Home Formula RegionalFRegional European Championship Colapinto continues frontrunning FREC form by setting pace at Valencia

Colapinto continues frontrunning FREC form by setting pace at Valencia

by Ida Wood

Photo: FRECA

Franco Colapinto was comfortably fastest in the four-hour Formula Regional European Championship test session at Valencia Ricardo Tormo on Thursday.

The extra running helped prepare teams and drivers for a track that was swapped into the season’s calendar late on after the Nurburgring round was cancelled following a natural disaster in Germany and the track’s use as a base for relief efforts.

Colapinto was the driver to beat as the track evolved, with G4 Racing’s Michael Belov occasionally challenging him and going 0.091 seconds up on the MP Motorsport driver after 40 minutes.

Prema’s Paul Aron also snuck by Colapinto before he went fastest by over a quarter of a second towards the end of the first hour.

His 1m29.717s to move to the top was enough to keep him there for 80 minutes before another burst of flying laps brought Aron back into the picture as he set a 1m29.722s. Colapinto improved to a 1m29.386s though.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Mari Boya was next to dethrone Colapinto, setting a 1m29.215s while the previous pacesetter was sitting in pitlane.

He extended his gap with a 1m29.081s before his own trip to the pitlane, and when Colapinto returned to track he didn’t actually return to first place.

R-ace GP’s Isack Hadjar went 0.073s slower than Boya to slot into second with half an hour remaining, while Colapinto was once again in the pits.

The last runs of each driver took place in the final 20 minutes, and the pace rapidly dropped. Championship leader Gregoire Saucy bettered Boya by 0.033s, with Aron, Gabriele Mini, William Alatalo and Hadjar all going faster than Colapinto until he went for his final laps on a far grippier track and rocketed back into first place by half a second.

Belov slipped into second place, 0.283s behind, on his final lap and Boya beat Saucy to third place.

Test results

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Franco Colapinto MP Motorsport 1m28.429s 63
2 Michael Belov G4 Racing 1m28.712s +0.283s 50
3 Mari Boya Van Amersfoort Racing 1m28.926s +0.497s 70
4 Gregoire Saucy ART Grand Prix 1m28.966s +0.537s 73
5 Gianluca Petecof KIC Motorsport 1m28.969s +0.540s 72
6 Gabriele Mini ART Grand Prix 1m29.034s +0.605s 61
7 William Alatalo Arden 1m29.088s +0.659s 58
8 Paul Aron Prema 1m29.099s +0.670s 61
9 David Vidales Prema 1m29.126s +0.697s 58
10 Isack Hadjar R-ace GP 1m29.154s +0.725s 57
11 Gabriel Bortoleto FA Racing by MP 1m29.156s +0.727s 66
12 Eduardo Barrichello JD Motorsport 1m29.174s +0.745s 62
13 Alex Quinn Arden 1m29.200s +0.771s 64
14 Hadrien David R-ace GP 1m29.239s +0.810s 54
15 Dino Beganovic Prema 1m29.251s +0.822s 55
16 Zane Maloney R-ace GP 1m29.283s +0.854s 60
17 Francesco Pizzi Van Amersfoort Racing 1m29.361s +0.932s 68
18 Jose Garfias Monolite Racing 1m29.503s +1.074s 67
19 Andrea Rosso FA Racing by MP 1m29.505s +1.076s 62
20 Lorenzo Fluxa Van Amersfoort Racing 1m29.506s +1.077s 66
21 Alexandre Bardinon FA Racing by MP 1m29.525s +1.096s 62
22 Patrik Pasma ART Grand Prix 1m29.579s +1.150s 70
23 Oliver Goethe MP Motorsport 1m29.633s +1.204s 59
24 Dilano van’t Hoff MP Motorsport 1m29.654s +1.225s 66
25 Pietro Delli Guanti Monolite Racing 1m29.666s +1.237s 77
26 Nicola Marinangeli Arden 1m29.762s +1.333s 55
27 Kas Haverkort MP Motorsport 1m29.776s +1.347s 59
28 Tommy Smith JD Motorsport 1m29.896s +1.467s 65
29 Emidio Pesce DR Formula 1m29.965s +1.536s 66
30 Jasin Ferati KIC Motorsport 1m30.052s +1.623s 68
31 Axel Gnos G4 Racing 1m30.200s +1.771s 58
32 Nico Gohler KIC Motorsport 1m30.488s +2.059s 56
33 Belen Garcia G4 Racing 1m30.945s +2.516s 57
34 Lena Buhler R-ace GP 1m30.984s +2.555s 55