F.Regional: Petecof retakes series lead

Gianluca Petecof is back in the lead of the Formula Regional championship at the end of a weekend in which the results fluctuated for the two Ferrari Driver Academy students, the Brazilian and also for his Prema Powerteam teammate Arthur Leclerc, who arrived at the “temple of speed” leading the championship.

Race-1. Saturday’s race was dominated by the Finn Patrik Pasma (KIC Motorsport), who started from pole and took the win, never coming under real pressure from Petecof, who settled for second. The Brazilian raced with the championship in mind, not taking excessive risks given he was ahead of Leclerc. For his part, the Monegasque did a good job, to finish third, fending off the other Prema Powerteam driver, Oliver Rasmussen. 

Race-2. On Sunday morning, Rasmussen stood on the top step of the podium, as Pasma was given a 5 second penalty for an infraction during the Safety Car period, after being first past the flag. The race proved to be tricky for the two FDA dsrivers. Petecof got alongside Pasma at the start but lost a place to Rasmussen. The Brazilian thus found himself fighting Leclerc and at the restart after a Safety Car period, the two collided, with Petecof getting a right rear puncture and having to cruise round slowly to the pits. He was fortunate the race was neutralised again after an accident involving Jamie Chadwick and Nico Goehler, as he was able to catch up to the group. In the closing stages, Petecof did a good job of moving up the order to finish sixth, while with two laps remaining, Leclerc had to retire with a technical problem. He was still classified ninth thus scoring 2 points, but Gianluca’s 8 enabled him to move ahead on 255 points to 254 for Arthur. 

Race-3. In the second race on Sunday, Pasma was again the winner. Leclerc started from pole but was soon passed by the Finn and not long after, Petecof also overtook him. Arthur also made a mistake that saw him drop down the order to sixth, behind Konsta Lappalainen (KIC Motorsport), Rasmussen and Pierre-Louis Chovet (Van Amersfoort Racing). Petecof was again second to extend his lead over Leclerc to 11 points: 273 to 262. The next race is in Barcelona in a fortnight’s time.