who jumped from fourth to second, passing Giltaire and stablemate Rintaro Sato.

The 21-lap race was uneventful, and the top three separated themselves from the rest of the pack by eight seconds but never got to fighting one another. Shimbara took his first win of the season, and Mitsui and Giltaire completed the podium.

Race two on Sunday morning took place in wet conditions, with the grid based on the first race’s results. Shimbara again kept his lead at the start, while Giltaire passed Mitsui on the inside of Turn 1. 

Giltaire got closer to Shimbara on lap three and had his first opportunity to attack around the outside of Turn 1 on lap four. But as Shimbara kept the inside line, he was unable to overtake there, nor anywhere in the first sector, despite being faster. 

At Turn 11, however, Giltaire dived down the inside and passed the Honda junior. 

On lap six, Shimbara was under attack from Mitsui at Turn 1, but he defended and kept his position – until Mitsui’s clever alternate line at Turn 4 gave him the inside at Turn 6 and the position. 

A mistake from Shimbara on the following lap enabled a replica of that overtake, with TOM’S’ Kiyoshi Umegaki passing at Turn 6. Shimbara fought back and returned to third on the run to Turn 11 but lost the position after another mistake at Turn 15. 

Sato also passed the struggling Shimbara on lap nine just before a safety car deployment for TOM’S’ Akshay Bohra, who beached his car at Turn 11. The race continued at the end of lap 12 without position changes up front. 

Giltaire took his second win of the season ahead of Mitsui and Umegaki, who secured TOM’S’ first podium of the season. 

In race three, Shimbara kept his lead ahead of Mitsui, but Sato passed Giltaire for third off the line and defended his place when Giltaire attacked on the inside of Turn 12. 

A flipping B-Max car came into shot at the exit of Turn 11 the following lap. Giltaire hit Sato while attempting to retake third from Sato, who retired on the spot. The incident, later judged a racing incident, caused a safety car, but as the rain intensified, the race was red-flagged on lap four to allow for tyre changes.

The race resumed with 15:30 minutes left on the clock instead of laps, and Giltaire passed Mitsui for second at the first opportunity – around the outside of Turn 1. Four laps later Giltaire attacked Shimbara, but Shimbara defended the inside line and stayed ahead until Turn 2, where Giltaire again tried to pass him around the outside. He did so in spectacular fashion and finished the lap 2.786s ahead of Shimbara. 

A safety car came out with just two minutes remaining as “Dragon” crashed while sitting second in the masters’ class. Under safety car conditions, Giltaire won the race ahead of Shimbara and Mitsui.

Yasuhiro Shimizu won the first and third races in the masters’ class, with “Dragon” taking his first win of the season in race two. 

Report by Finjo Muschlien

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Kotaro Shimbara, 1:37.280	Evan Giltaire, +0.274s	Rintaro Sato, +0.329s
Qualifying 2	Kotaro Shimbara, 1:36.889	Yusuke Mitsui, +0.405s	Evan Giltaire, +0.598s
Race 1 (21 laps)	Kotaro Shimbara, 35:12.643	Yusuke Mitsui, +1.689s	Evan Giltaire, +2.451s
Race 2 (14 laps)	Evan Giltaire, 28:08.327	Yusuke Mitsui, +2.070s	Kiyoshi Umegaki, +3.134s
Race 3 (14 laps)	Evan Giltaire, 48:14.848	Kotaro Shimbara, +0.727s	Yusuke Mitsui, +1.308s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Masters
P1	Yusuke Mitsui, 47	B-Max Racing Team, 50	Yasuhiro Shimizu, 46
P2	Evan Giltaire, 45	Delightworks Racing, 46	“Dragon”, 40
P3	Kiyoshi Umegaki, 28	TOM’S, 29	“Ken Alex”, 34
P4	Kotaro Shimbara, 22	B-Max Engineering, 7	Nobuhiro Imada, 22
P5	Rintaro Sato, 7	LM corsa, 0
P6	Kazuhisa Urabe, 7	Art Taste Racing, 0
P7	Oscar Wurz, 7	Buzz Racing, 0
P8	Tokiya Suzuki, 4	JMS Racing Team, 0
P8 (tied)	Yuzuki Miura, 4
P10	Akshay Bohra, 1

Read the previous round’s report here.

FRegional Europe: Consistent Francot takes CL’s first win, drivers’ championship lead

The opening weekend of FRegional Europe’s new era at Spielberg sprung a surprise out front. Reno Francot took his first win to secure the drivers’ championship lead, giving his CL Motorsport team, in their second year of competition, their first victory in racing.

Francot finished fourth in Friday’s practice, behind pacesetter Alex Ninovic. Neither topped their qualifying group, however, with group A’s Kean Nakamura-Berta claiming overall pole and Rashid Al Dhaheri, group B’s fastest driver, qualifying second.

Race one began with Al Dhaheri overtaking Nakamura-Berta for the lead three corners in after taking second position back from Ninovic, who passed him at the start.

The safety car came out on lap two after Gabriel Gomez stopped following contact with Mattéo Giaccardi. Racing resumed on lap five in frenetic fashion amongst the top four drivers, with Nakamura-Berta and Sebastian Wheldon making moves for first and third respectively. 

The safety car was deployed again on lap eight after Saqer Almaosherji went into the Turn 4 gravel and flipped over. 

A well-calculated restart from Nakamura-Berta left Wheldon under pressure from Al Dhaheri and Ninovic. The Australian ultimately took advantage, passing both Al Dhaheri and Wheldon and even pressuring the leader.

He then dropped back, and a botched overtake attempt at Turn 3 from Wheldon gave Al Dhaheri another place – and the opportunity to pass Ninovic for second at Turn 4 with three laps left. 

Nakamura-Berta, meanwhile, built a 1.176-second gap to take the first win of the season. “It was quite a chaotic race, but I think we managed it well,” he told Feeder Series afterwards.

A post-race time penalty for forcing Francot off track on lap seven dropped Ninovic to 12th, promoting Wheldon to third.

Reza Seewooruthun started the reverse-grid race from pole. The Briton lost the lead to Dion Gowda on the run to Turn 1, while behind them Marcus Sæter was spun into the wall by Alexander Abkhazava, who swerved to avoid the stalled Alexandre Munoz.

The safety car was deployed quickly, and on the next racing lap on lap four, it was deployed again. As Almaosherji spun, Enea Frey and Miguel Costa collided in avoidance, leaving all three cars stranded at Turn 4.

Earlier that lap, Gowda received a five-second penalty for jumping the start. With that, Seewooruthun was now in prime position for victory, but Al Dhaheri, who was seventh with 10 minutes left, scythed through the field, catching and passing Seewooruthun with two laps left. That move sealed him the win, while Ninovic received another post-race penalty for colliding with Chi Zhenrui mid-race, dropping him from third to 17th.

Francot inherited third in race two, but the best was still to come. He topped his qualifying group on Sunday, though group A’s Nakamura-Berta snatched pole by going fastest overall.

Jan Przyrowski failed to get away from ninth at the start of race three. Yuki Sano narrowly avoided him but collided with his R-ace GP teammate Emanuele Olivieri, triggering the first safety car deployment. At the restart, Olivieri then pulled over, leading to another deployment – but in between, Nakamura-Berta dropped to 10th after going off track at Turn 4, gifting Francot the lead.

“Just made a mistake. All my fault,” he told Feeder Series. “[I] just drove off. There was a bit of dust.”

Two further safety car periods dictated the next six laps. On the final restart lap, Nakamura-Berta squeezed Chi onto the grass approaching Turn 8, before colliding with his Prema Racing teammate Tomass Štolcermanis two laps later on the exit of the same corner. Nakamura-Berta spun into the run-off area before pulling over to retire.

The top three held station, and Francot defeated Ninovic and Wheldon for his and CL’s first victory in FR Europe. He holds the championship lead on 43 points, ahead of Al Dhaheri on 39 and Nakamura-Berta on 34.

Report by Archie Harper

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1, Group A	Kean Nakamura-Berta, 1:25.765	Alex Ninovic, +0.262s	Emanuele Olivieri, +0.407s
Qualifying 1, Group B	Rashid Al Dhaheri, 1:25.951	Sebastian Wheldon, +0.064s	Reno Francot, +0.087s
Race 1 (19 laps)	Kean Nakamura-Berta, 32:26.094	Rashid Al Dhaheri, +1.176s	Sebastian Wheldon, +3.580s
Race 2 (17 laps)	Rashid Al Dhaheri, 31:40.683	Reza Seewooruthun, +1.081s	Reno Francot, +2.017s
Qualifying 2, Group B	Reno Francot, 1:25.655	Sebastian Wheldon, +0.086s	Alexandre Munoz, +0.222s
Qualifying 2, Group A	Kean Nakamura-Berta, 1:25.246	Alex Ninovic, +0.170s	Salim Hanna, +0.189s
Race 3 (17 laps)	Reno Francot, 32:05.557	Alex Ninovic, +1.336	Sebastian Wheldon, +2.528

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Reno Francot, 43	MP Motorsport, 54	Gabriel Gomez, 6
P2	Rashid Al Dhaheri, 39	Prema Racing, 47	Emanuele Olivieri, 4
P3	Kean Nakamura-Berta, 34	R-ace GP, 44	Alexandre Munoz, 4
P4	Sebastian Wheldon, 30	CL Motorsport, 43	Marcus Sæter, 0
P5	Alex Ninovic, 19	Rodin Motorsport, 34	Tomass Štolcermanis, 0
P6	Zhenrui Chi, 18	Van Amersfoort Racing, 18	Rahim Alibhai, 0
P7	Dion Gowda, 16	Trident, 16
P8	Salim Hanna, 13	ART Grand Prix, 4
P9	Reza Seewooruthun, 9	RPM, 4
P10	Maksimilian Popov, 8	G4 Racing, 0

GB3: Bedrin dominates as GB3 returns to Silverstone

VRD Racing’s Nikita Bedrin dominated the first round of the GB3 Championship at Silverstone, taking a double pole position and two wins to lead the standings. 

Bedrin came into qualifying as one to watch after topping testing on Friday. In qualifying one, he took pole with a 1:50.123, only 0.035 seconds ahead of Rodin Motorsport’s Martin Molnár. Maxim Rehm, Abbi Pulling and Hitech’s Deagen Fairclough followed. 

Bedrin took pole again in qualifying two with a 1:49.402, seven tenths faster than his time in qualifying one. Fairclough was 0.232s back from Bedrin, with the Rodin trio of Rehm, Molnár and Pulling completing the top five. 

In race one on Saturday, Molnár made a good start from second taking the race lead, with Rehm slotting into second and Bedrin being demoted to third. Bedrin fended off Fairclough before passing Rehm at Stowe on lap three to take second. 

By lap six, Bedrin had caught Molnár and made a move entering Vale, taking the lead from the Hungarian. During a safety car period on lap nine, caused by a retirement for Hillspeed’s Dante Vinci, Pulling also pitted to retire with suspension failure.

Bedrin controlled the restart and held off Molnár for the final two laps, winning the race by 2.550s. Rehm took third place, ahead of Fairclough and Xcel Motorsport’s Rowan Campbell-Pilling in fifth. 

On Sunday, disaster struck Molnár, who was unable to start race two because of technical issues. Bedrin started first again, but once again, he lost out going into the first corner, this time to Fairclough, who started second. This was short-lived, as Bedrin eventually took the position back through Becketts. 

The race was neutralised on lap three by a safety car period caused by a retirement for Hillspeed’s Peter Bouzinelos. On the restart two laps later, Bedrin had built up a gap of 0.788s over Fairclough by the time the pack reached the start-finish line. 

The race was neutralised again on lap eight following Fairclough’s shock retirement from second. This promoted Rehm and Pulling to second and third respectively, but on the restart lap – the last of the race – Pulling and VRD’s Patricio Gonzalez, who was hot on her heels, collided at Vale, sending Gonzalez’s car over the top of Pulling’s in the gravel. Pulling retired on the spot, while Gonzalez continued but dropped to 11th.

This incident promoted Xcel’s Lucas Fluxá to the final step on the podium, with Bedrin securing the top spot and Rehm taking second. However, Fluxá received a one-place post-race penalty for pushing Jin Nakamura off track at Vale on the final lap and lost third place to the Japanese driver. 

Elite Motorsport’s Flynn Jackes started on pole in the reverse-grid race three. He controlled the opening laps ahead of Nakamura and teammate Kyuho Lee until the race was neutralised on lap seven when Bouzinelos slowed to a stop on the Hamilton straight. During the safety car period, Fairclough also stopped and retired from the race. 

On the restart, Jackes defended well and faced little pressure until the final lap, when he went into Brooklands three-wide with Nakamura and Lee. The Hitech F3 driver came out on top, with Lee taking second and Jackes being demoted to third. A post-race penalty for a jump start then dropped Lee to ninth and elevated Fluxá to the podium. 

Bedrin, who finished race three fifth, leaves the weekend leading the championship on 76 points, ahead of Rehm on 67 and Nakamura on 60. VRD also took the lead of the teams’ championship, 23 points ahead of Rodin. 

Report by Isabelle Chandler

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Nikita Bedrin, 1:50.123	Martin Molnár, +0.035s	Maxim Rehm, +0.215s
Qualifying 2	Nikita Bedrin, 1:49.402	Deagen Fairclough, +0.232s	Maxim Rehm, +0.270s
Race 1 (13 laps)	Nikita Bedrin, 26:14.477	Martin Molnár, +2.550s	Maxim Rehm, +2.749s
Race 2 (11 laps)	Nikita Bedrin, 25:55.180	Maxim Rehm, +0.777s	Jin Nakamura, +4.697s
Race 3 (12 laps)	Jin Nakamura, 25:44.983	Flynn Jackes, +0.682s	Lucas Fluxá, +0.794s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Nikita Bedrin, 76	VRD Racing, 128
P2	Maxim Rehm, 67	Rodin Motorsport, 105
P3	Jin Nakamura, 60	Xcel Motorsport, 94
P4	Lucas Fluxá, 47	Hitech, 92
P5	Rowan Campbell-Pilling, 47	Elite Motorsport, 67
P6	Patricio Gonzalez, 40	Fortec Motorsports, 51
P7	Kyuho Lee, 39	Arden Motorsport, 38
P8	Rodrigo Gonzalez, 38	Hillspeed, 24
P9	Martin Molnár, 33	Nitrous Competitions ADM Racing, 7
P10	Alexandros Kattoulas, 33

GB4: Green does the double in his debut single seater weekend

Elite Motorsport’s Fred Green had a stellar first weekend in GB4, taking two wins and first place in the drivers’ championship after the Silverstone season opener. 

Having topped testing on Thursday, Green was only second fastest in qualifying, with Nitrous Competitions ADM Racing’s Luke Hilton topping the session on a 2:00.560. Post-session, however, Hilton was disqualified for failing to slow for double-waved yellows, promoting Green to pole for both races. 

In race one, Green started ahead of KMR Sport’s Alex O’Grady and got a sublime launch. Elite Motorsport’s Emmilio Valentino Del Grosso made it up to second from fourth at the first corner, demoting O’Grady to third. 

Del Grosso challenged Green for the lead on multiple occasions until the race was neutralised by a safety car after Arden Motorsport’s Charlie Myers spun on lap four.

On the restart, Green pulled a gap over his teammate and ended the race 2.147s ahead of Del Grosso, having led from lights to flag, with O’Grady taking third. Hilton climbed from 28th on the grid to eighth at the flag. 

Green started on pole once more for race two Sunday morning, this time ahead of Hillspeed’s Enzo Hallman. On the formation lap, Del Grosso, due to start third, failed to make it to the first corner, retiring immediately. 

Green once again controlled the start, but his advantage was short-lived because of an early safety car caused by spins from Scorpio Motorsport’s Archie Davies and Pace Performance’s Torrin Byrne, who needed to be recovered. On the restart on lap four, Green pulled a gap over Hallman on the restart and held it until another safety car caused by an incident between KMR’s Holly Miall and Fox’s Enzo Rujugiro.

The extent of the recovery needed caused the race to be red flagged, with Green taking first place ahead of Hallman and Douglas Motorsport’s Jason Smyth. 

Scorpio Motorsport’s Romuald Bocquet headed up the reversed grid for the final race ahead of Myers. Bocquet made a good start, but Myers lost a position to Elite’s Matan Achituv at Maggotts and then another to Douglas Motorsport’s Dayton Coulthard the next lap at Copse.

Green and Fortec Motorsport’s Thomas Ingram-Hill made contact at Vale on the second lap, with Green eventually pitting with damage. Also on that lap, Holly Miall went into the gravel exiting Club, bringing out a safety car and then the red flag at the end of lap three.

The race restarted as a standing start with 10 minutes on the grid, with all finishers from the first part plus Green taking the restart. Bocquet led the field once again and held it through a safety car period, initiated when Ingram-Hill retired with damage at Club.

On the next restart, Bocquet held off Achituv, who was overtaken by Coulthard in the final lap of the race. The Frenchman crossed the line first but received a 10-second penalty for jumping the lights on the restart and dropped to 15th. The win therefore went the way of Coulthard, with Achituv and Davies completing the podium 

Green leaves the weekend as the leader of the drivers’ championship by 10 points over Hallman and 11 over Smyth. Elite Motorsport currently lead the teams’ standings by 22 points over Douglas. Fortec’s Franciszek Cegielski currently leads the new rookie standings. 

Report by Isabelle Chandler

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Fred Green, 2:00.638	Alex O’Grady, +0.013s	Enzo Hallman, +0.199s
Race 1 (9 laps)	Fred Green, 20:11.392	Emmilio Valentino Del Grosso+2.147s	Alex O’Grady +3.136s
Race 2 (4 laps)	Fred Green, 11:47.182	Enzo Hallman, +0.670s	Jason Smyth, +2.445s
Race 3 (6 laps)	Dayton Coulthard, 15:26.711	Matan Achituv, +0.926s	Archie Davies, +1.181s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Fred Green, 70	Elite Motorsport, 134	Franciszek Cegielski, 20
P2	Enzo Hallman, 60	Douglas Motorsport, 112	Conor Grant, 19
P3	Jason Smyth, 59	Hillspeed, 92	Charlie Myers, 18
P4	Alex O’Grady, 56	Fortec Motorsport, 69	Michael Koh, 17
P5	Dayton Coulthard, 45	KMR Sport, 67	Jordyn Martin, 7
P6	Matan Achituv, 42	Pace Performance, 65	Enzo Rujugiro, 2
P7	Thomas Ingram Hill, 42	Scorpio Motorsport, 51	Jamie Leverton, 0
P8	Josh McLean, 34	Nitrous Competitions ADM Racing, 41	Archie Bullard, 0
P9	Connor Willis, 32	Arden Motorsport, 35
P10	Luke Hilton, 31	Fox Motorsport, 13

Brazilian F4: Gentil takes maiden victory, leads championship after opening weekend

Bernardo Gentil took his maiden Brazilian F4 pole and victory – as well as further second- and sixth-place finishes – to lead the championship after round one at Interlagos.

From the start of the weekend, Gentil made it clear that he would be tough to beat. He took pole by 0.023 seconds over Pietro Mesquita, with rookie Alan Moraes Soloviov qualifying third, 0.048s back. Pedro Lins, the highest-placed returnee from 2025, qualified 13th of 14.

In the first race, Mesquita arrived at Turn 1 before Gentil as four drivers struggled off the line, including Lins, who was unable to continue. The safety car was deployed before the first lap ended, and after green-flag conditions returned on lap four, Gentil and Louza traded positions multiple times, with Gentil ultimately holding on to second. 

On lap five, while attempting to overtake Fabrício Fogaça for sixth at Ferradura, Enricco Abreu lost control of his car. The pair touched, with Abreu breaking his front wing. The contact also damaged Fogaça’s car, and he spun shortly after at Pinheirinho, collecting Gianni Giovanelli. Both drivers pitted, their cars in need of heavy repairs.

The race was free from further safety cars. On lap six, Nacho Díaz overtook Louza for the final podium position. Mesquita, Gentil and Díaz drove away from the rest of the field, with Mesquita taking his maiden series victory. Gentil finished 1.732s and Díaz 3.381s behind the leader.

In race two, drivers again had difficulties getting off the line, though all managed to leave the grid before a safety car intervention was needed. At the start of lap two, Fogaça hit teammate Rodrigo Rocha, running 10th, entering the Senna S, sending Rocha around and compromising both drivers’ races.

Abreu and Celo Hahn, who had started on the front row for race two, built a multi-second gap over Díaz in the opening laps. On the sixth lap, Hahn dove to the inside in Turn 1 and took over the lead of the race despite locking up.

Abreu chased Hahn for the remainder of the race, although he was unable to pose a serious challenge for victory. Hahn won by just 0.386s in the end, with Lins finishing third, 1.452s behind Hahn, after climbing 11 spots from last on the grid. 

In race three, Gentil led from lights to flag after withstanding a start-line challenge from Mesquita. A pair of safety cars – first for a suspension failure for Fogaça, then for contact between Hahn and Louza that sent the race two winner spinning – kept the gaps in the race tight, which Lins used to his advantage.

Having surged from 10th to fourth before the first safety car period, Lins passed Mesquita for third at the first restart and picked off Soloviov two laps later, eventually finishing 0.502s behind Gentil as Soloviov came home third.

Gentil leads the championship with 49 points over Mesquita, who scored 39 points with seventh- and fourth-place finishes after his victory, and Díaz, who has 34.

Report by Owen White

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Bernardo Gentil, 1:36.894	Pietro Mesquita, +0.023s	Alan Moraes Soloviov, +0.048s
Race 1 (19 laps)	Pietro Mesquita, 32:14.927	Bernardo Gentil, +1.732s	Nacho Díaz, +3.381s
Race 2 (14 laps)	Celo Hahn, 22:55.828	Enricco Abreu, +0.386s	Pedro Lins, +1.452s
Race 3 (18 laps)	Bernardo Gentil, 32:11.894	Pedro Lins, +0.502s	Alan Moraes Soloviov, +5.080s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Bernardo Gentil, 49	TMG Racing, 101	Bernardo Gentil, 63
P2	Pietro Mesquita, 39	Bassani Racing, 74	Nacho Díaz, 49
P3	Nacho Díaz, 34	Cavaleiro Sports, 34	Paulo Willemann Filho, 36
P4	Pedro Lins, 30		João Paulo Sanzovo, 27
P5	Paulo Willemann Filho, 24		Alan Moraes Soloviov, 20
P6	Celo Hahn, 21		Alexandre Louza, 20
P7	Enricco Abreu, 16		Elias Barbosa, 20
P8	Alan Moraes Soloviov, 15		Gianni Giovanelli, 8
P9	João Paulo Sanzovo, 14		Rodrigo Rocha, 6
P10	Alexandre Louza, 13		Fabrício Fogaça, 6

UCS Formula Cup: Suslov and Boillot dominate in Paul Ricard opener

The opening round of the 2026 Ultimate Cup Series Formula Cup season at Circuit Paul Ricard was quite straightforward, with two dominant drivers in both classes and other names featuring consistently on the podium throughout the weekend. 

After finishing first in paid practice two and both private practice sessions, rookie Stefan Suslov continued his imperious form by qualifying on pole for all three races. Frenchman Frédéric Boillot achieved the same feat in the gentleman driver class, only missing out on topping private practice one.

Suslov won the first race, which wasn’t streamed, by nearly 12 seconds over teammates Martin Stoyanov and Alan Orzynski, who completed an all–Winfield Racing Team podium. Frédéric Boillot won in the gentleman driver class, followed by Swiss driver Walter Rykart and fellow Frenchmen Frédéric Morihain and Gilles Depierre. Eros Gioannini set the fastest lap of the race with a 2:02:433.

Race two was eventful, with opening-lap contact between rookies Gioannini and Orzynski that triggered a brief yellow flag and forced the latter to retire on the next lap. Over the opening laps, Suslov gained about a second per lap over Stoyanov, who ran second ahead of Alexis Størksen.

Halfway through the race, Frédéric Morihain stopped in the second sector, bringing out another yellow flag.

While Suslov maintained a three-second lead over his competitors until the flag, Stoyanov and Størksen engaged in a duel that ended with the latter running wide over Turn 12. Winfield’s Stoyanov driver took second ahead of Formula Motorsport’s Størksen, who earned his first podium of the weekend. The Bulgarian also set the fastest lap with a 2:02.216.

Race three began with a hotly contested start as Winfield drivers Suslov and Stoyanov battled for the lead and gentleman driver Boillot took third from rookie Størksen. This didn’t last, however, with Størksen reclaiming his place after Turn 8 and Suslov pulling a gap over his teammate.

In the gentleman driver class, Rykart and Thierry Malhomme were fighting for third until both cars collided heavily at Beausset on the eighth lap, leading to the race being suspended and not restarting. Rykart’s car rolled over and slid into the barrier after righting itself, but he thankfully escaped without any injuries. Malhomme was later disqualified from the race.

With the race’s early end, Suslov won the race, joined on the podium by Stoyanov and Størksen, and set the fastest lap with a 2:02:626.

The Winfield Racing Team driver starts the season by taking 100 per cent of available points. Likewise, by winning all three races in the gentleman driver class, Boillot is first in the gentleman drivers standings and fifth in the overall standings heading into the next round at Magny-Cours from 28–31 May.

Report by Julien Thoinet

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Stepan Suslov, 02:02.710	Eros Gioannini, +0.116s	Alexis Størksen, +0.381s
Qualifying 2	Stepan Suslov, 02:01.872	Eros Gioannini, +0.656s	Alexis Størksen, +0.804s
Race 1 (10 laps)	Stepan Suslov, 20:33.976	Martin Stoyanov, +11.923s	Alan Orzynski, +13.282s
Race 2 (10 laps)	Stepan Suslov, 20:33.532	Martin Stoyanov, +3.855s	Alexis Størksen, +4.391s
Race 3 (7 laps)	Stepan Suslov, 14:23.803	Martin Stoyanov, +3.615s	Alexis Størksen, +5.027s

Standings	Drivers	Rookies	Gentlemen
P1	Stepan Suslov, 75	Stepan Suslov, 75	Frédéric Boillot, 75
P2	Martin Stoyanov, 54	Martin Stoyanov, 54	Walter Rykart, 54
P3	Alexis Størksen, 42	Alexis Størksen, 42	Frédéric Morihain, 21
P4	Lucas Valkre, 30	Alexandre Botella, 28	Thierry Malhomme, 20
P5	Frédéric Boillot, 28	Alan Orzynski, 27	Craig McLatchey, 15
P6	Alan Orzynski, 23	Eros Gioannini, 22	Gilles Depierre, 12
P7	Eros Gioannini, 18
P8	Walter Rykart, 16
P9	Alexandre Botella, 10
P10	Thierry Malhomme, 2.25

Header photo credit: Filippo Perotti