Seb Montoya wins as Mumbai Falcons take a rare 1-2-3: Asian Formula Regional

Dubai, 5 Feb. 2022: Historic day for Indian motorsport as team Mumbai Falcons locked out a 1-2-3 finish in Race 1 sweeping the podium at Round 3 of the Formula Regional Asian Championship in Dubai on Saturday.

After another splendid performance by the team, it was the young Colombian star, Sebastian Montoya who lead the way to finish ahead of his teammates and Ferrari academy drivers, Arthur Leclerc and Dino Beganovic, taking the top three spots for the opening race of Round 3 in the Asian Formula Regional event.

Montoya qualified again on pole for Race 1, making it three poles in a row, for the son of racing legend, Juan Pablo Montoya. Sebastian set a blistering pace and was well clear of his nearest rival, Isaac Hadjar, who qualified P2. Teammates, Dino Beganovic and Arthur Leclerc qualified P6 and P8 respectively.

Hadjar, from second on the grid made a fantastic get-away at the start, to find himself alongside Montoya. However the Colombian youngster did not succumb to the pressure from the RedBull Junior driver, and held on to lead the pack into Turn 1. Further behind, Dino and Arthur found themselves climbing up the order, immediately and were into P4 and P6, respectively, by the end of Lap 1.

While Montoya began to open a lead over Hadjar, Beganovic found himself fighting for a podium spot with Leonardo Fornaroli of team Hitech. The race was, however, Red-Flagged briefly to recover a stricken car.

At the re-start, Hadjar began to pile-up the pressure on Montoya but was soon given a five-second penalty along with third-placed Fornaroli for a grid infringement. This opened the door for Leclerc and Beganovic to grab the remaining podium spots after fighting hard and making their way up the order.

Moid Tungekar said: “What a fantastic day for the team and for India. We are extremely proud of the boys as well as the hard work put in by everyone over the last year. We would like to thank Rene Rosin and the entire Prema Team for working with us to make this possible. There’s a long way to go in this championship and our goal is to come out on top and to pave the way for all the youngsters watching us out there.”

Sebastian Montoya said: “It was a long-and-hard race but I’m happy to win and, of course, very happy to see ourselves lock-out the top spots on the podium. We are looking forward to many more podiums.”