Beganovic fastest as Prema strikes back in qualifying for FREC finale

Photo: FRECA

Dino Beganovic took pole for the final Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine race of the season at Monza in a Prema 1-2-3 in qualifying on a damp but drying track.

With times tumbling in the final minutes, getting a clear run on the last timed lap would be critical, and it was Beganovic, the very last car to take the chequered flag, who timed his run and the traffic perfectly to snatch pole from team-mate David Vidales by 0.351s.

Vidales, who was one of the few not to improve on their final lap, had still seemed set to hold on to pole with his penultimate lap. Nevertheless, second marked a significant improvement over his 14th place in qualifying for race one.

To complete the perfect qualifyin g for Prema Powerteam, Paul Aron also jumped up the order at the close to lock out the first three positions for the Italian team, after a disappointing qualifying for the first race of the weekend on Saturday. However, Aron takes a two-place grid penalty for contact in race one.

Speaking to Formula Scout before the start of qualifying, team manager Ralf Aron had been confident that “the pace was there, the potential was there and in the race we were really fast”. Track positioning was key to a good time and the Prema drivers managed the traffic and the advantage of a good slipstream to perfection.

R-ace GP’s Isack Hadjar, newly-crowned as rookie champion for 2021 after his second place in the first race of the weekend, had topped the times with two minutes remaining and, although he also improved his time on his last lap, had to settle for fourth.

Gabriele Mini for ART Grand Prix had a better qualifying session than the day before and was topping the timesheets when qualifying was red-flagged with just over six minutes remaining to recover the Tatuus of Pietro Delli Guanti which was beached on the kerbs at Roggia after a spin.

Mini improved his time by a second on his last tour but his lap was only good enough for seventh, one place ahead of team-mate, Gregoire Saucy.

Race one winner and polesitter, Hadrien David, was unable to match his performance from Saturday and will start from seventh on the grid alongside Kas Haverkort from MP Motorsport.

Qualifying result