Arthur Leclerc tops day two of FREC’s Mugello test

Photo: Ferrari

Ferrari junior Arthur Leclerc set the pace on day two of the pre-season Formula Regional European Championship test at Mugello.

The Monegasque recorded 54 laps in the morning, and set his best lap midway through the session. It put him 0.286 seconds up on DR Formula’s Matteo Nannini, who will be racing in FIA Formula 3 Championship this year.

Leclerc was one of only three Prema cars running, with fellow Ferrari junior Gianluca Petecof sitting out the day after setting the pace on the first day of the test.

“It was the plan for us [to do only one day],” Petecof told Formula Scout. “I was happy just to be able to resume testing, still have a small eternity to wait until round one [so] we’ll crack on with some [test] laps until then.”

Oliver Rasmussen went third fastest for the team by topping the afternoon session, and W Series champion Jamie Chadwick substituted for the absent Roman Stanek again. She was 1.8s off the pace, behind DR Formula’s Italian Formula 4 graduate Emidio Pesce.

In the Italian F4 test running at the same time, Nicolas Todt protege Gabriele Mini once again set the pace for Prema.

He was 0.208s clear of his team-mate Dino Beganovic, another of Ferrari’s juniors, while DRZ Benelli’s Francesco Simonazzi overcame an exploding fire extinguisher in his car to go third fastest.

Cram Motorsport’s Andrea Rosso sank from third to seventh from day one to two, behind Sebastian Ogaard (Bhaitech), Gabriel Bortoleto (Prema) and Leonardo Fornaroli (Iron Lynx).

Test results