Toparis pips Taponen to top spot in FRegional Middle East practice

Photo: FRME

Evans GP’s Costa Toparis beat R-ace GP’s Tuukka Taponen to top spot in Formula Regional Middle East practice at Yas Marina Circuit by just 0.04 seconds.

There was no rush to get on track at the start of the much delayed half-hour session, and Pinnacle Motorsport duo Alexander Abkhazava and Finley Green laid down the first laptimes in the 1m59s.

Green improved to 1m53.674s on his second lap, then PHM Racing’s Taylor Barnard lowered the pace to 1m51.099s. A minute-and-a-half later he was shuffled down to second by another Pinnacle driver, as Mari Boya bettered his time by 0.08s.

Boya improved again on his next lap to 1m50.643s to remain on top at the session’s 10-minute mark, but shortly after Toparis knocked 0.356s off his benchmark and Barnard also broke into the 1m50s.

MP Motorsport’s Valerio Rinicella reduced Toparis’s gap at the top to 0.258s, with Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael lapping 0.021s slower than him to sit in third place until with 12 minutes to go there was change at the top as Taponen set a 1m50.248s and his team-mate Martinius Stenshorne went third fastest with a 1m50.410s.

Toparis’s response came with three minutes left on the clock, as he went 0.04s faster than Taponen. Nael also got back into the top four by improving to 1m50.504s.

The only change to the order after that came courtesy of Mumbai Falcons’ Arvid Lindblad, who on his final lap rose from eighth to fourth place with a 1m50.490s laptime.

As in pre-event testing, track limits abuse was an issue and in total there were 32 laptimes by 17 drivers deleted.

Free practice results