De Palo on pole, Slater 18th in qualifying for FREC Red Bull Ring race one

Photo: ACI Sport

Matteo De Palo pipped Pedro Clerot to pole for the first Formula Regional European Championship race at the Red Bull Ring by 0.01 seconds.

Both drivers were in group B, and had the benefit of a grippier track than group A that headed out first.

Sainteloc Racing’s Tim Gerhards and Yaroslav Veselaho set the pace early in group A, eventually being beaten when drivers completed their fourth laps. R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny posted a 1m28.745s to go fastest, with Gerhards pushed down to sixth.

He returned to the top next time by, setting a 1m28.453s that was beaten by Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi before he had his effort deleted for track limits abuse and dropped to 13th.

R-ace’s Akshay Bohra then set a new 1m26.918s benchmark, edging CL Motorsport’s Michael Belov and Deligny. Gerhards was shuffled down to eighth, and with his next lap could not recover places despite improving.

When the top three crossed the line to complete their sixth laps, Deligny moved to the top with a 1m26.363s, Bohra improved to 1m26.624s and Belov to 1m26.862s. Race Performance Motorsport’s debutant Reno Francot moved up to fourth.

Deligny then lowered the pace to 1m26.247s, leading Bohra by 0.144s. Belov was demoted to fifth by Francot and Yamakoshi.

Few drivers improved on their eight laps, with Bohra setting a 1m26.157s to edge ahead of Deligny by 0.014s.

Only half of the pack got their next lap in before the chequered flag waved, and Bohra lowered the pace again to 1m26.008s. Deligny and Yamakoshi were just 0.024s and 0.032s behind, with Francot fourth and Prema’s championship leader Freddie Slater down in sixth. Belov improved but was only eighth, however like the top two he could do another lap.

Bohra reinforced top spot with a 1m25.981s lap at the end, while Deligny and Belov failed to improve. The latter gained a place though as Slater’s fastest lap was deleted, consigning him to 18th on the grid.

CL Motorsport’s Enea Frey was fastest at first in group B, then Trident’s De Palo and Sainteloc’s Nikita Bedrin came to the fore on the third laps as runs of successive improvements actually proved harder to come by.

Bedrin posted a 1m27.97s next, leading Trident’s Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi by 0.024s before VAR’s Clerot — who had clean air and was later to complete his laps than his rivals — went fastest by a huge 0.744s. De Palo improved but was fifth behind Prema’s debutant Alex Powell.

Clerot improved by a second next time by but his laptime was deleted for track limits abuse and he dropped to 11th as everyone else improved. De Palo now occupied first place with a 1m26.372s, ahead of Rashid Al Dhaheri and Bedrin.

A 1m25.773s put Clerot on provisional pole with his sixth lap, 0.47s ahead of Bedrin who had a small pace advantage over Al Dhaheri and De Palo.

De Palo set a 1m26.051s to go second fastest with four minutes to go, 0.103s ahead of Bedrin, and on his next lap claimed pole with a 1m25.709s.

Clerot got very close to that benchmark in the final minute, with Bedrin setting a 1m25.875s tocrise to third. He improved again after the chequered flag, lapping 0.081s shy of pole, and Al Dhaheri went fourth fastest to be Prema’s top driver.

Qualifying results