Slater ends FREC practice on top at Zandvoort after red flag breaks

Photo: Prema

Prema’s Freddie Slater was fastest in Formula Regional European Championship practice at Zandvoort.

There were two 50-minute sessions, and Trident’s Matteo De Palo was the benchmark driver in FP1. After rain hit pre-event testing, the track had mostly dried out by Friday morning but it remained windy.

Laptimes improved consistently as the racing line was formed, and the vast majority of drivers recorded personal bests on their penultimate laps six minutes from the end.

De Palo set a 1m30.856s to lead Pedro Clerot by 0.023 seconds, with Van Amersfoort Racing team-mate Dion Gowda a further 0.149s behind in third. R-ace GP’s Jin Nakamura was 0.177s off De Palo’s pace, and Trident’s Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi was 0.309s back in fifth.

Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri completed a top six covered by 0.361s, with the top 11 separated by less than a second on pace. Akcel GP’s Aditya Kulkareni had all of his laptimes deleted due a push-to-pass infringement.

The track was busy early in FP2, with first place constantly changing hands. The first representative lap, a 1m32.216s, came from Slater seven minutes in.

Hiyu Yamakoshi lowered the pace to 1m31.893s moments later, with team-mate Clerot going second with a 1m32.158s.

ART Grand Prix’s Kanato Le then set a 1m31.791s, and Race Performance Motorsport’s Enzo Peugeot also broke the 1m32s barrier before Slater returned to the top with a 1m31.735s.

R-ace’s Enzo Deligny and Yamakoshi beat Peugeot, and following that Clerot set a 1m31.555s benchmark. ART GP’s Evan Giltaire was 0.104s off his pace, and shortly after Le moved ahead with a 1m31.467s but team-mate Taito Kato outpaced him by 0.009s. After 10 minutes, the top three completed by Deligny was split by 0.012s.

The next change at the top came three minutes later, as Clerot set a 1m31.362s. But he was there very briefly, since Kato improved to 1m31.264s.

Two laps later, the ART GP went got even faster as Le set a 1m31.138s to lead Kato by 0.061s. Yamakoshi was fourth with a 1m31.435s, then red flags waved as Trident’s Ruiqi Liu struck trouble in sector two.

After a six-minute stoppage, FP2 resumed and the next improvements came with 18 minutes to go. Kato beat Le by 0.009s, swiftly followed by De Palo setting a 1m31.051s then Clerot laying down a 1m30.731s.

Next to the top was Deligny, posting a 1m30.429s, as Yamakoshi improved to 1m30.84s in third. Slater went fourth fastest just as red flags waved again, and his laptime was deleted.

There were less than 13 minutes left when green flags waved again, and drivers were back on pace with eight minutes to go. Yamakoshi improved to 1m30.765s, but Nakamura edged him by 0.006s, and Slater recorded the fastest time in every sector to produce an unbeatable 1m30.306s lap.

There were no further changed to the top five, and many pitted in the final two minutes. De Palo’s FP1 benchmark put him sixth overall, ahead of Giltaire and Kato. Liu and Sainteloc’s Yaroslav Veselaho also posted personal bests in FP1.

Free practice results