De Palo ends long wait for first FREC pole in Q1 at Hungaroring

Photo: ACI Sport

Trident’s Matteo De Palo ended his wait of over a season for his first Formula Regional European Championship pole at the Hungaroring.

Qualifying was split into two groups, and in the first it was Prema’s Freddie Slater who initially set the pace.

ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato, Trident’s Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi, Akcel GP’s Saqer Al Maosherji and R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny all spent on time on top before Slater moved back to the front with the first truly representative laptime, a 1m40.027s.

At that point R-ace’s Jin Nakamura was his closest rival, but in the second half of the 15-minute session he was beaten by a succession of drivers. Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Clerot broke into the 1m39s, then Bhirombhakdi brought the pace into the 1m38s shortly after before Deligny set a 1m38.424s to lead the way.

But when Slater completed his next lap with five minutes to go he was quickest again, improving to 1m38.413s. Race Performance Motorsport’s Enzo Yeh was 0.197 seconds behind in third, and Sainteloc Racing’s Nikita Bedrin sat fourth.

Kato rose to third with three minutes remaining, then Clerot beat Slater’s benchmark by 0.095s. Bhirombhakdi posted a 1m38.215s when he crossed the line, but was soon fourth as Deligny and Slater lapped sub-1m38s and Bedrin went third fastest.

Traffic in the last sector became a big issue in the final minute, and hampered attempts to improve. After the chequered flag, Clerot claimed provisional pole by posting a 1m37.823s, going 0.06s faster than Deligny.

R-ace’s Akshay Bohra improved to fourth, while Bhirombhakdi spun and ended the session in sixth. A second covered the top 12.

Rashid Al Dhaheri looked like the driver to beat at first in group B, leading Sainteloc’s Yaroslav Veselaho and Prema team-mate Jack Beeton.

De Palo went quickest five minutes in, with Trident’s Ruiqi Liu rising to second and G4 Racing’s Enzo Richer going third.

Richer moved to the top on his next lap, setting a 1m45.655s. Liu looked set to beat him after going quickest in the first two sectors, but abandoned his lap and Richer went off on his next.

Al Dhaheri returned to first place as the second half of the session began, followed by team-mate Doriane Pin.

A 1m38.033s put De Palo back into top spot 40s later, with Liu and VAR’s Hiyu Yamakoshi in second and third. His team-mate Dion Gowda soon occupied second, but was shuffled down to seventh as Al Dhaheri trimmed 0.002s off De Palo’s benchmark, and Beeton went third fastest ahead of Pin, CL’s Zachary David and ART GP’s Kanato Le.

De Palo not not only moved back ahead on his next lap but took provisional pole with a 1m37.806s that confirmed group B as the fastest. Al Dhaheri got close with a 1m37.843s, then there was a gap of almost 0.6s to Liu in third.

Following the chequered flag, De Palo found even more pace and guaranteed himself pole with a 1m37.431s. Yamakoshi briefly got into third, then ART GP’s Evan Giltaire took the position but was 0.589s off De Palo. Al Dhaheri trimmed his gap to 0.232s at the end.

Qualifying results