Photo: ACI Sport
Matteo De Palo led Formula Regional European Chamionship rival Freddie Slater to top spot in practice at Hockenheim.
Friday’s two sessions marked the first FREC mileage for James Egozi, who joins Race Performance Motorsport’s line-up this weekend. The 17-year-old American has been busy so far this year racing for Palou Motorsport in Eurocup-3.
He came third in the winter series as a rookie, taking two wins and a pole, while in the main championship he has one victory and sits seventh in the standings.
Last year he drove for Campos Racing, coming ninth in Formula Winter Series’ points table as a part-timer with one win and then sixth in Spanish Formula 4 with three podiums and a pole.
Rejoining the FREC paddock in Germany are Newman Chi and Enea Frey, who are both racing for CL Motorsport. They made their debuts with the team two rounds ago at the Red Bull Ring, both retiring in their first race then finishing 22nd and 27th respectively the next day.
Chi is currently seventh in Italian F4 and was ninth in F4 Middle East at the start of this year, while Frey began 2025 by coming ninth in FWinter Series and sits 19th in Italian F4’s standings with one round to go.
Slater set the pace in the first of FREC’s two 50-minute practice sessions at Hockenheim, a 1m34.697s putting him 0.235 seconds ahead of De Palo.
ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire trailed by 0.382s in third, and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Clerot was 0.484s behind in fourth. There were 10 other drivers within a second of the pace, and R-ace GP’s title outsiders Akshay Bohra and Enzo Deligny were sixth and 19th fastest. Deligny was 1.574s slower than Slater.
De Palo lowered the benchmark laptime to 1m34.516s during FP2 in the afternoon, while Slater failed to improve and went third fastest. Title rival Clerot was 0.254s behind De Palo in second place, and Trident’s Ruiqi Liu was 0.381s back in fourth.
Giltaire, VAR’s Hiyu Yamakoshi and R-ace’s Jin Nakamura all lapped within 0.5s of De Palo and Deligny improved to 1m35.235s in 10th. However he was 11th overall behind Bohra, who was one of seven drivers whose personal bests came in FP1.
Free practice results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Laps [FP2] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matteo De Palo | Trident | 1m34.516s | 21 |
| 2 | Freddie Slater | Prema | +0.181s | 22 |
| 3 | Pedro Clerot | Van Amersfoort Racing | +0.254s | 25 |
| 4 | Ruiqi Liu | Trident | +0.381s | 21 |
| 5 | Evan Giltaire | ART Grand Prix | +0.408s | 25 |
| 6 | Hiyu Yamakoshi | Van Amersfoort Racing | +0.414s | 25 |
| 7 | Jin Nakamura | R-ace GP | +0.495s | 21 |
| 8 | Taito Kato | ART Grand Prix | +0.505s | 25 |
| 9 | Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi | Trident | +0.559s | 21 |
| 10 | Akshay Bohra | R-ace GP | +0.707s | 21 |
| 11 | Enzo Deligny | R-ace GP | +0.719s | 22 |
| 12 | Kanato Le | ART Grand Prix | +0.751s | 25 |
| 13 | Rashid Al Dhaheri | Prema | +0.774s | 22 |
| 14 | Dion Gowda | Van Amersfoort Racing | +0.792s | 26 |
| 15 | James Egozi | R-P-M | +0.822s | 22 |
| 16 | Jack Beeton | Prema | +0.856s | 22 |
| 17 | Nikita Bedrin | Sainteloc Racing | +0.884s | 25 |
| 18 | Yuanpu Cui | Prema | +1.100s | 22 |
| 19 | Edu Robinson | G4 Racing | +1.111s | 20 |
| 20 | Michael Belov | CL Motorsport | +1.155s | 20 |
| 21 | Giovanni Maschio | R-P-M | +1.157s | 22 |
| 22 | Kacper Sztuka | R-P-M | +1.593s | 20 |
| 23 | Saqer Al Maosherji | G4 Racing | +1.796s | 22 |
| 24 | Tim Gerhards | Sainteloc Racing | +1.803s | 24 |
| 25 | Newman Chi | CL Motorsport | +2.194s | 21 |
| 26 | Edouard Borgna | G4 Racing | +2.483s | 20 |
| 27 | Enea Frey | CL Motorsport | +2.529s | 21 |
| 28 | Yaroslav Veselaho | Sainteloc Racing | +2.578s | 24 |