Home Formula RegionalFRegional Middle East Evan Giltaire lowers pace on FRME’s second pre-season test day

Evan Giltaire lowers pace on FRME’s second pre-season test day

by Ida Wood

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