Macau Grand Prix: Naël wins thanks to a double overtake in the final moments

The first Frenchman to win in Macau since Alexandre Prémat in 2004, Théophile Naël has etched his name in history. Winner of the Macau Grand Prix after an intense race, the Saint-Étienne driver allowed the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, to ring out for a second time at the Guia circuit, just hours after Jules Roussel's victory in the Formula 4 World Cup. In fact, two French drivers even finished on the podium of this Formula Regional race, as Enzo Deligny secured third place just behind the Spaniard Mari Boya.

Starting third, Théophile Naël even dropped back to fourth, just behind Enzo Deligny, who had a better start. While a fierce battle raged at the front between Freddie Slater and Mari Boya, the Briton seemed poised for another brilliant victory. However, beaten at the final restart under the safety car, the Italian F4 champion slightly misjudged his restart before over-driving in an attempt to make up ground. Losing his rear wing after hitting the wall, Freddie Slater made one of his first major mistakes of the year, costing him a podium finish that seemed within his grasp.

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A final, decisive overtake for Naël

In the final moments of the race, Mari Boya was leading ahead of Enzo Deligny in second and Théophile Naël in third. Delaying his braking until the very end of the straight and demonstrating his ability to negotiate the outside line, Théophile Naël ultimately pulled off an almost unimaginable maneuver. Thanks to Mari Boya's slight slowdown, the driver from Saint-Étienne managed to overtake his two rivals in a single move, just before the deployment of the final safety car. In total, five drivers retired from the race.

As for the other French drivers, Taito Kato – competing this weekend under a French license – finished fifth, while Evan Giltaire came in sixth. Also noteworthy was the promising fourth-place finish of Mattia Colnaghi, the Eurocup-3 champion, who managed to shine after a more challenging start to the weekend.

Macau Grand Prix – Regional Formula
The classification of the race