F.Regional: The halfway point of the season starts in Monza

The 5.793 kilometre long Monza circuit is one of the most famous motor racing venues. When you enter the Autodromo Nazionale that has hosted Formula 1 since the first Championship in 1950, the atmosphere is always electric and it will be the same this weekend for the young FIA Formula Regional drivers taking part in the fifth of eight rounds on the 2020 calendar.

Head to head. Everything is ready for the start of the second half of the season and the two students from the Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA) Arthur Leclerc and Gianluca Petecof, are in confident mood after achieving great results in the first four races. Leclerc arrives at Monza on the back of an extraordinary display at the previous round at Mugello, where he won all three races on the card. The Monegasque who just turned 20 on 14 October, leads the championship on 237 points. Leclerc picked up a lot of points, but not enough to allow him to pull clear at the top as Petecof is close behind on 229. The seventeen-year-old Brazilian defended all weekend at Mugello, collecting precious points and is now aiming to do even better at the Monza circuit, the track where he was often the star in Formula 4. Leclerc has never raced before at Monza but had the chance to familiarise himself with the track during a test in dry conditions, which are expected to prevail over the weekend.

Programme. The stars of the Formula Regional championship will take to the track on Saturday between 9 and 9.40 CET for the qualifying session ahead of Race-1 which is scheduled for 14.15. There will be two events on Sunday, Race-2 at 9.00 and Race-3 at 14.50.