Camara quickest in pre-event testing as FREC paddock returns to Spa

Photo: Prema

The Formula Regional European Championship paddock returned to Spa-Francorchamps today for the first time since Dilano van’t Hoff’s death in a race last year for a day of testing.

There was a morning and afternoon session, and the surprise pacesetter early in session one was ART Grand Prix’s Yaroslav Veselaho. He had topped the times several times in the first 15 minutes before setting a more representative 2m19.846s, which he then improved upon to 2m18.977s on his next tour.

R-ace GP’s Zachary David scrubbed 0.072 seconds off that benchmark, and MP Motorsport’s Nikhil Bohra utilised his slipstream to better him by 0.253s. Within a minute the pace had been lowered twice more, by Sainteloc Racing’s Matteo De Palo and then Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Clerot.

Bohra was first to break into the 2m17s, then Clerot improved twice going into the session’s second hour and put down a 2m17.197s as the new time to beat.

His team-mates met that challenge, with Brando Badoer setting a 2m16.992s and Ivan Domingues a 2m16.852s. That put Domingues on top for 16 minutes before R-ace’s Tuukka Taponen set a 2m16.663s, then 90 minutes in Prema’s drivers came to the fore.

Rafael Camara went fastest by 0.379s, team-mate James Wharton then went 0.167s quicker than him, and Camara’s response was to reclaim first place by 0.111s with a 2m16.006s.

He led the way for 11 minutes before ART GP’s Alessandro Giusti set a 2m15.483s, which proved unbeatable for 50 minutes. Giusti was eventually usurped by Prema’s contingent, with Wharton posting a 2m15.343s, Camara going 0.021s faster and Ugo Ugochukwu just 0.002s quicker than that.

Wharton responded to his team-mates’ pace by setting the first sub-2m15s lap, and Giusti also had room for improvement as he set a 2m14.866s that put him on top until the chequered flag waved at the end of two-and-a-half hours.

The afternoon session lasted three-and-a-half hours, and had far fewer changes at the top.

It was not until 15 minutes in that any laps were set, with Taponen posting a 2m29.515s. He was followed across the line by team-mate Enzo Deligny, who set a 2m22.742s, then two minutes later Taponen reclaimed top spot with a 2m15.961s. He stayed there for over two hours, only improving twice. He set a 2m15.224s on the lap after the one that put him ahead, then found a further 0.003s two laps later.

A 2m14.741s from Camara finally demoted Taponen to second. That lap went unbeaten through the last 67 minutes of testing, and nobody else was able to beat Taponen’s previous benchmark.

Wharton finished the session 0.561s behind in third, with Badoer, Ugochukwu, MP’s Valerio Rinicella and Trident’s Roman Bilinski the only others within a second of the pace.

Giusti, Wharton, Ugochukwu, Race Performance Motorsport’s Noah Stromsted and ART GP’s Evan Giltaire failed to beat their morning laptimes but ended the test in second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh overall. Trident’s Ruiqi Liu, Iron Dames’ Marta Garcia and ART GP’s Lena Buhler were also non-improvers.

Test results