Photo: FRECA
Paul Aron pipped team-mate Dino Beganovic to Formula Regional European Championship race two pole at Monza, as the pair benefitted from a drier track than many rivals.
The split qualifying format meant the grid went out in two halves, with ‘Group B’ running first on a track that was declared wet but rapidly dried.
Monolite Racing’s Maceo Capietto and G4 Racing’s Matias Zagazeta were the early pacesetters, with the pace then improving dramatically when Trident’s Tim Tramnitz srt a 1m51.998s just six minutes left of the qualifying segment.
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Kas Haverkort then went to the top, setting a 1m50.513s to sit 0.825 seconds up on R-ace GP’s Lorenzo Fluxa. They looked to be demoted by ART Grand Prix’s Gabriele Mini and Capietto when red flags were waved with three-and-a-half minutes to go, stopping their progress.
Dilano van’t Hoff had crashed on the run to the second chicane, and the MP Motorsport driver had his two best laps deleted.
There was little time left after the restart, and at the very end Mini went top with a 1m49.772s. That was 0.276s faster than team-mate Mari Boya, and 0.701s quicker than Haverkort.
Next up was Tim Tramnitz, Maceo Capietto, Laurens van Hoepen, Fluxa, Joshua Dufek and Victor Bernier. Capietto, Bernier and Joshua Duerksen got two-place penalties in race one issued post-race for cutting the chicane at a late restart, while van Hoepen has a two-place grid penalty after he clashed with Eduardo Barrichello in race one.
Group A had a significantly drier track, and so drivers looked for slipstreams rather than dry asphalt.
Gabriel Bortoleto, Francesco Braschi and Barrichello all took turns as fastest before Belov set a 1m49.273s that meant Group A would feature the pole-sitter.
Belov was soon beaten by Aron, who was working with Beganovic to optimise the slipstream. Beganovic then went fastest, and with Aron’s turn to get the tow on the final lap he then snatched back the fastest lap and pole.
Sebastian Montoya made it a Prema 1-2-3 in the group, ahead of Hadrien David, Belov, Bortoleto and Duerksen.
Roman Bilinski and Pietro Delli Guanti jumped into the top 10 at the end, but Delli Guanti has a three-place grid penalty for a race one incident with van’t Hoff.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Group A | Group B | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul Aron | Prema | 1m47.788s | 7 | |
| 2 | Gabriele Mini | ART Grand Prix | 1m49.772s | 7 | |
| 3 | Dino Beganovic | Prema | 1m47.817s | 7 | |
| 4 | Mari Boya | ART Grand Prix | 1m50.042s | 7 | |
| 5 | Sebastian Montoya | Prema | 1m48.302s | 7 | |
| 6 | Kas Haverkort | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m50.048s | 7 | |
| 7 | Hadrein David | R-ace GP | 1m48.416s | 7 | |
| 8 | Tim Tramnitz | Trident | 1m50.473s | 7 | |
| 9 | Michael Belov | MP Motorsport | 1m48.451s | 7 | |
| 10 | Maceo Capietto | Monolite Racing | 1m50.816s | 7 | |
| 11 | Gabriel Bortoleto | R-ace GP | 1m48.462s | 7 | |
| 12 | Laurens van Hoepen | ART Grand Prix | 1m50.958s | 7 | |
| 13 | Joshua Duerksen | Arden | 1m48.511s | 7 | |
| 14 | Lorenzo Fluxa | R-ace GP | 1m50.998s | 7 | |
| 15 | Roman Bilinski | Trident | 1m48.647s | 7 | |
| 16 | Joshua Dufek | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m51.033s | 7 | |
| 17 | Pietro Delli Guanti | R-P-M | 1m48.833s | 7 | |
| 18 | Victor Bernier | FA Racing by MP | 1m51.221s | 7 | |
| 19 | Noel Leon | Arden | 1m48.937s | 7 | |
| 20 | Santiago Ramos | KIC Motorsport | 1m51.257s | 6 | |
| 21 | Eduardo Barrichello | Arden | 1m49.080s | 7 | |
| 22 | Keith Donegan | R-P-M | 1m51.653s | 7 | |
| 23 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Trident | 1m49.181s | 7 | |
| 24 | Sami Meguetounif | MP Motorsport | 1m51.808s | 7 | |
| 25 | Esteban Masson | FA Racing by MP | 1m49.326s | 5 | |
| 26 | Cenyu Han | Monolite Racing | 1m52.210s | 7 | |
| 27 | Piotr Wisnicki | KIC Motorsport | 1m49.634s | 7 | |
| 28 | Matias Zagazeta | G4 Racing | 1m52.383s | 7 | |
| 29 | Owen Tangavelou | G4 Racing | 1m50.119s | 7 | |
| 30 | Nicolas Baptiste | FA Racing by MP | 1m52.441s | 7 | |
| 31 | Hamda Al Qubaisi | Prema | 1m50.317s | 7 | |
| 32 | Axel Gnos | G4 Racing | 1m52.636s | 6 | |
| 33 | Levente Revesz | Van Amerfoort Racing | 1m50.543s | 7 | |
| 34 | Dilano van’t Hoff | MP Motorsport | 1m53.276s | 4 | |
| 35 | Francesco Braschi | KIC Motorsport | 1m50.585a | 7 | |
| 36 | Pietro Armanni | Monolite Racing | 1m53.311s | 3 | |
| 37 | Lena Buhler | R-ace GP | 1m52.211s | 5 |