Home Formula RegionalFRegional European Championship French F4 champion Masson sets Paul Ricard pace in FREC testing

French F4 champion Masson sets Paul Ricard pace in FREC testing

by Ida Wood

Photos: Ida Wood

Reigning French Formula 4 champion Esteban Masson was fastest on day two of Formula Regional European Championship post-season testing at Paul Ricard.

The Winfield Racing School-organised test featured 20 FREC runners, and Masson set the pace straight away in the morning for R-ace GP.

His 1m58.310s lap put him 0.269 seconds ahead of Arden’s Joshua Duerksen, and neither were able to improve on those laptimes but remained in the top two positions.

Masson also went fastest in the second session of the day, setting a 1m58.843s that was just 0.029s faster than G4 Racing’s Victoer Bernier.

ART Grand Prix’s Gabriele Mini and R-ace duo Lorenzo Fluxa and Francesco Pizzi also broke into the 1m58s in the morning, and in the first afternoon session Bernier and Mini improved in third and fourth overall.

Mini went even faster again in the final session, but it was still three tenths of a second short of Masson’s morning benchmark.

Sami Meguetounif was the fastest MP Motorsport driver in seventh, ahead of Arden’s Leonardo Fornaroli who rose up the order in the final session after losing running earlier in the day to a gearbox issue.

Test results

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Esteban Masson R-ace GP 1m58.310s 55
2 Joshua Duerksen Arden 1m58.579s +0.269s 75
3 Gabriele Mini ART Grand Prix 1m58.617s +0.317s 62
4 Victor Bernier G4 Racing 1m58.699s +0.389s 70
5 Lorenzo Fluxa R-ace GP 1m58.865s +0.555s 61
6 Francesco Pizzi R-ace GP 1m58.902s +0.592s 58
7 Sami Meguetounif MP Motorsport 1m59.066s +0.756s 65
8 Leonardo Fornaroli Arden 1m59.154s +0.844s 60
9 Christian Mansell R-ace GP 1m59.245s +0.935s 57
10 Tim Tramnitz ART Grand Prix 1m59.348s +1.038s 46
11 Santiago Ramos KIC Motorsport 1m59.368s +1.058s 70
12 Owen Tangavelou G4 Racing 1m59.458s +1.148s 70
13 Nicolas Baptiste FA Racing by MP 1m59.556s +1.246s 69
14 Joshua Dufek ART Grand Prix 1m59.556s +1.246s 63
15 Dilano van’t Hoff MP Motorsport 1m59.558s +1.248s 71
16 Roman Bilinski Arden 1m59.626s +1.316s 61
17 Matias Zagazeta ART Grand Prix 1m59.985s +1.675s 67
18 Axel Gnos G4 Racing 2m00.213s +1.903s 62
19 Nerea Marti FA Racing by MP 2m00.660s +2.350s 56
20 Abbi Pulling FA Racing by MP 2m01.473s +3.163s 53
1 Aiden Neate F4 2m06.331s 61
2 Nikhil Bohra F4 2m06.557s +0.226s 62
3 #18 Winfield Racing School 2m15.300s +8.969s 31