Regional: Rodriguez wins, Leclerc leads the championship

That's what we call a great debut. For his very first in Formula Regional Europe, Ian Rodriguez won Race 1 of the penultimate meeting of the season at Imola. The DR Formula driver beat Dennis Hauger (Van Amersfoort) and Arthur Leclerc (Prema).

The Guatemalan, entered in Indypro 2000 (12th) in 2019, took advantage of the setbacks of Oliver Rasmussen (Prema), author of pole in Q1 but forced to retire after suffering a gearbox problem in Q2, to start himself from first place.

Solid at the start, he took advantage of Leclerc overtaking Hauger to give himself some respite. The Monegasque, on the attack throughout the race, finally finished 3rd, overtaken by Hauger at the end of the race after putting two wheels in the gravel trap on a turn exit that was too wide.  

But Arthur still took the opportunity to regain the lead of the championship, taking advantage in particular of the premature retirement of Rasmussen and the 8th place only of the previous leader Gianluca Petecof (Prema). For his part, Frenchman Pierre-Louis Chovet (Van Amersfoort) finished 4th, two places ahead of Patrik Pasma (KIC Motorsport), whom he is chasing in the race for 4th place in the championship.