Alessandro Giusti takes home FREC pole for race one at Paul Ricard

Photo: Niels Broekema / DPPA

G4 Racing’s Alessandro Giusti took his maiden Formula Regional European Championship pole position in qualifying for race one at Paul Ricard.

The reigning French Formula 4 champion became the first driver of the weekend to post a time faster than 1m59s to head Group B in the split qualifying session, with championship leader Martinius Stenshorne topping Group A to line up alongside Giusti on the front row for today’s race.

MP Motorsport’s Sami Meguetounif and Stenshorne’s R-ace GP team-mate Tim Tramnitz will line up on row two.

Local heroes Esteban Masson (Sainteloc Racing) and Victor Bernier (MP) set the pace early in Group A, trading places at the top of the timesheet before Tramnitz moved ahead with just under three minutes remaining.

Masson was on course to regain top spot after going fastest in the first two sectors, before ultimately falling just 0.013 seconds adrift of Tramnitz.

Stenshorne was flying, crossing the line on his final lap in 1m59.176s to beat his team-mate who, despite improving on his final tour by 0.280s, was unable to reclaim provisional pole.

Masson finished third, ahead of Bernier, Prema’s Rafael Camara and KIC Motorsport’s Maya Weug.

The G4 pair of Giusti and Michael Belov were the first to break into the 1m59s in Group B. As laptimes tumbled, Race Performance Motorsport’s pracrice pacesetter Santiago Ramos and then ART Grand Prix’s Laurens Van Hoepen moved to the front.

However, Giusti was not to be beaten, the Frenchman setting the fastest time of the weekend: a 1m58.968s.

Belov could not quite match his team-mate, rising to second before being shuffled back to fifth as others improved in the final seconds.

It was Meguetounif who emerged from a tight battle to claim a second row start, just 0.072s ahead of Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli, with van Hoepen 0.015s further back.

Qualifying results