Aron completes flawless FREC weekend with dominant win at Zandvoort

Photo: Sebastiaan Rozendaal / Dutch Photo Agency

Prema’s Paul Aron took his second lights-to-flag victory of the weekend in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine at Zandvoort with a commanding drive.

The Mercedes-AMG junior finished over six seconds ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Gabriele Mini to move into second place in the championship standings.

Aron took an immediate lead at the start from fellow front row starter Dino Beganovic, as Mini jumped up to third from fifth ahead of a slow starting Montoya.

The race was suspended after a crash involving RPM’s Pietro Delli Guanti and FA Racing’s Esteban Masson on the second lap at the banked Hugenholtzbocht, requiring the deployment of the course medical services. Delli Guanti’s car appeared to have cleared the inside barrier, but both drivers were understood to be unhurt.

After a lengthy stoppage, Aron immediately pulled away from his pursuers while behind him Mini pulled onto the tail of second-placed Beganovic. As the duo battled, Aron simply extended his lead further and his victory was never in doubt.

On lap 14 Mini got a run on the Ferrari junior into Tarzan driving round the outside in a perfectly-judged move to take second place, although Aron had already built up an unassailable a gap in front.

In the later stages, Beganovic came under pressure from team-mate Montoya, who himself headed a group comprising the Trident pair of Leonardo Fornaroli and Tim Tramnitz, R-ace GP’s Hadrien David and Michael Belov for MP Motorsport.

Montoya managed to defend his position to take fourth and rookie honours with some late braking into Tarzan. For the second time of the weekend Tramnitz finished his race in the pits after an incident with David, who dropped behind Belov at the finish.

Having put in an excellent qualifying lap to start tenth, Monolite’s Maceo Capietto was vigorous in his defence of his hard-won position against R-ace GP’s Gabriel Bortoleto. The Brazilian eventually found a way past to take eighth at the flag with Capietto following him home in ninth.

Roman Bilinski made a desperate last-lap effort to pass Mari Boya into Tarzan, locking up on entry and touching wheels on the exit of the corner, letting VAR’s Joshua Dufek through to take the final points position.

Much of the race’s excitement came in the lower half of the order as Van Amersfoort Racing’s Kas Haverkort and Arden’s Joshua Duerksen fought their way through the field after earlier problems.

Haverkort was forced to pit at the end of the first lap to replace his front wing after running into the back of Montoya at the first corner. Rejoining in last place, the Dutchman was flying, executing some last-minute overtaking moves as he recovered to 15th at the flag.

Duerksen had been unable to complete a single lap in qualifying with a recurrence of the electrical problem that had ruined his first race. From the back of the grid, he was also on the move, as he fought through to finish three places behind Haverkort.

Race result