Home Formula RegionalFRegional Middle East Giltaire and Slater share FRegional Middle East round two poles

Giltaire and Slater share FRegional Middle East round two poles

by Ida Wood

Photo: FRME

Mumbai Falcons’ Freddie Slater and ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire shared the poles in Formula Regional Middle East qualifying at Yas Marina Circuit.

Pinnacle Motorsport’s Jesse Carrasquedo Jr set the pace in free practice, pipping Giltaire by 0.073 seconds with a 1m41.614s lap.

Carrasquedo’s team-mate Ernesto Rivera was 0.206s behind in third, and points leader Freddie Slater was fourth. PHM Racing’s Brando Badoer and Mumbai Falcons’ Rashid Al Dhaheri were also within a third of a second of Carrasquedo, and a second covered the top 15.

The gaps were far larger in qualifying, and Slater laid down a marker in Q1 with a 1m41.586s lap that he set midway through the session. It was a benchmark that nobody could even get close to, let alone beat, and when the clock hit zero he had secured pole for race one by 0.435s over Giltaire.

Al Dhaheri was 0.025s away from a front row starting spot, with Taito Kato (ART GP), Carrasquedo and Jin Nakamura (R-ace GP) close together in fourth, fifth and sixth.

R-ace’s Ugo Ugochukwu earned seventh on the grid having set a 1m42.240s shortly before Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael achieved the same.

Giltaire responded to his rubbing by title rival Slater in Q2, as he broke the 1m41s barrier en route to pole. His personal best effort of 1m40.953s was 0.376s faster than anyone else could manage, and it was PHM Racing’s Brando Badoer who ended qualifying as his closest rival.

Al Dhaheri and Ugochukwu were also within half a second of pole, Slater shared row three of the race three grid with R-ace’s Enzo Deligny, then Kato and Nakamura also got within a second of pole.

Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Freddie Slater Mumbai Falcons 1m41.586s
2 Evan Giltaire ART GP +0.435s
3 Rashid Al Dhaheri Mumbai Falcons +0.460s
4 Taito Kato ART GP +0.546s
5 Jesse Carrasquedo Jr Pinnacle Motorsport +0.554s
6 Jin Nakamura R-ace GP +0.573s
7 Ugo Ugochukwu R-ace GP +0.654s
8 Theophile Nael Sainteloc Racing +0.654s
9 Jack Beeton Mumbai Falcons +0.707s
10 Reza Seewooruthun Mumbai Falcons +0.877s

Race 3 grid
1 Giltaire 1m40.953s
2 Brando Badoer PHM Racing +0.376s
3 Al Dhaheri +0.452s
4 Ugochukwu +0.460s
5 Slater +0.538s
6 Enzo Deligny R-ace GP +0.562s
7 Kato +0.627s
8 Nakamura +0.874s
9 Ernesto Rivera Pinnacle Motorsport +1.023s
10 Nael +1.063s