PREMA Racing increases points lead with win, podium finish
PREMA Racing continued to amass positive finishes at Circuit Paul Ricard, home to the sixth round of the 2024 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine.
On a weekend featuring changing weather conditions, the team was back to victory with Rafael Camara on a hot and dry Race 1. The Brazilian started from pole and dominated the race all the way to the finish with a superb drive. As
rain came on Sunday for Qualifying 2 and Race 2, Camara delivered another pole in the morning Qualifying 2 session with damp conditions and led the first part of the race in a full-wet situation. After a safety car though, he started to struggle for grip and dropped back to P7.
After rounding out the top 10 in Race 1, Ugo Ugochukwu made a resounding comeback in the wet in Race 2, climbing up several positions with an attacking drive to finish second, and delivering his first podium of the season.
James Wharton had a challenging weekend fighting his way to a points finish in Race 1. Unfortunately, a puncture caused by contact in Qualifying 2 cost him a bad starting position for Race 2. Still, despite having to navigate from the back of the pack, he put together a clean recovery up to the points zone.
#3 UGO UGOCHUKWU
"Overall it was a positive weekend here at Paul Ricard and I'm happy to have grabbed my first podium of the season. On Saturday we did P4 in our group, which was not bad, but we knew we could do better. We finished P10 in Race 1, and then we came back even stronger on Sunday. We managed to get P3 in our group in mixed conditions in Q2. It was very tricky as we were on slick tyres and it was wet through a part of the track. Still, we made no mistakes and got a clean lap. Today's race was the first session with fully wet conditions this weekend. The car was great and I felt comfortable with it, so we managed to come from P6 all the way to P2. We are going to take a small break and hopefully come back even stronger in the next round."
#5 RAFAEL CAMARA
"Not a bad weekend, with great qualifying sessions that were our strong point here. Race 1 was very well managed, the car was really good, and the team did a great job. Race 2 didn't turn up in our favor. I think we didn't find a good balance for the rain, and we lacked a little bit of grip throughout the race. Not what we wanted but still good points for the championship. We extended our lead and now it's time to recharge over the summer, and come back stronger at Imola."
#13 JAMES WHARTON
"I think we had a lot of promise the whole weekend with no results to show. Race 1 was quite good, we stayed very quick with the pace we had. Today, the puncture in qualifying affected the whole day but we still salvaged some points with a comeback run and some penalties."