Enzo Deligny delivers in FREC on Saturday at Imola

Photo: ACI Sport

Enzo Deligny mastered Imola in Formula Regional Europe’s track action on Saturday, following up his practice-topping pace of Friday with pole position and a victory.

He was in the second qualifying group, so knew what laptime had to be beaten for pole.

In group A, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Clerot was the first to reach a representative pace with a 1m40.373s. ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire swiftly beat that by a tiny 0.002 seconds, then Clerot responded on his next lap by trumping everyone to the tune of 0.833s.

That was not enough to keep him ahead, as when Prema’s Freddie Slater crossed the line he set a 1m39.134s. He improved to 1m38.921s, then to 1m38.646s to be 0.252s faster than Clerot.

Giltaire trailed by 0.301s in third, team-mate Taito Kato was 0.466s off Slater in fourth and Sainteloc Racing’s Nikita Bedrin edged Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri to fifth and therefore a top 10 starting spot. G4 Racing’s Kacper Sztuka was 12th fastest on his return.

Trident’s Matteo De Palo was first to the top in group A, with Deligny and then R-ace GP team-mate Jin Nakamura edging ahead. De Palo moved back ahead with two successive improvements, before Deligny set the group’s first sub-1m39s lap.

Later on De Palo responded, posting a 1m38.941s, but Deligny had more in hand and got down to 1m38.585s to claim his second pole.

Team-mate Akshay Bohra was second fastest in the group, 0.186s off pole and 0.108s ahead of De Palo, with Nanakmura fourth and VAR’s Hiyu Yamakoshi.

Slater started slowly and Bohra took second as race one began, while Giltaire and CL Motorsport’s Michael Belov having grassy moments. Clerot was back ahead of Slater and Bohra by the end of lap one.

Kato passed Giltaire for seventh through the Tamburello chicane on lap two, with Yamakoshi following past. But they then clashed at Piratella, sending Yamakoshi spinning into retirement. CL’s Yevan David spun after contact with Prema’s Jack Beeton, and the safety car and then red flags came out due to Yamakoshi’s off.

The race restarted on lap five, with green flags waving on lap seven of what would be 17 laps. Deligny set multiple fastest laps thereon as he pulled away to win, although there was another safety car interruption on lap 14 due to Al Dhaheri crashing out after fighting with Race Performance Motorsport’s Ean Eyckmans.

Slater had gone around the outside of Clerot before turn one on that lap, then Bohra got him too before racing was neutralised.

The top five, completed by De Palo, held their positions following the lap 16 restart but Nakamura was less fortunate and was eliminated so Kato pipped Bedrin to sixth.

Race results (17 laps)