Photo: ACI Sport
Race Performance Motorsport’s debutant Ean Eyckmans was fastest in Formula Regional European Championship practice at the Hungaroring on Friday.
The 30-car field had two pre-event test sessions on Thursday, and in the first R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny set a 1m40.202s to pip a long-standing benchmark from Trident’s Matteo De Palo by 0.003 seconds.
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Clerot was 0.023s off the top, and Trident’s Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi was 0.166s off the top in fourth. Three other drivers were within a quarter of a second of Deligny, and a second covered the top 17.
Almost half of the field improved in session two. ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire was on top late on with a 1m40.359s, but after five minutes was bettered to the tune of 0.084s by Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri. He only had a few seconds on top before VAR’s Hiyu Yamakoshi lowered the pace to 1m40.039s.
Practice was split into two 50-minute sessions on Friday, and Bhirombhakdi was the initial pacesetter in FP1. Al Dhaheri was then briefly on top before ART GP’s Kanato Le moved ahead, then De Palo became the first driver to break into the 1m39s as he shot to the top by 0.58s.
Bhirombhakdi moved back ahead a few minutes later with a 1m39.316s, De Palo responded by snatching back top spot by 0.045s, and remained ahead for 18 minutes before R-ace’s Jin Nakamura posted a 1m39.242s to end the session quickest by 0.029s.
Deligny was only 0.168s off Nakamura in fourth, with Clerot and R-ace’s Akshay Bohra also within half a second of the pace. There was less than a second between first and 16th place.
Some surprise names hit the top in FP2, with G4 Racing’s Edouard Borgna fastest at first.
CL Motorsport’s Michael Belov was first to reach a more representative pace, then Sainteloc Racing’s Nikita Bedrin set a 1m40.473s to edge ahead of him. Eyckmans’ first spell at the top came a minute later, and he was only briefly in first place before Belov improved to 1m39.87s.
Belov’s team-mate Zachary David went quickest by 0.059s to interrupt for a short period his battle with Bedrin at the top of the timesheet, which went on for a few laps and brought the pace down to 1m39.528s.
After a quarter of an hour on top, Bedrin was demoted back to second place again by Bohra. He set a 1m39.359s, which stood as the fastest time for four-and-a-half minutes prior to Deligny recording a 1m39.276s.
Eyckmans left the pits for his second run soon after, and did two warm-up laps before dialing it up to a representative speed and setting a practice-topping 1m39.107s on his first flying lap.
Belov got within 0.155s of him on his penultimate lap, putting him second in the session and third overall. Giltaire ended FP2 in fifth, ahead of Bedrin and Al Dhaheri.
Free practice results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ean Eyckmans | R-P-M | 1m39.107s | 40 | |
| 2 | Jin Nakamura | R-ace GP | 1m39.242s | +0.135s | 42 |
| 3 | Michael Belov | CL Motorsport | 1m39.262s | +0.155s | 33 |
| 4 | Matteo De Palo | Trident | 1m39.271s | +0.164s | 40 |
| 5 | Enzo Deligny | R-ace GP | 1m39.276s | +0.169s | 44 |
| 6 | Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi | Trident | 1m39.316s | +0.209s | 37 |
| 7 | Akshay Bohra | R-ace GP | 1m39.359s | +0.252s | 43 |
| 8 | Evan Giltaire | ART Grand Prix | 1m39.507s | +0.400s | 38 |
| 9 | Nikita Bedrin | Sainteloc Racing | 1m39.528s | +0.421s | 44 |
| 10 | Rashid Al Dhaheri | Prema | 1m39.554s | +0.447s | 38 |
| 11 | Pedro Clerot | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m39.648s | +0.541s | 42 |
| 12 | Enzo Yeh | R-P-M | 1m39.690s | +0.583s | 38 |
| 13 | Dion Gowda | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m39.750s | +0.643s | 43 |
| 14 | Jack Beeton | Prema | 1m39.753s | +0.646s | 38 |
| 15 | Taito Kato | ART Grand Prix | 1m39.805s | +0.698s | 39 |
| 16 | Zachary David | CL Motorsport | 1m39.808s | +0.701s | 31 |
| 17 | Freddie Slater | Prema | 1m39.824s | +0.717s | 39 |
| 18 | Kanato Le | ART Grand Prix | 1m39.826s | +0.719s | 39 |
| 19 | Hiyu Yamakoshi | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m39.993s | +0.886s | 43 |
| 20 | Maya Weug | Sainteloc Racing | 1m40.037s | +0.930s | 41 |
| 21 | Doriane Pin | Prema | 1m40.130s | +1.023s | 39 |
| 22 | Saqer Al Maosherji | Akcel GP | 1m40.164s | +1.057s | 30 |
| 23 | Ruiqu Liu | Trident | 1m40.171s | +1.064s | 30 |
| 24 | Giovanni Maschio | R-P-M | 1m40.261s | +1.154s | 35 |
| 25 | Javier Sagrera | Akcel GP | 1m40.491s | +1.384s | 31 |
| 26 | Edu Robinson | G4 Racing | 1m40.501s | +1.394s | 40 |
| 27 | Yaroslav Veselaho | Sainteloc Racing | 1m40.519s | +1.412s | 43 |
| 28 | Aditya Kulkarni | Akcel GP | 1m40.668s | +1.561s | 39 |
| 29 | Edouard Borgna | G4 Racing | 1m41.030s | +1.923s | 39 |
| 30 | Enzo Richer | G4 Racing | 1m41.179s | +2.072s | 40 |