Home Formula 3 Mini ends rain-hit FREC practice day at Imola on top

Mini ends rain-hit FREC practice day at Imola on top

by Craig Woollard

Photo: FRECA

Gabriele Mini and Maceo Capietto shared the top spots in a pair of Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine practice sessions at Imola both affected by weather.

The first 50-minute session was delayed slightly due to the rain-induced interruption in the morning’s Italian Formula 4 running and was held in continued wet conditions.

The first of four red flags came 10 minutes in as Monolite’s Cenyu Han and R-ace GP’s Lorenzo Fluxa both went off in the second part of the lap.

The session had only resumed for six minutes when two more cars went off. This time it was RPM’s Keith Donegan and FA Racing by MP’s Esteban Masson – the latter having been top of the times when the first stoppage occurred.

With 20 minutes to go, MP Motorsport’s Michael Belov was top of the times, and he proceeded to improve further. That was until a third red flag. Gravel was brought onto the circuit by one of the cars, and both Monolite’s Pietro Armanni and Prema’s Hamda Al Qubaisi went off in different parts of the lap.

With seven minutes to go, the session resumed and Monolite driver Capietto took the top spot, some three tenths quicker than Belov’s best effort.

While some times were improving with a minute to go, there was a fourth red flag called for an unspecified reason and that brought the session to a slightly premature end.

Mini was third for ART Grand Prix, ahead of KIC Motorsport’s returning Patrik Pasma, whose team-mates Santiago Ramos and Francesco Braschi were fifth and sixth respectively. RPM’s Pietro Delli Guanti, VAR’s Kas Haverkort, MP’s Sami Meguetounif and Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli rounded out the top 10.

The second 50-minute session started in much better conditions than the first and times duly went down considerably from the morning’s running. It was in the opening 10 minutes where Mini took to the top of the times, over a second quicker than Ramos.

After that time, there was a brief red flag for an unspecified reason, and a second red flag 20 minutes into the session for Masson, having his second off of the day.

The session resumed with half of the allotted time to go, and times struggled to improve as rain fell once more. However, drivers got plenty of meaningful running in until a late red flag with less than a minute to go, as was the case in the first session.

That time, it was championship leader Dino Beganovic, who went off in the first part of the lap on what would have been his final tour.

As such, it was Mini who topped the times ahead of Ramos. ART Grand Prix’s Mari Boya was third quickest ahead of FA Racing’s Victor Bernier.

Prema’s Paul Aron was fifth, ahead of Trident’s Tim Tramnitz. ART’s Laurens Van Hoepen, Arden’s Eduardo Barrichello, Prema’s Beganovic and Braschi rounded out the top 10 of the 36 runners in combined times all set in the second session.

Combined practice results
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Gabriele Mini ART Grand Prix 1m50.096s 31
2 Santiago Ramos KIC Motorsport 1m51.223s +1.127s 27
3 Mari Boya ART Grand Prix 1m51.655s +1.559s 29
4 Victor Bernier FA Racing by MP 1m51.828s +1.732s 28
5 Paul Aron Prema 1m51.848s +1.752s 30
6 Tim Tramnitz Trident 1m51.934s +1.838s 33
7 Laurens van Hoepen ART Grand Prix 1m52.145s +2.049s 29
8 Eduardo Barrichello Arden 1m52.410s +2.314s 32
9 Dino Beganovic Prema 1m52.458s +2.362s 31
10 Francesco Braschi KIC Motorsport 1m52.762s +2.666s 31
11 Sebastian Montoya Prema 1m52.934s +2.838s 27
12 Gabriel Bortoleto R-ace GP 1m53.005s +2.909s 35
13 Roman Bilinski Trident 1m53.040s +2.944s 32
14 Hadrien David R-ace GP 1m53.173s +3.077s 32
15 Axel Gnos G4 Racing 1m53.182s +3.086s 32
16 Leonardo Fornaroli Trident 1m53.267s +3.171s 32
17 Noel Leon Arden 1m53.283s +3.187s 32
18 Kas Haverkort Van Amersfoort Racing 1m53.602s +3.506s 30
19 Matias Zagazeta G4 Racing 1m53.747s +3.651s 31
20 Pietro Delli Guanti RPM 1m53.915s +3.819s 31
21 Lorenzo Fluxa R-ace GP 1m53.967s +3.871s 20
22 Joshua Duerksen Arden 1m53.977s +3.881s 29
23 Patrik Pasma KIC Motorsport 1m54.168s +4.072s 29
24 Maceo Capietto Monolite Racing 1m54.675s +4.579s 32
25 Joshua Dufek Van Amersfoort Racing 1m54.895s +4.799s 29
26 Owen Tangavelou G4 Racing 1m54.929s +4.833s 31
27 Keith Donegan RPM 1m55.027s +4.931s 23
28 Pietro Armanni Monolite Racing 1m55.105s +5.009s 30
29 Hamda Al Qubaisi Prema 1m55.144s +5.048s 27
30 Michael Belov MP Motorsport 1m55.386s +5.290s 30
31 Levente Revesz Van Amersfoort Racing 1m55.778s +5.682s 31
32 Sami Meguetounif MP Motorsport 1m55.800s +5.704s 29
33 Cenyu Han Monolite Racing 1m56.250s +6.154s 23
34 Esteban Masson FA Racing by MP 1m56.259s +6.163s 11
35 Dilano van’t Hoff MP Motorsport 1m56.644s +6.548s 30
36 Nicolas Baptiste FA Racing by MP 1m57.175s +7.079s 29