Double Abu Dhabi Victories Earn Tuukka Taponen Championship Lead

Abu Dhabi: The Formula Regional Middle East Championship certified by FIA (FRMEC) was the domain of the sensational Tuukka Taponen over the course of the second round on the full 5.281km Formula 1 layout of the Yas Marina Circuit. The 17-year-old Finn, who is backed by the Ferrari Driver Academy, topped both qualifying sessions and then drove his R-ace GP car to his first two victories in the category. Taponen also added a fourth place in the reversed-grid race two, and not only moved further clear in the Rookie championship but propelled himself to the top of the overall standings too, although standings remain provisional pending finalisation of the race three results.

However, it was far from easy for the talented youngster amongst the stellar international field, and his first win featured some of the most thrilling racing the category has seen. Following an early safety car, Taponen lost out to his R-ace GP team-mate, Norwegian Martinius Stenshorne, and Saintéloc Racing’s exciting French youngster Théophile Naël as they fought three-abreast, before carving his way back ahead of both of them. His win in the floodlit night-time race three was clearer-cut, with second-placed Naël only getting close to Taponen when the safety car twice emerged.

It was Stenshorne who finished second in the opening race from Naël, only for a penalty to be handed to the 16-year-old reigning Spanish F4 champion, relegating Naël to eighth in the results and promoting Pinnacle Motorsport’s Mari Boya to third. This gave Naël third place on the reversed grid for race two, and he used it under the floodlights to soar spectacularly into the lead within the opening seconds and take his maiden FRMEC win. This time it was Thai Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak in second place for PHM AIX Racing, with Spaniard Boya completing the podium once again.

Pre-weekend championship leader Taylor Barnard had held a six-point advantage coming into the event, but it was his PHM AIX car’s spin out of fourth place in race one that earned Naël his penalty for contact. From 16th on the grid, Barnard stormed his way up to seventh in the second encounter before an unfortunate mechanical hitch sidelined him. He then held on in the face of attacks from Stenshorne and James Wharton in the finale to cross the line third.

While Taponen now provisionally leads the championship by 12 points from Stenshorne, Barnard is 31 adrift in third as FRMEC gets set for a weekend off before two consecutive events at Dubai Autodrome, starting on February 2-4. 

Race 1

Taponen began building up a huge gap at the front, helped by the intensity of the fight for second. On lap two, Boya locked up at Turn 9 and ran wide, conceding the runner-up position to Stenshorne and launching the front end of his car skywards as he ran over the kerb in the run-off area. Stenshorne was 2.7 seconds adrift of R-ace GP team-mate Taponen at the end of this lap, and by the fourth time around the leader was over 3.0 seconds in front.

Then came a safety car, while the crashed car of Alexander Abkhazava was cleared away. Now Taponen looked vulnerable. Stenshorne was ferocious in his attack. There was contact at Turn 16, for which the Norwegian earned a reprimand, and both ran wide. Up they headed to Turn 1, where Stenshorne hung around the outside to claim the lead. Taponen’s momentum was checked, and Naël passed both him and Boya at Turn 2, before the Finn grabbed second back at Turn 3. Somehow, at the Turns 6/7 chicane, Naël emerged ahead of both R-ace GP drivers in the lead, but then they drew abreast of his Saintéloc machine on the run to Turn 9. Taponen wrested the advantage back on the inside line, with Stenshorne second and Naël back down to third. And, after such breathtaking action, that was how they stabilised. Taponen eventually drew clear to win by 4.117 seconds from Stenshorne, while Naël was issued with a five-second penalty for his first-lap collision with Barnard, relegating him to eighth in the final results.

Boya lost out badly in this battle at the front, finding himself simply on the wrong piece of road at the wrong time and losing further positions to Matteo de Palo and Rafael Câmara. But the Spaniard set to work, repassing first the Mumbai Falcons Racing car of Brazilian Câmara and then the Saintéloc Racing machine of Italian de Palo to take fourth on the road – third with Naël’s penalty. Australian James Wharton also got past team-mate Câmara, then tried an ambitious move on de Palo into Turn 6 with just over three laps remaining. The Australian locked up, both cars ran wide and lost lots of time, and Ferrari Driver Academy prospect Câmara gratefully reclaimed what became fourth place, with Wharton fifth. Maltese-Filipino Zachary David, from 18th on the grid, also passed de Palo to take sixth after a fine performance for R-ace GP, giving himself third in the Rookie class behind Taponen and Wharton.

The battle for ninth ended up going the way of Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, who managed to keep Mumbai Falcons’ American McLaren F1 junior Ugo Ugochukwu at bay during the final few laps.

Race 2

Théophile Naël made good use of his third position on the reversed grid for race two. He immediately jumped front-row starter Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak off the grid, and then bravely went around the outside of poleman Ugo Ugochukwu to emerge in the lead. Inthraphuvasak was also on the move, and a move on Ugochukwu at Turn 6 got him up into second place.

Naël, however, was gone. For a few laps, he stabilised the gap at the front at two seconds. He then eked it out to 3.5 seconds before this was eradicated by the appearance of the safety car on the ninth lap. James Wharton had made good progress from sixth to fourth on the opening lap and, once the race settled down, he made inroads on Ugochukwu. Finally, he was in position to make a move at the Turns 6/7 chicane. Wharton was ahead on the outside line for Turn 6, but didn’t quite have enough to complete the move and then put his nose up the inside of Ugochukwu at Turn 7. The two collided, both were eliminated from the race, and Wharton earned himself a reprimand for the incident, which caused the caution.

Câmara and Boya had both been promoted by an incident on the first lap, when Zachary David’s bid to relieve Matteo de Palo of fifth place at Turn 6 ended in both cars being eliminated from contention with damage, and David hit with a five-place grid penalty for race three. This clash also elevated an intriguing battle between Martinius Stenshorne,

Tuukka Taponen and Taylor Barnard. Taponen got past his team-mate to take fifth just before the safety car, and at the restart, the unfortunate Barnard slowed and retired with a mechanical issue.

Now Taponen set his sights on fourth place. Going into the final lap, he got a run on Câmara into Turn 9, and Stenshorne used the draft from both to make it three-abreast. Taponen made it through and defended a mighty challenge from Stenshorne to claim fourth, while Câmara fell to sixth.

MP Motorsport’s Italian Valerio Rinicella had a solid run to seventh place, also taking third in the Rookie classification, which was headed by Naël from Taponen. Like Rinicella, fellow Italian Brando Badoer earned his first overall FRMEC points for a strong drive to eighth in his PHM AIX car, with British Red Bull Junior Arvid Lindblad (Mumbai Falcons) ninth. Tenth across the line was Costa Toparis, but his and the Evans GP team’s maiden point of the 2024 season would be denied them by a penalty for early contact with Nikhil Bohra. Instead, it was fellow Australian Noah Lisle and Xcel Motorsport who scored their first point in FRMEC after moving up into the category for this year.

Race 3

Taponen made no mistake at the start of race three and led away from pole, with Théophile Naël getting in front of Taylor Barnard for second. The weekend’s two race winners so far were at the front, but Naël had no answer for the Finn. Taponen was over a second to the good at the end of the opening lap and was almost three seconds up the road after the third tour. But on the fifth, the safety car was called out for the first time owing to a collision between Costa Toparis and Pedro Clerot that meant both machines needed to be cleared out of the way at Turn 12.

Taponen was on similar form after the restart – just over two seconds in front of Naël after two laps. But then there was another incident at Turn 12, when the battle for seventh ended with the elimination of Mari Boya and Arvid Lindblad, and two more cars that needed removal. The incident was cleared with time for one more lap of racing, and the R-ace GP Ferrari protégé won by over a second.

Barnard had a tough race before hanging on for third. On the third lap, Martinius Stenshorne tried to grab the position at Turn 6, but it didn’t come off and James Wharton surged past both of them. Barnard didn’t give up. On the fifth lap, he snatched the inside line from Wharton at Turn 9, and the Australian only kept ahead by taking to the run-off on the outside. Barnard then finally got the job done by clambering across the inside kerb at Turn 13. At the first restart, Stenshorne passed Wharton for fourth at Turn 6. While overall top two Taponen and Naël headed the Rookie class, Wharton was third in that classification.

Valerio Rinicella was also involved in this fight for a while after passing Ugo Ugochukwu for sixth on the second lap, and the Italian kept that position to the end. The Boya/Lindblad incident restored Ugochukwu to the seventh place he had lost at the first restart when the pack concertinaed together. Singaporean Nikhil Bohra (MP Motorsport) deprived Brando Badoer of eighth on the final lap, while Rafael Câmara got delayed at Turn 9 amid the drama of the final restart, dropping from 10th to 13th and allowing Zachary David to claim the final point. All results remain provisional.