Camara handles traffic best to comfortably claim FREC pole at Spa

Photo: FRECA

Prema’s Rafael Camara mastered traffic to comfortably claim pole for Formula Regional European Championship race two at Spa-Francorchamps.

Camara was in Group A, whose 15-minute qualifying session came after Group B’s. Iron Dames’ Doriane Pin was absent from the latter and will miss today’s race “due to pain from an earlier flu-like condition”, according to the team.

There was drama early in Group B’s session as Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu narrowly avoided clashing with KIC Motorsport’s Alex Sawer on the pit straight as he was about to start his first timed lap, then there were further near misses across the field as drivers bunched up and ineffectively sought to then have clean air in front of them.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedo Clerot was at the front of the queue and set the initial pace, a 2m35.059s putting him 9.617 seconds ahead of Prema’s James Wharton.

Wharton moved ahead on the second laps, setting a 2m15.932s to lead Ugochukwu by 0.243s, Race Performance Motorsport’s Noah Stromsted by 0.644s and R-ace GP’s Zachary David by 0.687s. Only three others were within a second of the pace.

Stromsted was fastest next time by, pipping Wharton by 0.054s with a 2m15.592s. Ugochukwu was 0.138s behind, and less than 0.5s covered the top seven. R-P-M’s Giovanni Maschio was the sole non-improver, and went on another flying lap while everyone else committed to a cooldown lap.

Maschio was fastest through sector one on his final lap, with Wharton setting a new sector two benchmark and reclaiming top spot with a 2m15.162s. Ugochukwu was 0.284s behind in second, and Stromsted was third despite having his last lap deleted for track limits abuse.

Trident’s Roman Bilinski, ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire and VAR’s Brando Badoer completed the top six, with David and Sainteloc Racing’s Matteo De Palo failing to improve in seventh and eighth. Clerot ended the session 10th.

Group A had similar traffic problems, and MP Motorsport’s Nikhil Bohra was first to the top with a 2m37.567s. Camara lowered the pace to 2m15.125s on lap two, ensuring the pole-sitter would come from his group, and was fastest by 0.618s over Sainteloc’s Theophile Nael.

Enzos Peugeot and Deligny were fastest in the first two sectors, but their laptimes put them third and last. Bohra fell out of the top 10 after almost hitting Trident’s Niko Lacorte at Les Combes.

Camara had to overtake several cars while improving to 2m14.254s on his next lap, putting him 0.699s ahead of R-ace’s Tuukka Taponen. ART GP’s Alessandro Giusti and R-ace’s Deligny were the only others within a second of him and VAR’s Ivan Domingues was fifth fastest.

Traffic was a huge problem the two laps after, and Camara almost hit G4 Racing’s Jesse Carrasquedo Jr at the end of his final lap before following Deligny by diving into the pits.

Nael, MP’s Valerio Rinicella and Iron Dames’ Marta Garcia were the only improvers, going sixth, ninth and 10th fastest respectively, with Sainteloc’s Peugeot and G4’s Kanato Le in seventh and eighth.

Qualifying results