Salim Hanna hailed PREMA Racing’s execution after taking his long-awaited maiden FREC victory in Race 2 at Imola, while Oleksandr Bondarev celebrated a remarkable podium on his championship debut.
Hanna converted reverse-grid pole into victory and controlled all three restarts to become the ninth different race winner of the 2026 season. Bondarev finished only 0.352s behind in second for Van Amersfoort Racing and claimed Rookie honours, while CL Motorsport’s Reno Francot completed the podium after passing teammate Jules Roussel late in the race.
Hanna makes the most of reverse-grid opportunity at 2026 FREC Imola Round
Hanna started from pole after the top 12 from Friday’s opening Qualifying session were reversed, giving the Colombian an opportunity to turn his underlying pace into a first FREC victory.
He immediately retained first at the start and then faced a different challenge as three Safety Car periods repeatedly brought Bondarev back onto his rear wing. Hanna never lost control, however, and managed the final one-lap restart to secure the win.
“I’m extremely happy to have finally taken my first victory in this championship. It took a little time, but today was certainly very positive. Even though it was the reverse-grid race, we made a very good start and the car felt better than it did in qualifying. There is still plenty of room to improve both the car and my driving, but we had an opportunity to win today and we made the most of it. We executed everything well, and now we will work hard ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying to find more pace. I want to thank the team, God, my family and everyone supporting me.”
The result adds another winner to an exceptionally varied FREC season and gives Hanna confidence ahead of Sunday’s conventional Qualifying and final race, where outright pace will again determine his starting position.
Bondarev exceeds expectations on debut
Bondarev’s second place continued an eye-catching first weekend in the category. The Ukrainian had already topped the opening Pre-Event Test session and remained competitive through Free Practice and Qualifying despite having very limited experience in the Tatuus T-326.
Starting third gave him an opportunity to fight at the front, and he converted it by overtaking Roussel for second before applying sustained pressure to Hanna. Although the repeated Safety Cars kept him close to the leader, he could not find a way past and ultimately settled for a debut podium and Rookie victory.
“To be honest, it has been a really difficult year for us in Formula 4. I knew that stepping up to Formula Regional for the final two rounds of the season would be the right choice for me. I didn’t expect to be on the pace so quickly. We were near the front in every session, including free practice, and we were also quite fast in qualifying. During the race, we were constantly applying pressure and I managed to complete an overtake. I’m extremely happy with the result. I have very little experience in this car compared with my rivals, so to be on the pace immediately is very encouraging. I can’t thank Van Amersfoort Racing enough for welcoming me into the team and helping me prepare as thoroughly as possible.”
Bondarev’s immediate competitiveness provides an encouraging foundation for his final two FREC rounds. He will have another opportunity at Imola on Sunday before completing the season with Van Amersfoort Racing at Hockenheim.
Francot returns to podium after difficult spell
Francot completed the podium after a race in which he steadily worked his way forward from fifth on the grid. He overtook Anurag early before eventually getting past CL Motorsport teammate Roussel for third during the closing stages.
The result ended a lengthy podium drought stretching back to his home Zandvoort round in May. Francot explained that technical problems had interrupted the momentum generated by his strong opening to the season, but work completed during the summer break has allowed CL Motorsport to restore the performance he felt had always remained within the package.
“We had a really good start to the season, but then encountered some technical issues during the second part of the year. If you put those problems aside, the pace was still there. We managed to resolve them over the summer break and now we are immediately back on the podium. It feels good to be back, and hopefully we can achieve a few more results like this.”
Francot’s third place adds another encouraging result after finishing fifth in Race 1 earlier on Saturday. With one more Imola race remaining before the Hockenheim finale, the Dutchman now has an opportunity to turn his restored pace into another strong end-of-season run.
Hanna, Bondarev and Francot turn attention to Sunday
Saturday’s second race delivered three very different reasons for satisfaction across the podium. Hanna finally converted his pace into a maiden FREC win, Bondarev demonstrated that his move up from F4 can produce immediate results and Francot confirmed CL Motorsport’s progress after its difficult middle part of the campaign.
Their focus now shifts towards Sunday morning’s Qualifying 2, where the field will once again be split into two groups before the grid is established for the final race of the weekend. Qualifying begins at 08:45 CEST, with Race 3 scheduled for 16:30.
