Deligny quickest in closely contested FREC practice at Red Bull Ring

Photo: FREC

R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny was quickest in Formula Regional European Championship practice at the Red Bull Ring on Friday.

The day was split into two 50-minute sessions, and in FP1 there were 11 different drivers who spent time on top.

Trident’s Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi, G4 Racing’s Edu Robinson, Race Performance Motorsport’s Giovanni Maschio and the Sainteloc Racing trio of Nikita Bedrin, Tim Gerhards and Yaroslav Veselaho all occupied first place at points before a representative pace was set, although it was Bedrin who was the first driver to post a sub-1m30s lap.

Bhirombhakdi swiftly beat him, then three successive personal bests from Bedrin brought the pace down to 1m27.836s.

That benchmark stood for four minutes, before Prema’s Freddie Slater set a 1m27.671s then made a big improvement to 1m27.028s on his next lap.

A few minutes later Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Clerot set a 1m26.783s, which stood as the fastest lap at the session’s halfway point through to the final nine minutes when a flurry of improvements came in across the field.

Bhirombhakdi beat Clerot by 0.019 seconds, then Bedrin moved ahead by 0.087s. R-ace’s Jin Nakamura was next to be on top, by 0.324s.

Trident’s Matteo De Palo, who is Slater’s main title rival, went quickest with just over seven minutes to go and became the first driver in the 1m25s on his following lap.

His 1m25.981s looked tricky to beat, but Clerot was able to do it by 0.023s and after the chequered flag waved Deligny snatched top spot by 0.121s. De Palo improved to 1m25.974s in third, and Slater was just 0.021s slower in fourth.

ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire went fifth fastest late on, demoting Nakamura who like Deligny set less than 15 laps while most drivers did more than 20.

Bedrin and Bhirombhakdi ended FP1 in ninth and 21st place, and R-P-M’s Reno Francot was the top debutant in 14th.

Nobody improved on their FP1 pace in FP2. Veselaho and Maschio were quickest again initially, with Francot and Veselaho also topping the times before Gerhards posted a 1m29.005s.

Maschio immediately responded with a 1m28.184s, then R-ace’s Akshay Bohra lowered the pace in four successive laps. After two further laps without gains, he then improved again to 1m27.372s.

Slater toppled him by 0.001s as the session’s second half began, and improved to 1m27.263s on his next lap.

That stood as the FP2 benchmark for 15 minutes, with Maschio demoting Slater to second by 0.032s with just over eight minutes left of practice.

A few minutes later Gerhards went quickest by 0.131s, and surprisingly was not bettered. Giltaire got within 0.031s of his pace, and Francot was impressively just 0.128s off the top in fourth place.

Prema’s Alex Powell, after being 26th in his first ever practice session, was 0.25s slower than Gerhards in sixth. There was 0.023s between him and Deligny in 11th, and a second covered the top 26.

Free practice results