Home Formula RegionalFRegional European Championship Aron takes second FREC pole at Zandvoort in Prema 1-2-3

Aron takes second FREC pole at Zandvoort in Prema 1-2-3

by Roger Gascoigne

Photo: Diederik van der Laan / Dutch Photo Agency

Paul Aron took pole position for the second Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine race of the weekend at Zandvoort with team-mate Dino Beganovic joining him on an all-Prema front row.

Going out first in Group B, Aron’s best time of 1m30.570s remained unbeaten despite Beganovic improving by 0.33 seconds on his final lap in the later session for Group A.

Sebastian Montoya made it a Prema 1-2-3 by setting the second fastest time in Group A, and will be joined on the second row by Van Amersfoort Racing’s Kas Haverkort who was another to improve on his final tour.

After an initial exploration lap all 35 runners returned to the pits under a planned red flag to allow all the teams to fit slick tyres.

Race one victor Aron and his team-mate Montoya headed the field onto the track and were immediately trading fastest times.

Aron moved to the front with a lap of 1m31.219s, before Montoya broke the 1m31s barrier to leap ahead with five minutes left.

In the final two minutes of the session the Mercedes-AMG junior stepped up a level, going fastest with a 1m30.862s, before improving on his penultimate and again on his final lap to finish on 1m30.570s.

A late crash at the banked turn 3 by Pietro Armanni in the final seconds brought out local yellows. The incident indirectly caused Aron a brief scare, as having taken the chequered flag he was confronted by a rescue vehicle on the pit straight, and had to lock up to avoid running into the back of the slow moving truck.

Montoya’s earlier time remained unbeaten, ensuring a second row start for the Colombian-American driver, with Gabriele Mini falling short by just 0.003s.

Trident’s rookie Tim Tramnitz again showed impressive pace to set the fourth fastest time and will be looking to make up for a disappointing first race retirement caused by a screw failure on the front suspension.

Beganovic was immediately at the top of the timing screens in the second session, setting a time of 1m31.482s on his fourth lap and was never seriously challenged at the front.

As the pace quickened he was able to lower the best mark on his fifth, seventh and ninth laps before an outstanding final lap saw him drop below 1m31s as the last driver to take the chequered flag.

Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli had been lying an extremely impressive second before Haverkort’s late improvement pipped his time by just 0.012s, but will nevertheless start from the outside of the third row.

Hadrien David was unable to repeat his strong qualifying performance from Saturday, ending the session fourth in Group A to leave him eighth on the grid as he looks to make amends for losing his podium place in race one due to a push-to-pass infringement.

Monolite’s Maceo Capietto and R-ace GP’s Gabriel Bortoleto set identical times – 1m31.352s – with the impressive French driver taking the fifth row grid slot having recorded the time earlier than the Brazilian.

The unfortunate Joshua Dufek, who had put in such an outstanding performance in qualifying and the race on Saturday, before also incurring a time penalty for the same mistake as David, could only manage seventh-fastest in his group this time, and will start 14th.

Qualifying results

Pos Driver Team Group A Group B
1 Paul Aron Prema 1m30.570s
2 Dino Beganovic Prema 1m30.747s
3 Sebastian Montoya Prema 1m30.934s
4 Kas Haverkort Van Amersfoort Racing 1m31.132s
5 Gabriele Mini ART Grand Prix 1m30.937s
6 Leonardo Fornaroli Trident 1m31.144s
7 Tim Tramnitz Trident 1m31.086s
8 Hadrien David R-ace GP 1m31.219s
9 Michael Belov MP Motorsport 1m31.179s
10 Maceo Capietto Monolite Racing 1m31.352s
11 Mari Boya ART Grand Prix 1m31.406s
12 Gabriel Bortoleto R-ace GP 1m31.352s
13 Esteban Masson FA Racing by MP 1m31.422s
14 Joshua Dufek Van Amersfoort Racing 1m31.390s
15 Laurens van Hoepen ART Grand Prix 1m31.449s
16 Pietro Delli Guanti R-P-M 1m31.549s
17 Roman Bilinski Trident 1m31.466s
18 Lorenzo Fluxa R-ace GP 1m31.819s
19 Noel Leon Arden 1m31.511s
20 Owen Tangavelou G4 Racing 1m31.837s
21 Victor Bernier FA Racing by MP 1m31.553s
22 Sami Meguetounif MP Motorsport 1m31.857s
23 Eduardo Barrichello Arden 1m31.627s
24 Matias Zagazeta G4 Racing 1m31.920s
25 Santiago Ramos KIC Motorsport 1m31.746s
26 Nicolas Baptiste FA Racing by MP 1m32.120s
27 Levente Revesz Van Amersfoort Racing 1m31.982s
28 Kieth Donegan R-P-M 1m32.161s
29 Axel Gnos G4 Racing 1m32.042s
30 Piotr Wisnicki KIC Motorsport 1m32.359s
31 Pietro Armanni Monolite Racing 1m32.370s
32 Francesco Braschi KIC Motorsport 1m32.448s
33 Hamda Al Qubaisi Prema 1m32.929s
34 Cenyu Han Monolite Racing 1m33.295s
35 Joshua Duerksen Arden no time