Home Formula RegionalFRegional European Championship Aron on pole in FREC as second qualifying group gets drier track
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Aron on pole in FREC as second qualifying group gets drier track

by Ida Wood
written by Ida Wood

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