Evan Giltaire fastest in practice before FREC season opener

Photo: ACI Sport

Evan Giltaire goes into the Formula Regional European Championship season opener at Misano as the driver to beat after setting the best time across Friday’s two practice sessions.

The ART Grand Prix driver was the first driver to set a time at the start of the session, and although he was quickly beaten by team-mates Taito Kato and Kenato Le, he would establish himself as the pacesetter over the first 15 minutes.

Prema drivers Jack Beeton and Freddie Slater then took turns on top, as did Trident’s Matteo de Palo, who remained fastest for the best part of 20 minutes, including through a red flag, until Giltaire edged him out by 0.040 seconds with 10 minutes of the session remaining.

Another red flag followed before Giltaire went another 0.222s faster at the chequered flag, posting a 1m29.655s. Pedro Clerot went second quickest, 0.157s adrift, with Le taking third.

The second session was red-flagged after just six minutes after Sainteloc Racing’s Tim Gerhard stopped on track, and another stoppage followed with 20 minutes remaining.

De Palo was fastest at point, but it was Slater who first dipped below the 1m30s mark with 10 minutes to go. De Palo took top spot back inside the final minute, only for Nikita Bedrin to go 0.131s quicker. The Sainteloc driver fell just 0.023s short of matching Giltaire’s benchmark from the morning.

New Mercedes junior Rashid Al Dhaheri also snuck in front of de Palo and into second in the afternoon session and third overall for Prema.

There have been a number of late additions to the grid for round one including former Red Bull junior and FIA Formula 3 racer Kacper Sztuka, who has joined G4 Racing. The Polish driver is already driving FRegional machinery with Campos Racing in Eurocup-3 this year.

Also joining G4 for the first round for now is Arthur Aegerter after taking part in the second day of the recent Paul Ricard test. The Frenchman raced in the Ultimate Cup Series last year, initially in Krafft Racing’s Formula Renault 2.0 before switching to a Lamo Racing FRegional car.

Valerio Rinicella will be the sole driver this weekend for CL Motorsport. The Chinese-backed, Italian-based team took over the entry of MP Motorsport for this year, with Rinicella switching his main focus to Eurocup-3 with the Dutch outfit. Zachary David had been signed as the team’s first driver but missed the most recent test, and has already appeared in Super Formula Lights this season.

Lastly, Akcel GP has entered two cars for Aditya Kulkarni, who raced for its tie-up with PHM Racing in FRegional Middle East earlier this year, and Kuwaiti driver Saqer Al-Maosherji, who finished sixth in Saudi Arabian Formula 4 last year.

Combined practice results