Ferrari junior Camara fastest in FREC pre-season testing at Paul Ricard

Photo: FRMEC

Rafael Camara topped Formula Regional European Championship’s pre-season test at Paul Ricard.

The action started on Tuesday with a three-hour morning session, and the majority of track activity occurred early on when temperatures were lower.

Maceo Capietto was fastest at the halfway point with a 1m58.021s, a quarter of a second clear of Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

The order at the top remained static as drivers stayed in the pits, although towards the end of hour two there were improvemnts from Roman Bilinski and Alessandro Giusti in fifth and seventh.

There was finally more running in the final 20 minutes, and Barcelona test pacesetter Tim Tramnitz went fourth fastest with 15 minutes to go. A few minutes later Antonelli improved, getting within 0.216s of Capietto.

Camara moved into second with seven minutes to go, and ended the session 0.106s behind Capietto. Kas Haverkort went fourth fastest late on, 0.395s off the top.

The four-hour afternoon session had no track action in hour our, and Tramnitz was first to set the pace at 1m58.930s.

He had a 0.513s gap to Haverkort until the session’s second half, as Sami Meguetounif set a 1m59.392s to go second fastest.

A succession of laps from Martinius Stenshorne brought him into second 20 minutes later. A 1m58.902s eventually put him ahead, while Kirill Smal jumped to third.

Stenshorne improved again to 1m58.756s, and a short while later Haverkort returned to the top three but was then shuffled back to fourth by a 1m58.018s lap from Joshua Dufek. Two laps later, Dufek went fastest with a 1m58.713s.

Fluxa became the next driver in the 1m58s during the final hour, and with 40 minutes remaining Camara and Antonelli set 1m58.3s laps to go one-two.

A few minutes Antonelli went fastest with a 1m58.042s, and a 1m58.191s earned Tramnitz second place. He was later bettered by Haverkort, who set a 1m58.155s.

Nikhil Bohra, Owen Tangavelou and Santiago Ramos were the early pacesetters on the test’s second morning.

Haverkort and Camara usurped Ramos after 33 minutes, but Ramos responded immediately to reclaim first place. Smal and Tramnitz started the second hour by beating him, and later Camara dropped into the 1m57s with what would be the test’s fastest lap.

Antonelli went second fastest before 30 minutes of an empty track that was interrupted by Stenshorne taking fifth place. The session ended with red flags and the top 20 covered by a second.

Tramnitz was fastest in a quiet first hour of the four-hour afternoon session, with Haverkort topping the second hour. Victor Bernier, who missed day one, was first into the 1m58s after 2h43m had passed, and he improved to stay on top the finish. Smal and Tom Lebbon were just under 0.3s behind in second and third.

Capietto – second fastest overall – failed to improve on his session one best, as did seven others. Antonelli, Haverkort and Charlie Wurz peaked in session two, and everyone else improved in session three. Bernier, Lebbon and Giovanni Maschio also improved in session four.

Test results