Sebastian Wheldon has returned to the top of the 2026 FIA Formula Regional European Championship (FREC) Drivers’ Standings after a turbulent fourth round at Monza. The MP Motorsport driver leaves Italy with 121 points and a seven-point advantage over PREMA Racing’s Kean Nakamura-Berta.
Nakamura-Berta briefly took control of the championship after winning Race 1 from pole position. However, his retirement from the final race allowed Wheldon to reclaim first place after charging from seventh to second. Rashid Al Dhaheri remains firmly involved in third on 106 points after claiming his second victory of the season in the reverse-grid race.
Emanuele Olivieri produced the largest gain among the leading contenders. The R-ace GP Rookie moved from sixth to fourth after finishing second in Race 1 and converting his maiden pole position into his first championship victory in Race 3.
Meanwhile, R-ace GP overturned its pre-round deficit in the Teams’ Championship. The French team now leads MP Motorsport by eight points, with PREMA Racing holding third.
Wheldon retakes the lead despite Race 2 setback
Wheldon entered Monza one point behind Al Dhaheri after a difficult Spa-Francorchamps round reduced his early-season advantage. However, he immediately began rebuilding his championship position with fifth place in the opening race.
The American then crossed the line second in Race 2 after progressing through a chaotic reverse-grid contest. Nevertheless, two five-second penalties for off-track overtakes dropped him to 20th and removed a potentially valuable points haul.
Wheldon responded strongly in the final race. Starting seventh, he advanced through the order and capitalised when Gabriel Gomez and Maksimilian Popov made contact on the final lap. His second-place finish took him to 121 points and restored his championship lead.
Although the Race 2 penalties limited his weekend total, Wheldon still added 28 points across the round. He now holds a seven-point advantage as the season approaches its halfway stage.
Nakamura-Berta ends Monza seven points behind
Nakamura-Berta began the weekend by claiming his fourth pole position of the season in Qualifying 1. He then resisted sustained pressure from Olivieri to win the opening race and move into the provisional championship lead.
The PREMA Racing driver followed that result with fifth place in Race 2. He also topped Group B in Qualifying 2, securing a front-row start alongside Olivieri for the final contest.
However, his Monza weekend ended early during Race 3. Nakamura-Berta challenged Olivieri for first after the opening Safety Car restart, but contact on the approach to Lesmo sent him off the circuit and into retirement.
Despite the lost opportunity, Nakamura-Berta added 33 points and moved from third to second in the standings. He now has 114 points, leaving him seven behind Wheldon and eight ahead of Al Dhaheri.
Al Dhaheri remains within striking distance
Al Dhaheri arrived at Monza as the championship leader on 94 points, but the opening race immediately placed his position under pressure. Contact during his battle with Abkhazava sent him into a spin, and he eventually finished outside the points in 11th.
However, the R-ace GP driver recovered in Race 2. Starting from the fourth row, he fought through the leading group and overtook Wheldon shortly before the final Safety Car period. The victory marked his second success of the campaign after his earlier win at the Red Bull Ring.
A difficult Qualifying 2 session left Al Dhaheri 13th on the Race 3 grid. He recovered to ninth in a heavily interrupted race but could not prevent Wheldon and Nakamura-Berta from moving ahead in the standings.
Al Dhaheri now occupies third with 106 points. He trails Nakamura-Berta by eight and Wheldon by 15, keeping all three drivers firmly involved in the title battle.
Olivieri climbs to fourth after breakthrough weekend
Olivieri entered Round 4 sixth in the championship on 40 points. He left Monza with 85 after securing two podiums, his first pole position and his maiden FREC victory.
The Italian started Race 1 from the front row and briefly passed Nakamura-Berta for the lead before the PREMA Racing driver fought back. Olivieri nevertheless finished second and claimed the Rookie victory in front of his home crowd.
An incident ended his reverse-grid race, but R-ace GP rebuilt his car overnight. Olivieri rewarded the team by setting the fastest time of the weekend in Qualifying 2 and securing pole position for Race 3.
He then controlled the final race through four Safety Car periods and repeatedly managed the restarts to retain first place. The victory made him the first Italian driver to win a Formula Regional European Championship race at Monza since Andrea Kimi Antonelli in 2023.
Olivieri’s 45-point Monza haul moved him ahead of Reno Francot into fourth. He now sits 36 points behind Wheldon but holds a 21-point advantage over Francot.
Hanna advances as Francot loses ground
Francot retained a place inside the championship’s top five, but Monza extended the gap between him and the leading group. The CL Motorsport driver finished eighth in Race 1 before penalties and incidents left him 21st in both remaining races.
Consequently, Francot added only four points and now holds fifth with 74. He trails Olivieri by 11 and sits 47 points away from the championship lead.
In contrast, Salim Hanna enjoyed one of his strongest weekends of the season. The PREMA Racing driver finished third in Race 1 and inherited second in Race 2 after the stewards penalised Wheldon. He then added eighth place in the final contest.
Hanna gained 28 points and climbed from 11th to sixth with 59. Zhenrui Chi follows in seventh on 47 after finishing sixth, fourth and 12th across the three Monza races.
Abkhazava occupies eighth on 44, while Popov and Ninovic sit level on 41. Popov holds ninth after finishing seventh in Race 3, while Ninovic remains 10th following a weekend without points.
Sano, Przyrowski and Gomez make significant gains
Yuki Sano produced one of the most notable recoveries of the final race. Starting 14th, the R-ace GP driver avoided several incidents and passed Gomez during the last-lap battle to claim his first FREC podium.
The result lifted Sano from 14th to 12th in the standings. He now holds 29 points, level with Jan Przyrowski, who scored in both main races and finished fifth in Race 3.
Gomez also made progress despite losing a podium position on the final lap. The Rodin Motorsport Rookie finished ninth in Race 1, 10th in Race 2 and fourth in Race 3, moving from 17th to 14th on 23 points.
Further back, Jules Roussel scored his first points of the season with sixth place and the fastest lap in Race 3. Andrea Dupé also opened his account after Wheldon’s penalties promoted him to his maiden podium in the reverse-grid race.
2026 FREC Drivers’ Standings after Round 4 at Monza
- Sebastian Wheldon — MP Motorsport — 121 points
- Kean Nakamura-Berta — PREMA Racing — 114 points
- Rashid Al Dhaheri — R-ace GP — 106 points
- Emanuele Olivieri — R-ace GP — 85 points
- Reno Francot — CL Motorsport — 74 points
- Salim Hanna — PREMA Racing — 59 points
- Zhenrui Chi — MP Motorsport — 47 points
- Alexander Abkhazava — MP Motorsport — 44 points
- Maksimilian Popov — Trident Motorsport — 41 points
- Alex Ninovic — Rodin Motorsport — 41 points
- Alexandre Muñoz — ART Grand Prix — 37 points
- Yuki Sano — R-ace GP — 29 points
- Jan Przyrowski — RPM — 29 points
- Gabriel Gomez — Rodin Motorsport — 23 points
- Dion Gowda — Van Amersfoort Racing — 19 points
- Reza Seewooruthun — Rodin Motorsport — 13 points
- Marcus Sæter — G4 Racing — 11 points
- Tomass Štolcermanis — PREMA Racing — 11 points
- Kai Daryanani — Trident Motorsport — 10 points
- Jules Roussel — CL Motorsport — 9 points
- Andrea Dupé — Van Amersfoort Racing — 8 points
- Miguel Costa — RPM — 4 points
- Kabir Anurag — ART Grand Prix — 3 points
- Saqer Al Maosherji — G4 Racing — 3 points
- Francisco Macedo — Van Amersfoort Racing — 2 points
- Andrija Kostić — Trident Motorsport — 0 points
- Kyuho Lee — CL Motorsport — 0 points
- Mattéo Giaccardi — ART Grand Prix — 0 points
- Rahim Alibhai — G4 Racing — 0 points
- Enea Frey — CL Motorsport — 0 points
- Giovanni Maschio — RPM — 0 points
- Thomas Strauven — CL Motorsport — 0 points
R-ace GP takes Teams’ Championship lead at Monza
R-ace GP entered Monza 10 points behind MP Motorsport but delivered the strongest team performance of the round. Al Dhaheri won Race 2, while Olivieri and Sano gave the team a double podium in Race 3. Olivieri also finished second in the opening contest.
Those results added 73 points to R-ace GP’s total and moved the team onto 220. It now leads MP Motorsport by eight points.
MP Motorsport still enjoyed several strong results. Wheldon finished fifth and second in the two main races, Chi placed fourth in Race 2, and Abkhazava secured fourth in the opening contest. However, Wheldon’s Race 2 penalties and the retirements for Abkhazava limited the team’s opportunity to retain first place.
The narrow margin leaves R-ace GP and MP Motorsport closely matched after four rounds, with both teams placing multiple drivers inside the top eight of the Drivers’ Standings.
PREMA Racing strengthens third place
PREMA Racing also made a considerable gain at Monza. Nakamura-Berta delivered pole position and victory in Race 1, while Hanna secured third in the opening contest and second in Race 2.
The team added 65 points and moved to 184. It now trails MP Motorsport by 28 points and R-ace GP by 36.
CL Motorsport holds fourth on 83 points, although Francot’s difficult weekend limited its progress. Rodin Motorsport follows with 77 after Gomez’s strong final race, while Trident Motorsport occupies sixth on 51.
ART Grand Prix remains seventh with 40 points. RPM climbed to eighth on 33, ahead of Van Amersfoort Racing on 29 and G4 Racing on 14.
2026 FREC Teams’ Standings after Round 4 at Monza
- R-ace GP — 220 points
- MP Motorsport — 212 points
- PREMA Racing — 184 points
- CL Motorsport — 83 points
- Rodin Motorsport — 77 points
- Trident Motorsport — 51 points
- ART Grand Prix — 40 points
- RPM — 33 points
- Van Amersfoort Racing — 29 points
- G4 Racing — 14 points
Monza creates a three-way championship battle
Round 4 changed the order at the top without allowing any driver to build a comfortable advantage. Wheldon leads, but only 15 points cover him, Nakamura-Berta and Al Dhaheri.
Each of the leading three also experienced a major setback at Monza. Penalties removed Wheldon’s Race 2 podium, contact ended Nakamura-Berta’s final race, and Al Dhaheri scored no points in the opening contest. Nevertheless, each driver also secured at least one major result that kept the title fight close.
Olivieri now leads the chasing group after his breakthrough home weekend. Although he remains 36 points behind Wheldon, his Monza performance demonstrated how quickly one strong round can transform the standings.
The Teams’ Championship presents an equally close contest. R-ace GP holds an eight-point lead over MP Motorsport, while PREMA Racing remains within range after its strongest-scoring round of the season.
