KIC adjusts its FREC line-up for Barcelona, Camara sets practice pace

Photo: Prema

Prema’s points leader Rafael Camara was fastest in Formula Regional European Championship practice at Barcelona on Friday.

There were two changes to KIC Motorsport’s line-up announced before track action began, with Alex Sawer returning to the cockpit after missing the last two rounds and Enzo Scionti joining the team.

Sawer is currently 35th in the standings, with two 21st places his best results, while Scionti returns to FREC after coming 31st with Monolite Racing last year. His personal best finish was a 15th place, and he had previously come 13th in Formula 4 United Arab Emirates and 14th in Euroformula.

Both practice sessions lasted 50 minutes, and Race Performance Motorsport’s drivers were straight to the top early in FP1. Noah Stromsted laid down the first benchmark, then Edgar Pierre  set two successive personal bests before Giovanni Maschio brought the pace down to a more representative 1m40.514s.

Two minutes later R-ace GP’s Tuukka Taponen bettered him by 1.373 seconds, and his team-mate Zachar David then went even faster with a 1m38.795s lap. Taponen responded, sneaking back ahead by 0.192s.

That kept him on top for four-and-a-half minutes before Camara found a groove and set a 1m38.375s to lead the way. Improvements were harder to come by for a while, and 21 minutes in Van Amersfoort Racing’s Brando Badoer posted a 1m38.292s that went unbeaten for 18 minutes.

With 10 minutes to go there was more track activity again and Taponen smashed Badoer’s previous benchmark by 0.769s. He was only on top for a minute though, as Camara found even more pace. His 1m37.088s made him quickest by 0.435s, but as more laps came in his advantage was quickly whittled down.

Badoer got within 0.074s of him, Taponen improved to be 0.281s behind and Prema team-mate James Wharton set a 1m37.445s on his final lap to go fourth fastest. Stromsted, Trident’s Roman Bilinski and Sainteloc Racing duo Matteo De Palo and Enzo Peugeot completed the top eight.

All but eight of the 32 drivers improved in FP2. Trident’s Niko Lacorte and Bilinski were the drivers to beat early on, bringing the pace down to 1m38s between them. Their team-mate Ruiqi Liu briefly got ahead, before Bilinski improved twice in a row.

Sainteloc’s Theophile Nael was next to the top, but the laptimes were not anywhere near the personal bests from FP1 until late on.

Taponen and KIC’s Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi lapped in the 1m37s, then with eight minutes to go Camara shot to the top by 0.545s with a 1m36.938s lap that was the fastest overall of the test.

He set four more laps but not improve, while Badoer on his final lap got within 0.094s of him. De Palo was 0.195s off Camara in third, Wharton was fourth again and ART Grand Prix’s Alessandro Giusti was 0.33s slower than Camara in fifth. Taponen ended up down in eighth, but his FP1 best put him sixth overall.

Free practice results