PREMA Racing delivered a stunning double win this weekend at Circuit Paul Ricard, home to round 5 of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine. British racer Freddie Slater stormed to two pole positions, one of which in tricky damp conditions, and then led from start to finish in both races, bouncing back to the lead of the driver championship in flawless fashion.
Rashid Al Dhaheri showed outstanding potential as well, converting a P1 in his Qualifying 2 group into a second place in Race 2. The Emirati also had a smooth Sunday drive, holding onto the position at the start and mastering the restart after a red flag.
Al Dhaheri bounced back from a challenging Saturday, when he suffered from a slow puncture in Qualifying 1. That meant that the team had to sit out of Race 1 to avoid having to compromise Sunday's new tyre set.
Jack Beeton went back to a points finish, showing a strong pace, especially in race conditions. The Australian was impacted by a Qualifying 1 red flag due to rain, but fought back to P10. A damaged front wing sidelined him early in Race 2.
Doriane Pin made a strong progression in terms of laptimes, dancing on the edge of the top 10 on a remarkably tough circuit. The French racer posted P17 with a solid run in Race 1 but was unfortunately stopped by contact in Race 2 after a promising qualifying.
#14 RASHID AL DHAHERI
"It was quite a fun weekend. I think we did an excellent job. We had a bit of an issue in Q1, which didn't help us for the first race, and we had to retire the car. We bounced back really well, and we showed we were resilient. We will keep going, we are on a great progression, let's see how the next race back home in Imola goes."
#27 FREDDIE SLATER
"A mega weekend here in Paul Ricard. Two poles and two wins, I couldn't ask for much more. The team did a mega job to bounce back from the last two weekends, because it wasn't easy for anyone. A massive thank you for digging deep and making the difference. Thanks to the whole team for doing a cracking job. I look forward to getting to Imola."
#28 DORIANE PIN
"A two-faced weekend here in Paul Ricard. There are some positives to take obviously. Qualy 2 was pretty decent and a good improvement. We were looking good for Race 2, but I had a contact and couldn't finish. Unfortunate but I'm eyes forward to do a good job on the next weekend."
#45 JACK BEETON
"In qualifying 1, the pace was good on the wet until the red flag. After that, the track improved a lot and I wasn't expecting such a big jump. I was a bit on the limit and qualified in P7. In Race 1 I had a difficult start, went back a few places from P14 but the car was really fast. I got back to P10 at the end of the race making good overtakes. On Sunday, I definitely had the pace to start near the front, but I made some mistakes in my best lap in qualy so I ended up starting in P14 again for Race 2. I went up to P10 in the first few laps as the pace was really strong. Then I hit a kerb and my front wing broke, so it was a DNF, not much more than I could do."