Mini fastest, Marinangeli returns, Montoya joins Red Bull on first FREC morning at Spa

Photo: FRECA

ART Grand Prix’s Gabriele Mini was fastest in the pre-event Formula Regional European Championship test session at Spa-Francorchamps.

There was lots of news alongside the track action on the first morning at the Belgian circuit, including changes to the grid. Alongside the already announced moves for Esteban Masson, Mari Boya and Francesco Braschi, there was change at Monolite Racing as it returned to three cars with the addition of Nicola Marinangeli.

Cenyu Han drove the team’s third car for the season’s first half but is now out of action, while Marinangeli had raced in Euroformula until an injury, and then his Van Amersfoort Racing team withdrew from the series.

His best results in eight races there were two sixth places, and in his 25 FREC starts he has totted up two ninth places.

The Race Performance Motorsport team also confirmed its Spa line-up during testing, with Owen Tangavelou staying on for the weekend after joining for the previous round at the Hungaroring.

The final piece of news before testing began came from Prema’s Sebastian Montoya, who announced he is now a Red Bull athlete. Having a brand association does not correlate to any Formula 1 links, but means he will have Red Bull branding.

FREC leader Dino Beganovic set the early pace in the three-hour Wednesday test session, and was only usurped by R-ace GP’s Gabriel Bortoleto after 39 minutes. His team-mate Hadrien David went fastest a few minutes later, bringing the pace into the 2m16s.

Prema’s Paul Aron was next to lead the way, and was first for over an hour until Mini set a 2m15.737s with 15 minutes to go. Nobody could better that, and the session ended one minute early as Piotr Wisnicki hit trouble.

Test results