Photo: ACI Sport
Evan Giltaire left it late to clinch pole position in a thrilling climax to qualifying for the second Formula Regional Europe race at Misano.
The ART Grand Prix driver was in the faster second group on track and timed his final run to perfection to grab pole as the chequered flag waved, denying Trident’s race one winner Matteo De Palo who had been ahead prior to that.
Prema’s Freddie Slater was quickest again in Group B, which headed out first, and will line up alongside Giltaire for race two.
Slater was the first to post a sub-1m30s lap in Sunday morning’s qualifying, with ART GP’s Taito Kato joining him in managing the fear on his next lap.
But Slater had a fearsome pace, improving to 1m28.895s on his fourth lap and then again next time around to 1m28.560s to remain on top.
Rashid Al Dhaheri moved up to second place, 0.49 seconds adrift, then Jack Beeton made it a Prema 1-2-3 in the group.
After taking a lap to cool down his tyres, Slater went marginally faster still on his next flyer. Trident’s Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi jumped to second, before R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny then took over the position.
Al Dhaheri and R-ace’s Jin Nakamura, carrying a four-place grid penalty for causing Slater’s race-ending spin in race one, also improved in the final minute to demote Bhirombhakdi down to fifth as the chequered flag marked the end of Group B’s time on track.
De Palo set a 1m28.672s on his fifth lap to lead early on in Group A, with Sainteloc Racing’s Nikita Bedrin in second place.
On his next lap, De Palo bettered Slater’s provisional pole lap to go 0.343s clear of Bedrin, and it meant Slater was guaranteed to be starting second.
As De Palo backed off to prepare for a final lap push, Giltaire jumped up to second in group, only to immediately be knocked back to third by Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Clerot.
After the clock hit zero, De Palo set new personal bests in the first two sectors but his final sector was not a match and so his lap was just short of an improvement overall.
Leaving it even later for his final lap, Giltaire blasted across the line in 1m28.206s to grab pole position by 0.168s.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Group B | Group A | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evan Giltaire | ART Grand Prix | 1m28.206s | 9 | |
| 2 | Freddie Slater | Prema | 1m28.548s | 8 | |
| 3 | Matteo De Palo | Trident | 1m28.374s | 9 | |
| 4 | Enzo Deligny | R-ace GP | 1m28.650s | 8 | |
| 5 | Pedro Clerot | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m28.544s | 9 | |
| 6 | Rashid Al Dhaheri | Prema | 1m28.811s | 8 | |
| 7 | Dion Gowda | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m28.568s | 9 | |
| 8 | Jin Nakamura | R-ace GP | 1m28.848s | 8 | |
| 9 | Akshay Bohra | R-ace GP | 1m28.614s | 8 | |
| 10 | Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi | Trident | 1m28.912s | 9 | |
| 11 | Nikita Bedrin | Sainteloc Racing | 1m28.717s | 9 | |
| 12 | Jack Beeton | Prema | 1m28.961s | 8 | |
| 13 | Hiyu Yamakoshi | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m28.720s | 9 | |
| 14 | Taito Kato | ART Grand Prix | 1m29.059s | 9 | |
| 15 | Kanato Le | ART Grand Prix | 1m28.782s | 9 | |
| 16 | Enzo Yeh | R-P-M | 1m29.079s | 8 | |
| 17 | Enzo Peugeot | R-P-M | 1m29.040s | 8 | |
| 18 | Giovanni Maschio | R-P-M | 1m29.396s | 8 | |
| 19 | Kacper Sztuka | G4 Racing | 1m29.226s | 8 | |
| 20 | Ruiqi Liu | Trident | 1m29.448s | 9 | |
| 21 | Edouard Borgna | G4 Racing | 1m29.226s | 8 | |
| 22 | Tim Gerhards | Sainteloc Racing | 1m29.520s | 8 | |
| 23 | Aditya Kulkarni | Akcel GP | 1m30.546s | 7 | |
| 24 | Valerio Rinicella | CL Motorsport | 1m29.941s | 8 | |
| 25 | Arthur Aegerter | G4 Racing | 1m32.259s | 8 | |
| 26 | Saqer Al Maosherji | Akcel GP | 1m31.191s | 8 |