Photo: FRME
Nikhil Bohra and Tuukka Taponen set the pace in Formula Regional Middle East pre-season testing at Yas Marina Circuit.
Day one ran on the track’s Grand Prix layout, and Mumbai Falcons’ Ugo Ugochukwu led the way in session one with a 1m52.916s. His penultimate lap was the only sub-1m53s laptime recorded, and put him on top by 0.27 seconds over R-ace GP’s Taponen.
Rafael Camara (Mumbai Falcons) was 0.423s behind in third, with Theophile Nael (Sainteloc Racing) a further 0.064s off the pace and Mari Boya (Pinnacle Motorsport) 0.755s back in fifth. Noah Lisle, Costa Toparis and Yaroslav Veselaho failed to set any laptimes, and Bohra was absent from the session.
In session two, 23 of the 29 drivers improved their pace and Nael filled first place after setting a 1m52.925s. Ugochukwu was 0.171s behind, with a gap of 0.282s to Camara, 0.33s to Taylor Barnard (PHM Racing) and 0.341s to Boya.
Six drivers including Ugochukwu failed to improve on their session one pace, while Barnard was among the six who would not go faster in session three and it left him in 13th place overall.
The pace dropped significantly in the final session, with MP Motorsport’s Bohra putting in a 1m52.019s on his penultimate lap to go top by 0.037s over Ugochukwu. Nael and Taponen were within 0.2s of the benchmark pace, with Camara in fifth and leading his team-mates Arvid Lindblad and James Wharton. Toparis (Evans GP), Matteo De Palo (Sainteloc) and Valerio Rinicella (MP) were all less than a second off Bohra, and Lisle (Xcel Motorsport) was absent.
Testing switched to the shorter Corkscrew layout, which turns left halfway through turn four and introduces a few twists before joining onto the back straight, for day two.
Camara set a 1m43.595s to top session one, but could not improve thereon. He led a Mumbai Falcons 1-2-3 with Wharton and Lindblad 0.23s and 0.3s behind respectively. De Palo was 0.643s off the pace in fourth, with Nael, Toparis (another not to improve afterwards), Boya, Martinius Stenshorne (R-ace) and Ugochukwu within a second of the pace.
Mumbai Falcons filled the top four places in session two, with Lindblad lowering the pace to 1m43.477s. Wharton, Ugochukwu and Camara were next best, then Bruno del Pino (MP) was 0.383s behind in fifth. There were 11 drivers who set personal best laptimes in the session, while De Palo, Nael, Boya and John Bennett (Evans GP) did not improve but would find more pace in the last session.
Having set nine laps and gone 16th fastest in session one, then been seventh fastest with only eight laps in session two, Taponen spent almost twice as much time on track in session three and was rewarded with the fastest time. His 1m43.120s put him 0.077s ahead of team-mate Zachary David, with Boya, De Palo and Pedro Clerot (Sainteloc) completing the top five.
Toparis and Stenshorne were absent, and previous pacesetters Lindblad and Ugochuckwu were down in 18th and 21st place. Their session two efforts put them fifth and 11th overall.
Test results
| GP layout | Corkscrew layout | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Laps | Pos | Driver | Time | Laps |
| 1 | Nikhil Bohra | MP Motorsport | 1m52.019s | 34 | 1 | Taponen | 1m43.120s | 32 |
| 2 | Ugo Ugochukwu | Mumbai Falcons | +0.037s | 58 | 2 | David | +0.077s | 48 |
| 3 | Theophile Nael | Sainteloc Racing | +0.149s | 48 | 3 | Boya | +0.198s | 59 |
| 4 | Tuukka Taponen | R-ace GP | +0.179s | 48 | 4 | De Palo | +0.292s | 60 |
| 5 | Rafael Camara | Mumbai Falcons | +0.389s | 55 | 5 | Lindblad | +0.357s | 52 |
| 6 | Arvid Lindblad | Mumbai Falcons | +0.523s | 51 | 6 | Clerot | +0.399s | 53 |
| 7 | James Wharton | Mumbai Falcons | +0.603s | 52 | 7 | Carrasquedo | +0.440s | 51 |
| 8 | Costa Toparis | Evans GP | +0.709s | 47 | 8 | Camara | +0.475s | 61 |
| 9 | Matteo De Palo | Sainteloc Racing | +0.814s | 52 | 9 | Wharton | +0.495s | 58 |
| 10 | Valerio Rinicella | MP Motorsport | +0.902s | 54 | 10 | Nael | +0.525s | 41 |
| 11 | Zachary David | R-ace GP | +1.046s | 46 | 11 | Ugochukwu | +0.628s | 57 |
| 12 | Mari Boya | Pinnacle Motorsport | +1.158s | 35 | 12 | del Pino | +0.740s | 51 |
| 13 | Taylor Barnard | PHM Racing | +1.236s | 41 | 13 | Bohra | +0.831s | 51 |
| 14 | Martinius Stenshorne | R-ace GP | +1.286s | 54 | 14 | Bennett | +0.927s | 54 |
| 15 | Pedro Clerot | Sainteloc Racing | +1.410s | 41 | 15 | Toparis | +1.211s | 41 |
| 16 | John Bennett | Evans GP | +1.445s | 42 | 16 | Rinicella | +1.218s | 61 |
| 17 | Bruno del Pino | MP Motorsport | +1.565s | 46 | 17 | Badoer | +1.244s | 58 |
| 18 | Emmo Fittipaldi | MP Motorsport | +1.830s | 54 | 18 | Stenshorne | +1.257s | 43 |
| 19 | Alexander Abkhazava | Pinnacle Motorsport | +1.849s | 56 | 19 | Inthraphuvasak | +1.427s | 53 |
| 20 | Brando Badoer | PHM Racing | +2.027s | 46 | 20 | Lisle | +1.434s | 67 |
| 21 | Yujia Gao | R&B Racing | +2.051s | 58 | 21 | Wang | +1.434s | 70 |
| 22 | Jesse Carrasquedo | R-ace GP | +2.059s | 39 | 22 | Barnard | +1.475s | 54 |
| 23 | Zhongwei Wang | R&B Racing | +2.194s | 40 | 23 | Liu | +1.538s | 50 |
| 24 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | PHM Racing | +2.339s | 41 | 24 | Abkhazava | +1.703s | 62 |
| 25 | Ruiqi Liu | PHM Racing | +2.344s | 47 | 25 | Fittipaldi | +1.789s | 63 |
| 26 | Giovanni Maschio | Pinnacle Motorsport | 54.506 | 38 | 26 | Maschio | +1.952s | 57 |
| 27 | Noah Lisle | Xcel Motorsport | 54.628 | 22 | 27 | Gao | +2.195s | 64 |
| 28 | Yaroslav Veselaho | Xcel Motorsport | +3.623s | 33 | 28 | Veselaho | +3.155s | 44 |
| 29 | Finley Green | Pinnacle Motorsport | +3.926s | 37 | 28 | Green | +3.510s | 37 |