Photo: FRECA
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Brando Badoer was quickest in both Formula Regional Europe practice sessions at Mugello.
The 33-car field got two 50-minute sessions, with plenty of drivers spending time at the top. Surprisingly, all 33 of them set their personal best laptimes in FP1.
R-ace GP’s Zachary David was fastest at first in that session, then KIC Motorsport’s Alex Sawer. Next up was Badoer, who set a 1m44.316s nine minutes in.
He iimproved to 1m43.792s on his next lap, but it did not keep him on top for long as R-ace’s Tuukka Taponen set a 1m43.646s. That stood as the benchmark for almost eight minutes before Badoer struck back with a 1m43.381s and Prema’s Rafael Camara also beat Taponen with a 1m43.418s.
All but KIC’s Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi had set a flying lap 20 minutes in, and once the track became quieter Camara set a 1m43.276s to go fastest and team-mate James Wharton set a 1m43.801s to rise to fourth ahead of their other team-mate Ugo Ugochukwu.
Trident’s Michael Belov got within 0.07 seconds of Camara just before the half-hour mark, when he was one of only two drivers not in the pits. The other was team-mate Niko Lacorte, who went seventh fastest.
With 10 minutes to go the track became busier again and more improvements were set. VAR’s Ivan Domingues demoted Taponen to fifth, then ART Grand Prix’s Alessandro Giusti and Ugochukwu bettered him too.
Badoer returned to the top with a 1m42.869s, with Wharton then going second fastest but at a pace 0.353s slower than the new benchmark. Taponen lowered the pace by 0.31s with just over eight minutes to go, but Badoer instantly replied with a 1m42.672s that would end up being the fastest lap of the day.
MP Motorsport’s Nikita Bedrin set a 1m43.038s to go third fastest, ahead of Wharton, points leader Camara, Belov, Domingues, Giusti, Ugochukwu and G4 Racing’s Kanato Le.
ART GP’s Yaroslav Veselaho was the driver to beat early in FP2, then Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael set a 1m45.064s nine minutes in. Giusti beat that by 0.066s, and later both improved with the gap between them growing to 0.254s as Nael moved back ahead and Sainteloc’s Enzo Peugeot completed an all-French top three.
Nael improved again to move 0.403s clear with 12 minutes left of practice, with Domingues 0.521s back in third before improving to 1m44.161s to taker top spot with 10-and-a-half minutes to go. Another Nael improvement was not enough to return him to the top, as he came 0.118s short of Domingues’s benchmark, then a minute later Bedrin set a 1m43.969s to move ahead.
Badoer at this point was 14th, but soon he found more pace and a 1m43.613s comfortably put him on top with just eight minutes to go. That went unbeaten, with Clerot and Domingues making it three VAR drivers in the top four.
Free practice results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brando Badoer | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m42.672s | 36 | |
| 2 | Tuukka Taponen | R-ace GP | 1m42.838s | +0.166s | 40 |
| 3 | Nikita Bedrin | MP Motorsport | 1m43.038s | +0.366s | 39 |
| 4 | James Wharton | Prema | 1m43.222s | +0.550s | 40 |
| 5 | Rafael Camara | Prema | 1m43.276s | +0.604s | 37 |
| 6 | Michael Belov | Trident | 1m43.346s | +0.674s | 32 |
| 7 | Ivan Domingues | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m43.383s | +0.711s | 35 |
| 8 | Alessandro Giusti | ART Grand Prix | 1m43.385s | +0.713s | 33 |
| 9 | Ugo Ugochukwu | Prema | 1m43.517s | +0.845s | 39 |
| 10 | Kanato Le | G4 Racing | 1m43.524s | +0.852s | 37 |
| 11 | Pedro Clerot | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m43.547s | +0.875s | 36 |
| 12 | Noah Stromsted | R-P-M | 1m43.583s | +0.911s | 35 |
| 13 | Zachary David | R-ace GP | 1m43.608s | +0.936s | 37 |
| 14 | Ruiqi Liu | Trident | 1m43.701s | +1.029s | 33 |
| 15 | Nikhil Bohra | MP Motorsport | 1m43.753s | +1.081s | 41 |
| 16 | Theophile Nael | Sainteloc Racing | 1m43.782s | +1.110s | 33 |
| 17 | Valerio Rinicella | MP Motorsport | 1m43.813s | +1.141s | 41 |
| 18 | Enzo Deligny | R-ace GP | 1m43.853s | +1.181s | 38 |
| 19 | Niko Lacorte | Trident | 1m43.893s | +1.221s | 27 |
| 20 | Evan Giltaire | ART Grand Prix | 1m43.919s | +1.247s | 34 |
| 21 | Edgar Pierre | R-P-M | 1m43.930s | +1.258s | 35 |
| 22 | Enzo Peugeot | Sainteloc Racing | 1m43.951s | +1.279s | 35 |
| 23 | Matteo De Palo | Sainteloc Racing | 1m44.005s | +1.333s | 32 |
| 24 | Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi | KIC Motorsport | 1m44.381s | +1.709s | 33 |
| 25 | Giovanni Maschio | R-P-M | 1m44.400s | +1.728s | 35 |
| 26 | Romain Andriolo | G4 Racing | 1m44.488s | +1.816s | 38 |
| 27 | Alex Sawer | KIC Motorsport | 1m44.580s | +1.908s | 28 |
| 28 | Lena Buhler | ART Grand Prix | 1m44.662s | +1.990s | 33 |
| 29 | Doriane Pin | Iron Dames | 1m44.790s | +2.118s | 41 |
| 30 | Marta Garcia | Iron Dames | 1m45.089s | +2.417s | 34 |
| 31 | Alvaro Cho | G4 Racing | 1m45.304s | +2.632s | 36 |
| 32 | Yaroslav Veselaho | ART Grand Prix | 1m45.539s | +2.867s | 32 |
| 33 | Yujiao Gao | KIC Motorsport | 1m45.751s | +3.079s | 33 |