Photo: ACI Sport
Reigning French Formula 4 champion Alexandre Munoz claimed pole position in the dying seconds of qualifying for the opening Formula Regional Europe race of the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps.
Prema’s Kean Nakamura-Berta appeared to be on course for his fourth pole in five races this season with a time four-tenths quicker than Rashid Al Dhaheri’s best time from Group A.
However, with the chequered flag already out, Munoz, racing for the first time at a circuit he has competed on before, set a series of personal bests to snatch top spot for ART Grand Prix by just 0.014s.
RPM’s Giovanni Maschio took sixth place in the slower first group, meaning he should start the reversed-grid race two from pole position , subject to any penalties handed out in race one. Maschio will take a five place grid penalty in race one following contact with Kai Daryanani at Zandvoort.
As the cars took to the track in perfect, sunny conditions, Maschio’s team-mate, Jan Przyrowski was the first driver to dip into the 2m14s bracket, just ahead of Zandvoort double winner, Sebastian Wheldon.
However, as the times tumbled in the closing minutes Al Dhaheri jumped to top spot for R-ace GP, and although Wheldon improved he was unable to match the Mercedes-AMG junior’s time.
Yuki Sano moved up to third ahead of Emanuele Olivieri, making three R-ace GP cars in the top four. With no representative time on the board after overstepping the track limits as the chequered flag came out, Olivieri had to make the last lap count but kept it between the white lines to move up 11 spots.
Incredibly, with six minutes remaining for Group B, G4 Racing’s Marcus Saeter was the only driver with a flying lap on the board. The Norwegian improved again as the others put laps in to retain top spot before Nakamura-Berta took over in front with three minutes left.
Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Ninovic had also been struggling to get a clean lap before jumping up to second, 0.023s behind Williams junior, Nakamura-Berta, with Reno Francot in third for CL Motorsport.
However, Munoz had timed his run to perfection to leap ahead of all three, with another late improver, Gabriel Gomez slotting in ahead of Francot at the flag.
Track limits caused 14 deleted laps with the first part of the double left at Pouhon proving particularly troublesome. Andrea Dupe was the only driver to offend twice.