ART GP’s Evan Giltaire tops chaotic first day of FREC’s Hockenheim test

Photo: ART Grand Prix

Evan Giltaire topped a chaotic first day of Formula Regional European Championship’s pre-season Hockenheim test.

Tuukka Taponen was fastest at first in the morning. Pedro Clerot and Nikhil Bohra traded top spot after a red flag period, then 34 minutes in Romain Andriolo stopped on track and caused another.

At that point 14 drivers had set laptimes on a wet track. Clerot lowered the pace post-restart, then Giltaire went fastest. Clerot reclaimed top spot, before Noah Stromsted broke the two-minute barrier.

Moments later Giltaire went faster, but Stromsted set a 1m58.560s next time by. Giltaire did even better, improving to 1m57.373s before another two stoppages.

Enzo Deligny lowered the pace to 1m57.231s after that, then Stromsted set a 1m55.701s. Two minutes later Roman Bilinski and Giltaire provided new benchmarks, before Stromsted lapped in the 1m54s. Bilinski’s next two efforts were in the 1m53s.

Clerot set a 1m52.672s between red flag periods caused by Marta Garcia and Brando Badoer, and Nikita Bedrin went 0.001s faster than Clerot following the latter. Rafael Camara scrubbed 0.034s off that pace, but Alessandro Giusti bettered him by 0.043s before red flags waved again.

Action resumed with an hour left, and James Wharton posted a 1m51.354s. Taponen beat it first, then Giusti made a huge gain to 1m49.850s. He improved twice before Camara broke into the 1m48s.

Giltaire set a 1m47.611s, then Taponen caused a session stoppage with 38 minutes remaining. The first change after that was a 1m45.522s from Stromsted that was soon beaten by Costa Toparis, then by Deligny too a few minutes later.

Deligny was dethroned by a 1m43.613s from Wharton, and the pace was lowered many times in the last 16 minutes by Bilinski, Lacorte, Wharton, Nikhil Bohra, Kanato Le and Ugo Ugochukwu.

Bilinski first to lap sub-1m40s, then Ugochukwu and Camara got ahead before Bilinski improved three times to 1m38.586s. Badoer reappeared and went fastest with five minutes left, but Bilinski and then Bedrin got back ahead. Bedrin broke into the 1m37s and was unbeaten when Ruiqi Liu caused red flags as the clock hit zero.

The afternoon session was an hour longer at three hours-and-55 minutes. Theophile Nael was the early pacesetter and usurped 12 minutes in by Matteo de Palo.

Clerot was first into the 1m52s, then Giltaire and Ivan Domingues lowered the pace. Nael returned to the top, then later Giusti and Domingues brought the pace down to 1m50.620s before Badoer brought out red flags and went fastest.

Giusti returned to first place after the restart, but Camara and then Stromsted made big gains. Stromsted was eventually bettered 50 minutes in by Zachary David, who set a 1m44.421s, then red flags returned.

Action resumed in hour two, with Ugochukwu, Wharton and David improving. Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi briefly topped the times, and David was first into the 1m39s but almost immediately beaten by Ugochukwu and Camara.

Prema’s Camara, Wharton and Ugochukwu traded top spot until Domingues set a 1m37.315s, then Bedrin posted a 1m37.027s. The pace was lowered again in the third hour, initially by Le, Enzo Peugeot and Clerot.

Giltaire then set a 1m35.833s that went unbeaten through a last 83 minutes interrupted by two red flag periods, one caused by Nael.

Day one results