Already-crowned 2026 Champion Rui-heng Yeh took a dominant win in Race 1 at the Circuit of Barcelona Catalunya, clinching his ninth success of the year. “It’s nice to be here without the pressure of the title fight”, he admitted, “but this doesn’t mean I don’t aim at doing the best possible job and go for victory”.
The Taipei driver of Team Motopark beat his two Mexican teammates, Jesse Carrasquedo and Diego de la Torre, in a race that did not have much story. Carrasquedo was on pole (his sixth of the season, making of him the man with the most poles this season) but was passed by Yeh at the start and had to defend from De la Torre too.
As Ary Bansal (BVM Racing) stalled in row 3, in what was the first EFO start for the 16-year-old Indian, there was some confusion, but everybody managed to avoid trouble. That came at first corner with a contact – yet another one- between Castillo and Koller, which ended with the Mexican’s car stranded in the gravel and the safety car being deployed.
At the restart, positions did not change, with Yeh preceding Carrasquedo and De la Torre, the three being covered by 4 seconds only under the flag. Carrasquedo is now 35 points behind De la Torre in the fight for runner-up honours. Koolen (BVM) finishes fourth and Dobrzanski fifth. The Pole took his sixth success in the rookies’ Trophy and the lead in the standings, two points ahead of Herrera, today third behind Baptista.
