Antonelli gets first FREC win as red flags save Tramnitz’s second place

Photo: FRECA

Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli claimed his first Formula Regional European Championship win in a wet second race at Spa-Francorchamps which was ended early by red flags.

Drivers were confronted with a soaked circuit on Saturday morning, and therefore needed to use wet-weather tyres. R-ace GP’s Tim Tramnitz started on pole, ahead of Race Performance Motorsport’s Santiago Ramos, Antonelli and Prema’s Rafael Camara.

Ramos lost out to Antonelli straight away, and was fighting Arden’s Joshua Duerksen for third into Eau Rouge. Behind them Camara was under attack from ART Grand Prix’s series returnee Hadrien David, and the battles helped the top two break away.

Tramnitz finished lap one 1.9 seconds clear of Antonelli, with Ramos 5.3s back in third. Duerksen passed Ramos at Les Combes, then David and Camara got the past the R-P-M driver too, while at the bottom of the top 10 Kirill Smal and Alessandro Giusti fought hard against each other and further down the order Roman Bilinski spun at the final corner.

Ramos was ninth by the end of lap three, and a lap later Antonelli made a diving move on Tramnitz for the lead but went off and dropped back 1.133s behind. However he was able to close in again when Tramnitz got edgy on the brakes at Les Combes next time by, on a track that was getting wetter, and Antonelli made his move at turn 13.

Tramnitz had enough traction to keep alongside until Paul Frere, where Antonelli timed his upshifts perfectly on the inside to draw ahead and finish lap five 0.653s ahead.

Duerksen passed Tramnitz under braking at Les Combes on the next lap but then cut across the corner so immediately conceded the position, and the safety car was out not long after due to Alex Partyshev driving into the rear of Nikhil Bohra at the penultimate corner and destroying his front-left suspension. He got stuck in the gravel, while Bohra made it to the pits.

There was more drama behind the safety car, with Tom Lebbon spinning at Eau Rouge and falling to the reat of the field then Lucas Medina coming to a stop at Les Combes and extending the safety car period from lap eight to lap 10.

Antonelli made a great retart, and behind him Tramnitz spun entering the Kemmel Straight, potentially due to contact from Duerksen behind in the spray. Everyone avoided Tramnitz’s crashed car, and the race was red-flagged with over a lap to go.

That pushed the results back to the end of lap nine, reinstating Tramnitz in second and denying David a podium finish pending the result of an investigation into Duerksen’s start.

Race results