Al Dhaheri and Bondarev extend title advantages during dramatic round two conclusion

• Rashid Al Dhaheri and Alex Ninovic share the victories as rare rainfall impacts Formula Regional Middle East Trophy

• Oleksandr Bondarev back on top in UAE4 Series after historic success for Bader Al Sulaiti

• Kean Nakamura-Berta takes Rookie standings lead; Kenzo Craigie extends his Rookie margin

 

Abu Dhabi, January 25, 2026: Just as in Saturday’s opening races of the weekend, it was Rashid Al Dhaheri and Oleksandr Bondarev who provided the star turns in Sunday’s Formula Regional Middle East Trophy (FRME) and UAE4 Series action at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit.

 

Both local hero Al Dhaheri and Ukrainian Bondarev notched up their second wins of the weekend and their third of the 2026 season to extend their advantages at the top of their respective points tables, although neither featured at the sharp end in their reversed-grid races that kicked off the day. Heavy rain that fell during the UAE4 action led to a result that was as unexpected as the weather, while the Formula Regional race produced some exciting racing on a still-damp surface as drivers tackled the Corkscrew layout of the Yas Marina Circuit in tricky conditions.

 

Al Dhaheri was not in the picture in that race, taking 15th place, and it was Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Ninovic on top. The 18-year-old Australian initially lost the advantage to Jan Przyrowski, but repassed the Pole mid-race to take victory, while Maksimilian Popov of Trident was a strong third. Al Dhaheri bounced back later on, R-ace GP’s 17-year-old Mercedes Formula 1 team protégé getting the jump on Sebastian Wheldon at the start. Wheldon also lost out at the exit of the first corner to Kean Nakamura-Berta, his team-mate in the Prema-run Mumbai Falcons Racing stable. Williams F1 junior Nakamura-Berta kept the pressure on Al Dhaheri to the finish, the London-born Japanese-Slovakian also defending from Anglo-American Wheldon.

 

Al Dhaheri therefore leads the FRMET standings by 35 points at the midway point over Nakamura-Berta, with Pinnacle Motorsport’s Jamaican-American Alex Powell third, 54 adrift of Al Dhaheri. Rookie wins went to Przyrowski and Nakamura-Berta, with the latter now usurping Popov at the top of that table.

 

In UAE4, Bondarev had little opportunity to progress from 12th on the reversed grid, with less than two laps of racing before the race was red-flagged for the first time. But Mumbai Falcons’ 16-year-old Williams F1 protégé was able to pick up one point for 10th, and added a further 25 with a dominant and classy drive to victory from pole position in the weekend’s final race. Bondarev’s main title rival Andy Consani was second, the R-ace GP-run, Mercedes-backed Frenchman winning a fight with Hitech’s Swedish Red Bull Junior Scott Kin Lindblom for the position.

 

In race two, it was 18-year-old Qatari Bader Al Sulaiti (QMMF by Hitech) who took advantage of an early slip from Emily Cotty to lead home Mumbai Falcons’ Italian Ferrari Driver Academy youngster Niccolò Maccagnani and Briton Jarrett Clark (Xcel Motorsport). It was the first ever global F4 victory by a Qatari driver, Al Sulaiti making motorsport history for his country.

 

Bondarev’s lead over Consani in the UAE4 Series standings is 17 points, with another R-ace Mercedes protégé, Kenzo Craigie, up to third, 49 points behind. Craigie also holds a clear lead in the Rookie charts after sharing the wins in that division with Clark.

 

Formula Middle East remains in the United Arab Emirates but moves to Dubai Autodrome for round three from January 30-February 1.

 

Formula Regional Middle East Trophy

Race 2

1st Alex Ninovic/Rodin Motorsport

2nd Jan Przyrowski/RPM

3rd Maksimilian Popov/Trident Motorsport

 

Race 3

1st Rashid Al Dhaheri/R-ace GP

2nd Kean Nakamura-Berta/Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited

3rd Sebastian Wheldon/Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited

 

UAE4 Series

Race 2

1st Bader Al Sulaiti/QMMF by Hitech

2nd Niccolo Maccagnani/Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited

3rd Jarrett Clark/XCEL Motorsport

 

Race 3

1st Oleksandr Bondarev/Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited

2nd Andy Consani/R-ace GP

3rd Scott Kin Lindblom/Hitech

 

 

Formula Regional Middle East Trophy

 

 

Race 2

Due to the rain that had fallen heavily during the preceding UAE4 Series race, the reversed-grid Formula Regional event began under the safety car. It also finished under the safety car, but in between we had nine laps of entertaining racing.

 

Wet-weather tyres were chosen by most of the competitors, with just a few further down the grid gambling on slicks. Once the field was released by the green flags, poleman Alex Ninovic ran wide into the first corner and Jan Przyrowski snatched the advantage, the RPM driver stretching his lead to an extraordinary two seconds within one lap of racing.

 

Then Ninovic, who like Przyrowski was on grooved Pirellis, began to fight back. The momentum was now very much with the Australian, and he dived down the inside of the Pole at Turn 1 on the sixth lap to grab the lead. By the end of lap 10, Ninovic was 2.334s in front, and next time around the safety car appeared. Alceu Feldmann Neto had made contact at Turn 1, and the race finished under caution with Ninovic winning from Przyrowski.

 

Alexander Abkhazava started third and held onto that position for two laps of racing. But then Maksimilian Popov grabbed the position in his Trident car, with the duelling Mumbai Falcons Racing duo of Sebastian Wheldon and Kean Nakamura-Berta following him through. Popov had great speed but the leading pair were too far in front, so he settled for third. Meanwhile, Wheldon and Nakamura-Berta found Francisco Macedo charging into their midst. After losing ground early on in a collision for which Artem Severiukhin was held to blame, Macedo slipped outside the top 10, but then Van Amersfoort Racing’s Portuguese racer became one of the quickest drivers on track. Wheldon held on for fourth – and completed the Rookie podium behind Przyrowski and Popov – while Macedo beat Nakamura-Berta to fifth on the road. But Macedo was later penalised for going off track to pass Abkhazava, dropping him to 12th in the results.

 

A terrific battle behind featured an ambush by Yuki Sano on both Kabir Anurag and Abkhazava at Turn 9, the Toyota-backed Japanese somehow passing both in one move. But Alpine protégé Anurag fought back, the Singaporean classified sixth in his ART Grand Prix car. RPM-run Portuguese Miguel Costa also passed Sano’s R-ace machine for seventh. From 31st and last on the grid, Briton Reza Seewooruthun sliced his Rodin entry through the field to ninth, while G4 Racing’s Frenchman Jules Roussel landed 10th in the final results.

 

 

Formula Regional Middle East Trophy

 

Race 3

Formula Regional had a new polesitter for the final race of the weekend in the form of Sebastian Wheldon. At the time the chequered flag fell on second qualifying, Wheldon led a Mumbai Falcons Racing front-row lockout, but Rashid Al Dhaheri had just managed to sneak onto an extra lap. The Emirati made it count, leapfrogging Nakamura-Berta, and falling just 0.024 seconds short of Wheldon’s effort.

 

Had Al Dhaheri lined up third, there’s little doubt that Wheldon would have led into the first corner of the race. But the R-ace GP car, from second on the grid, was able to draw alongside the poleman away from the start, and Al Dhaheri claimed the inside line to take the lead. Wheldon attempted to cling on around the outside but ran wide on the exit and Nakamura-Berta was able to slip past him into second position.

 

By the time the first lap ended, the race had already gone under safety car conditions. Maksimilian Popov’s super-consistent run, which had elevated him to the head of the Rookie standings, came to an end thanks to an incident with August Raber at the top of the Corkscrew that left the damaged Trident car stranded on the run-off. After the restart, the race ran for five laps with Al Dhaheri leading Nakamura-Berta and Wheldon before the safety car was called once again. This time, it was to retrieve Dion Gowda’s stricken machine, where it had come to rest on the exit of Turn 7 just before pit entry after a collision with Francisco Macedo, for which Macedo was given a penalty.

 

There was time for five more laps of racing once things got under way again, and this time Nakamura-Berta got close enough to suggest that a move might be on to displace Al Dhaheri. But the local man hung on in style, edging away slightly to take his second win of the weekend by 0.927s over Nakamura-Berta, with Wheldon also close at hand in third.

 

Kazakhstani MP Motorsport racer Alexander Abkhazava’s outside pass on Kabir Anurag at Turn 1 on the opening lap proved to be the decisive moment in the battle for fourth, although Anurag completed the top three in the Rookie class behind Nakamura-Berta and Wheldon. Pinnacle Motorsport’s Alex Powell had to fend off Yuki Sano after the second safety car, but held on to take sixth. Sano’s fellow Japanese, Honda-backed Taito Kato, was eighth in his ART Grand Prix car, with Artem Severiukhin (G4 Racing) and Miguel Costa taking the final points positions.

 

 

UAE4 Series

Race 2

Emily Cotty sat on pole position on the reversed grid, and the British driver made a terrific start to immediately extend a lead as dark clouds loomed portentously. Her front-row partner Bader Al Sulaiti battled with Jarrett Clark over the opening corners before establishing himself in second place, and Clark found himself jumped by Niccolò Maccagnani in the corners under the W Hotel, the Italian having superb progress over the opening half a lap from seventh on the grid.

 

Cotty led Al Sulaiti and Maccagnani down to the Corkscrew, but here the circuit was slippery. Cotty got into a slide, and Al Sulaiti and Maccagnani were both able to pass her R-ace GP car to move up into first and second respectively. That was the order as they raced around the second lap, only for a three-car tangle at Turn 12 to result in Dominik Simek being stranded in the run-off area. That meant the safety car was called and then, with the rain increasing, the race was red-flagged.

 

After a break, the cars re-emerged from the pits behind the safety car, with most of the competitors remaining on slick tyres. This was costly for Cotty, who was one of at least four to spin, and she resumed in ninth position. After three laps during which the rain eased off, it suddenly turned torrential and the race was halted again – this time not just by a red flag but also chequered. Al Sulaiti therefore took the first win for a Qatari in global Formula 4 competition, with Maccagnani second and rookie winner Clark in third.

 

David Cosma-Cristofor had passed Adam Al Azhari on the second lap before the safety car emerged, so Prema Racing’s Romanian took fourth, with Dubai racer Al Azhari fifth. But the Yas Heat Racing car was adjudged to have jumped the start, the resulting time penalty dropping Al Azhari outside the points. Fifth place therefore went to Prema’s Spanish McLaren protégé Christian Costoya. Alp Aksoy of Turkey was sixth for Mumbai Falcons Racing, and rounded out the Rookie top three behind Clark and Costoya.

 

PHM Racing-run Italian Iacopo Martinese was classified seventh, ahead of R-ace GP’s British pair Cotty and Kenzo Craigie. The final place in the top 10 went to Oleksandr Bondarev, allowing the series leader to eke out his advantage over Andy Consani by one further point. The race was a disaster for Consani, who spun on lap one and was later penalised for causing the second-lap collision that resulted in Simek’s retirement.

 

UAE4 Series

 

Race 3

After Scott Kin Lindblom had taken pole position for Saturday’s race, the Swede missed out by the tiny margin of 0.007 seconds in the second qualifying session, which set the grid for the weekend’s finale. Oleksandr Bondarev pipped the Red Bull Junior’s time and, when Lindblom ran into traffic on his final lap, any retaliation became impossible.

 

Bondarev made no mistake to lead at the start from Lindblom and Andy Consani, but further down the unfortunate Joseph Smith was left stranded on the grid, and was clipped by the unsighted Jaber Alsabah. The safety car was therefore called to rescue the stricken car of the unfortunate Briton.

 

Once the green flags flew, finally there was 11 laps of enthralling action under race conditions, although such was Bondarev’s dominance that his opposition became increasingly tiny specks in his mirrors. Lindblom held on to second place for four laps until Consani’s daringly late dive at Turn 6. This did not result in a place change, but the undeterred Consani dummied Lindblom beautifully into Turn 9, jinking to the inside at the last moment to snatch second position. By this time Bondarev was three seconds in front, and Consani could do little about the Mumbai Falcons car. The gap at the finish was 4.564s, with Consani second and Lindblom third.

 

Adam Al Azhari had gone around Kenzo Craigie at the first corner to take fourth place, but after the restart the Dubai talent appeared to be struggling for pace. After three laps of trying, Craigie ran side by side with Al Azhari through Turns 6 and 7, only for David Cosma-Cristofor to get a run on both of them and slipstream his way up into fourth. Craigie then got around the outside of Al Azhari and claimed fifth place, and another Rookie class success. Craigie was later penalised five seconds for not allowing sufficient racing room for Al Azhari during their battle at Turn 7, but such was his advantage over the next car home that it did not impact his result.

 

Al Azhari fell back into a fraught battle for sixth with Alp Aksoy and Evans GP’s Dutch newcomer Kasper Schormans. Aksoy went for the move on Al Azhari at Turns 6 and 7 in the closing stages, only to be leapfrogged by Schormans. Al Azhari held on for sixth, with Schormans seventh and Aksoy eighth – Schormans and Aksoy were second and third Rookies home.

 

Hitech’s Emirati racer Theo Palmer demoted Rowan Campbell-Pilling to take ninth, and Campbell-Pilling only just staved off Christian Costoya and Emma Felbermayr in the fight for the final UAE4 point of the weekend.