Wharton hands PREMA Race 1 win at Red Bull Ring
PREMA Racing continued its winning run in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine at Red Bull Ring. The Austrian venue featured extremely variable conditions, with cold weather paired by occasional rainfalls. Mastering the wet track in Race 1, James Wharton delivered his second win of the season.
The Australian posted a clean victory leading from start to finish, and then proceeded to bounce back from a tough run in the wet qualifying 2 to secure fifth place in Race 2, which went underway in fully dry conditions on Sunday. Wharton started from P16 and went on to round out the top-5.
Despite a challenging weekend, Rafael Camara retained a considerable margin at the top of the Driver Championship. The Brazilian posted an 11th place in Race 1, while despite being involved in early contact and having to pit for a new front wing, he eventually maximized his recovery to finish in the 8th position in Race 2.
Ugo Ugochukwu managed to salvage an 8th place in Race 1 despite spinning on the formation lap and being able to rejoin. The American went on to post P13 in Race 2. He will try to bounce back in the penultimate event of the 2024 series at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
#3 UGO UGOCHUKWU
"Not the best weekend here in Red Bull Ring. We just struggled a lot for pace in both races really. We are going to look into it and try to bounce back in Barcelona."
#5 RAFAEL CAMARA
"The pace was good overall. We had the speed, but it was just not our weekend, with some mistakes compromising the results. We scored some points for the championship and we have a good advantage, so let's keep working hard and prepare for Barcelona. For sure we can improve from this weekend, and increase our margin to go for the title."
#13 JAMES WHARTON
"It has been a really really positive weekend. Overall, we have made a big step compared to Imola, we added another victory for the year and even Sunday, after a hard qualifying, we came away with good points. I couldn't be happier with this weekend, and hopefully we can keep going like this for the rest of the season."