Photo: ACI Sport
Freddie Slater narrowly claimed pole for the first Formula Regional European Championship race at Barcelona.
The Prema driver ran in the first qualifying group, and it was halfway through that 15-minute session that the first representative laptimes came in.
G4 Racing’s Edu Robinson set that early benchmark, then Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri crossed the line in 1m36.176s to go fastest. When Slater completed his lap, he comfortably went fastest with a 1m35.731s and R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny was second with a 1m36.035s.
Far later to put his first flying lap on the board was CL Motorsport’s Michael Belov, who went fourth fastest.
Everyone went on a cooldown lap next, so the next flying laps were completed with only three minutes to go. Slater lowered the pace to 1m35.320s, Deligny improved to 1m35.546s and team-mate Jin Nakamura was third until Sainteloc Racing’s Nikita Bedrin posted a 1m36.685s almost a minute later.
Cooldown laps followed again, and the G4 drivers managed to get their next flying laps in just before the chequered flag. They went on to post two improvements, with Edu Robinson getting up to seventh place.
Slater set a 1m35.250s on his final lap, with the two behind improving but maintaining positions. Al Dhaheri went fifth fastest, ahead of R-ace’s Akshay Bohra.
It again took until the second half of group B for proper flying laps, with Trident’s Matteo De Palo quickest from the off and after slipstreaming came into play. Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Clerot was second, ahead of Trident’s Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi and ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire.
Cooldown laps followed, then De Palo lowered the pace to 1m35.359s on his sixth tour of the circuit. Clerot was just 0.098 seconds off, with Bhirombhakdi a further 0.108s behind.
The field returned to cooldowns laps after, and De Palo snuck in a 1m35.279s just before the chequered flag waved. That left him 0.029s shy of Slater, and while he had the opportunity to improve he instead pitted.
Clerot got within 0.138s, and the next driver to improve was Dion Gowda down in eighth.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Group A | Group B | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Freddie Slater | Prema | 1m35.250s | 8 | |
| 2 | Matteo De Palo | Trident | 1m35.279s | 8 | |
| 3 | Enzo Deligny | R-ace GP | 1m35.383s | 8 | |
| 4 | Pedro Clerot | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m35.407s | 8 | |
| 5 | Jin Nakamura | R-ace GP | 1m35.439s | 8 | |
| 6 | Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi | Trident | 1m35.565s | 8 | |
| 7 | Nikita Bedrin | Sainteloc Racing | 1m35.685s | 8 | |
| 8 | Evan Giltaire | ART Grand Prix | 1m35.705s | 8 | |
| 9 | Rashid Al Dhaheri | Prema | 1m35.922s | 8 | |
| 10 | Jack Beeton | Prema | 1m35.799s | 8 | |
| 11 | Akshay Bohra | R-ace GP | 1m35.959s | 8 | |
| 12 | Taito Kato | ART Grand Prix | 1m35.867s | 8 | |
| 13 | Edu Robinson | G4 Racing | 1m36.001s | 9 | |
| 14 | Santiago Ramos | R-P-M | 1m35.904s | 8 | |
| 15 | Michael Belov | CL Motorsport | 1m36.051s | 8 | |
| 16 | Dion Gowda | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m35.972s | 8 | |
| 17 | Kanato Le | ART Grand Prix | 1m36.065s | 8 | |
| 18 | Ruiqi Liu | Trident | 1m36.012s | 8 | |
| 19 | Saqer Al Maosherji | G4 Racing | 1m36.347s | 9 | |
| 20 | Maceo Capietto | R-P-M | 1m36.069s | 8 | |
| 21 | Yuanpu Cui | Prema | 1m36.715s | 8 | |
| 22 | Tim Gerhards | Sainteloc Racing | 1m36.170s | 8 | |
| 23 | Giovanni Maschio | R-P-M | 1m36.934s | 8 | |
| 24 | Hiyu Yamakoshi | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m36.194s | 7 | |
| 25 | Edouard Borgna | G4 Racing | 1m37.300s | 8 | |
| 26 | Yaroslav Veselaho | Sainteloc Racing | 1m37.717s | 8 |