Lining up in pole position, Prema Racing-run Nakamura-Berta trailed faster-starting Sebastian Wheldon during the opening laps before he took the lead from the MP Motorsport driver at the opening corner of the fourth tour.

From there, the Briton gradually extended his advantage, a lock-up entering the Mistral Straight chicane on lap six his only real cause for concern as he triumphed by 4.359s over Italian Rookie winner Emanuele Olivieri (R-ace GP).

“It’s been really, really hot for us, the tyres and also the car itself so I had to manage quite a few things throughout the race,” said Nakamura-Berta, who made his first attempt to pass Wheldon around the outside of the high-speed Signes corner on lap one. “With [Race Mode] we really have to manage the position and the distance of the car behind and in front because it’s so powerful as we saw.

“On the second to last lap I used pretty much everything I had and managed to pull a massive gap in one lap, which shows how effective this system is. The [drivers battling behind] definitely helped us, we could just focus on our race. Prema Racing has done an incredible job.”

Of his slightly slower getaway, Nakamura-Berta explained: “We’ve been struggling a little bit with the clutch, I just tried not to stall and managed to get off the line, which was my objective. I obviously conceded the position to Seb, who did a really good start. I then saw Seb was struggling a bit and I attacked him probably more than he expected early on. But I was confident in our pace in the car and I could use the push-to-pass. I managed to get past, it was clean from both our sides so that was good. It’s a good way to start the weekend.”

Kazakhstan driver Alexander Abkhazava completed the podium for MP Motorsport behind Olivieri as American Wheldon was forced to settle for fifth behind Rodin Motorsport’s Brazilian Gabriel Gomez.

Olivieri ran fourth initially but moved to third when he overtook Wheldon at Signes on lap eight. He then set about catching and passing Abkhazava, eventually getting ahead on the Mistral Straight on lap 13. Gomes overtook Wheldon just before the chicane on the same lap.

Alex Ninovic took the chequered flag in sixth but a 10-second penalty for contact with Salim Hanna demoted the Rodin Motorsport-run Australian to ninth and promoted Zhenrui Chi (MP Motorsport) to sixth.

Reno Francot (CL Motorsport) moved up from 10th to seventh after Tomass Štolcermanis (Prema Racing) and Yuki Sano (R-ace GP) were penalised for separate incidents. Marcus Sæter (G4 Racing) and Jan Przyrowski (RPM) were classified eighth and 10th respectively as a result of the various penalties being applied.

Rashid Al Dhaheri, who topped the FIA FREC standings after five rounds, was a distant 26th and outside the points at the finish after an early collision dropped him back. The UAE driver had started in fourth position.

Qualifying 2 is next from 09:05 local time tomorrow (Sunday) with Race 2 due to get under way at 16:25 for 30 minutes plus one lap. Watch the action live on YouTube.

FIA FREC explained
Taking over from the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA) for 2026, FIA FREC enjoys the full support of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the global governing body for motor sport and the federation for mobility organisations worldwide.

Positioned one step above Formula 4 in the FIA Single-Seater Pyramid, FIA FREC, which is organised by FIA Member Club Automobile Club d’Italia (ACI), caters exclusively for the second-generation Formula Regional Tatuus T 326. All-new for 2026, the Pirelli-equipped car has been developed by the Italian constructor in partnership with the FIA and follows the aerodynamic philosophy deployed in Formula 1 to encourage closer racing. Its design also represents another step in terms of performance and safety.

The second-generation Formula Regional Tatuus T 326 features the new Race Mode push to pass system, which allows drivers to trigger full engine performance for a period of time when activated by a button pressed from inside the cockpit. The amount of time depends on how many times the button is pressed but each driver has a total of 100 seconds available per race. Race Mode’s introduction for the 2026 FIA FREC season is the result of extensive research and development managed by the FIA.

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