Home Formula 4 ART GP’s Mini fastest on day one of FREC test at Paul Ricard

ART GP’s Mini fastest on day one of FREC test at Paul Ricard

by Ida Wood

Photo: FRECA

Gabriele Mini comfortably set the pace on day one of the post-season Formula Regional European Championship test at Paul Ricard.

The test, organised by the Winfield Racing School based at the circuit, was also open to other single-seaters and there were two GP3 cars in action, four Formula 4 cars and one of MP Motorsport’s old GP2 cars which was being driven by Clement Novalak ahead of his Formula 2 debut with the team next month.

Mini was fastest in all three of the FREC sessions, with the first period of on-track action on a cold and greasy track featuring laptimes that were seven seconds slower than the pace on show later in the day.

F4 graduate Victor Bernier was Mini’s closest rival in the morning for G4 Racing, going just 0.064 seconds slower than him, then through the afternoon it was MP’s Sami Meguetounif who was second-best.

In session two there a gap of almost a quarter of a second between the top two, then in the final session Mini improved by over half a second.

Second place to ninth place was covered by the same gap between Mini and Meguetounif, with Bernier eventually ending up in fifth place behind Christian Mansell (R-ace GP) and Tim Tramnitz (ART GP).

Lorenzo Fluxa missed a session but still went seventh fastest, between Arden duo Leonardo Fornaroli and Joshua Duerksen.

Aiden Neate was the fastest F4 runner, while Isack Hadjar had some of his laptimes recorded in one of the GP3 cars.

Test results

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Gabriele Mini ART Grand Prix 1m58.311s 53
2 Sami Meguetounif MP Motorsport 1m58.867s +0.556s 54
3 Christian Mansell R-ace GP 1m58.951s +0.640s 56
4 Tim Tramnitz ART Grand Prix 1m59.060s +0.749s 56
5 Victor Bernier G4 Racing 1m59.090s +0.779s 57
6 Leonardo Fornaroli Arden 1m59.152s +0.841s 53
7 Lorenzo Fluxa R-ace GP 1m59.169s +0.858s 18
8 Joshua Duerksen Arden 1m59.176s +0.865s 42
9 Esteban Masson R-ace GP 1m59.306s +0.995s 55
10 Francesco Pizzi R-ace GP 1m59.448s +1.137s 52
11 Joshua Dufek ART Grand Prix 1m59.474s +1.163s 57
12 Owen Tangavelou G4 Racing 1m59.695s +1.384s 57
13 Santiago Ramos KIC Motorsport 1m59.779s +1.468s 45
14 Roman Bilinski Arden 1m59.793s +1.482s 36
15 Matias Zagazeta ART Grand Prix 1m59.877s +1.566s 55
16 Dilano van’t Hoff MP Motorsport 2m00.026s +1.715s 54
17 Nicolas Baptiste FA Racing by MP 2m00.083s +1.772s 52
18 Axel Gnos G4 Racing 2m00.429s +2.118s 48
19 Nerea Marti FA Racing by MP 2m02.018s +3.707s 51
20 Abbi Pulling FA Racing by MP 2m02.156s +3.845s 50
1 Aiden Neate F4 2m06.502s 50
2 Nikhil Bohra F4 2m06.719s +0.217s 45
3 #16 Winfield Racing School 2m14.882s +8.380s 23
4 #18 Winfield Racing School 2m14.980s +8.478s 26