Driver Maximilian Popov, from the Trident team, secured a resounding victory in the second race of the Formula Regional European Championship at Spa-Francorchamps, marked by an intense battle for second place.
Unfortunately, the race concluded with the safety car on track, frustrating an exciting finish after such an intense competition. Popov demonstrated great calm throughout the race, fending off attacks from his rivals, who were swapping positions every lap.
Alexander Abkhazava of MP Motorsport managed to keep Rashid Al Dhaheri of R-ace GP at bay to secure second place. With this performance, Abkhazava became the only driver to have scored points in all the races of the 2026 season so far.
Jan Przyrowski of RPM finished in a commendable fourth position, while the standout performance of the day was from Kean Nakamura-Berta, who fought from fifth on the grid to finish in fifth place, thanks to a series of decisive overtakes.
Popov led the first lap, with Al Dhaheri placing himself on the inside to block Alexandre Munoz, the winner of the previous race. Throughout the lap, Al Dhaheri tried to close in on Popov, and at the braking point for the Les Combes corners, Munoz took advantage of the situation to make a triple overtake, but ended up losing time.
As the race progressed, Al Dhaheri made a risky maneuver at Eau Rouge, allowing Abkhazava to gain ground. Although Munoz had a good start, he began to drop back, while Abkhazava and Przyrowski kept the pressure on the front positions.
With 12 minutes remaining in the race, the frenetic competition temporarily came to a halt when the safety car was deployed due to an incident between Saqer Almaosherji and Miguel Costa. As the safety car was preparing to withdraw, a collision between Salim Hanna and Dion Gowda led to the deployment being repeated, leaving the audience without an exciting finish.
After the race, Popov was summoned by the stewards for allegedly not maintaining the proper distance from the safety car, but was ultimately exonerated of any infringement.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
