
Photo: FRECA
ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire topped the second and final day of Formula Regional Middle East pre-event testing at Yas Marina Circuit.
His team-mate Taito Kato started Wednesday’s action on top, setting a 1m49.561s in the morning session to lead the way by 0.297 seconds over Pinnacle Motorsport’s Ernesto Rivera.
Mumbai Falcons pair Rashid Al Dhaheri and Freddie Slater were just under a third of a second behind, with Pinnacle Motorsport’s Jesse Carrasaquedo Jr, Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael and ART GP’s Kanato Le the only other drivers within a second of the pace. The top four, Le and Mumbai Falcons’ Reza Seewooruthun all set their fastest laps of the day in the morning session.
Giltaire was 1.508s back in 11th, and PHM Racing’s Brando Badoer – one of the highest-placed returnees from last season – was 3.437s slower than Kato in 22nd. There were 28 laptimes by 16 drivers that were deleted due to track limits abuse.
Origine Motorsport’s Ruiqi Liu set a 1m50.171s to go quickest in the next session. Al Dhaheri and Slater were second and third fastest, again with a third of a second of the top of the timesheet, and Badoer was half a second off Liu in fourth. Mumbai Falcons’ Jack Beeton was a further tenth of a second, and the pair, along with Akcel GP’s Aditya Kulkarni and Origine’s Zhongwei Wang set personal bests for the day.
Badoer’s team-mate Everett Stack was absent, and ART GP’s drivers were all outside of the top 20. Akshay Bohra was the fastest R-ace GP driver in 17th, with his team-mates Ugo Ugochukwu and Jin Nakamura failing to lap at a representative pace. This time 15 drivers were guilty of track limits abuse, with 27 laps deleted.
Giltaire rebounded by setting the quickest lap of pre-season testing in the final session. His 1m49.291s beat Kato’s morning benchmark by 0.27s, and in the session he had a 0.392s gap to Carrasquedo in second. Liu was half a second behind in third, Nael trailed by 0.7s in fourth and completing the top six were Kato and Ugochukwu. Nakamura also improved to make the top 10 overall.
Beeton did not get a laptime on the board, and a total of 28 laps by 13 drivers were deleted following track limits violations.
Day two results
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Evan Giltaire | ART Grand Prix | 1m49.291s | 47 | |
2 | Taito Kato | ART Grand Prix | 1m49.561s | +0.270s | 46 |
3 | Jesse Carrasquedo Jr | Pinnacle Motorsport | 1m49.683s | +0.392s | 51 |
4 | Ruiqi Liu | Origine Motorsport | 1m49.800s | +0.509s | 52 |
5 | Ernesto Rivera | Pinnacle Motorsport | 1m49.858s | +0.567s | 45 |
6 | Rashid Al Dhaheri | Mumbai Falcons | 1m49.882s | +0.591s | 56 |
7 | Freddie Slater | Mumbai Falcons | 1m49.893s | +0.602s | 57 |
8 | Theophile Nael | Sainteloc Racing | 1m49.991s | +0.700s | 42 |
9 | Ugo Ugochukwu | R-ace GP | 1m50.266s | +0.975s | 42 |
10 | Jin Nakamura | R-ace GP | 1m50.404s | +1.113s | 40 |
11 | Kanato Le | ART Grand Prix | 1m50.432s | +1.141s | 47 |
12 | Akshay Bohra | R-ace GP | 1m50.563s | +1.272s | 49 |
13 | Brando Badoer | PHM Racing | 1m50.671s | +1.380s | 50 |
14 | Giovanni Maschio | Pinnacle Motorsport | 1m50.672s | +1.381s | 53 |
15 | Jack Beeton | Mumbai Falcons | 1m50.774s | +1.483s | 42 |
16 | Aaron Cameron | Evans GP | 1m50.846s | +1.555s | 56 |
17 | Enzo Deligny | R-ace GP | 1m50.863s | +1.572s | 37 |
18 | Reza Seewooruthun | Mumbai Falcons | 1m50.864s | +1.573s | 57 |
19 | Kai Daryanani | Evans GP | 1m50.929s | +1.638s | 52 |
20 | Aditya Kulkarni | Akcel GP | 1m51.135s | +1.844s | 46 |
21 | Finley Green | Pinnacle Motorsport | 1m51.317s | +2.026s | 44 |
22 | Everett Stack | PHM Racing | 1m51.381s | +2.090s | 31 |
23 | Lorenzo Castillo | Sainteloc Racing | 1m51.582s | +2.291s | 55 |
24 | Jaden Pariat | Akcel GP | 1m51.652s | +2.361s | 37 |
25 | Yaroslav Veselaho | Sainteloc Racing | 1m51.821s | +2.530s | 44 |
26 | Zhongwei Wang | Origine Motorsport | 1m51.988s | +2.697s | 58 |