Antonelli claims pole for FREC’s second race at Mugello

Photo: Sebastian Rozendaal / Dutch Photo Agency

Kimi Antonelli took his second Formula Regional European Championship pole position on home soil at Mugello.

The Prema driver topped the times in Group B, which was the first group to go on track in qualifying. Group A ran after, and was unable to match the earlier pace which meant Antonelli secired pole. 

Antonelli went top of the order after his first flying lap. Though he would be demoted as the rest of the field came around, he jumped back to the top of the order every time he set a new laptime. He gradually lowered the benchmark to 1m42.708s before the chequered flag fell, ahead of Kas Haverkort.  

The Van Amersfoort Racing driver improved on his final lap, but couldn’t match Antonelli, who then also went quicker with his final lap to take the chequered flag with a benchmark of 1m42.650s for Group A to beat.

Race Performance Motorsport’s Maceo Capietto set the pace at first in Group A. He lowered his best time to 1m42.864s in the closing stages of the session, but could not improve on that with his final lap. 

Rafael Camara could improve, and he went quickest with a 1m42.667s. But that was still 0.017 seconds slower than Antonelli’s Group B benchmark.

Point leader Martinius Stenshorne was second quickest in Group A, 0.061s off Camara’s pace. He will line up fourth on the grid for race two, alongside Haverkort.

Santiago Ramos was third quickest in Group B and lines up fifth on the grid ahead of Capietto, Owen Tangavelou and Joshua Dufek. Nikhil Bohra and Tim Tramnitz complete the top 10.

Qualifying results