Home Featured Mini penalty gives Beganovic his second FREC victory at Imola

Mini penalty gives Beganovic his second FREC victory at Imola

by Roger Gascoigne

Photo: FRECA

Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic took his second Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine victory in the first race at Imola after Gabriele Mini was penalised.

The race had been controlled from the start by pole-sitter Mini but a 10-second penalty for the ART Grand Prix driver for a ‘false start’ dropped him to 28th in the results.

Mari Boya held off the challenge from the remaining Prema runners Paul Aron and Sebastian Montoya to provide some small comfort for the ART GP team.

The race was disrupted by three safety car periods and two red flags, the second of which bringing the race to a close on what should have been the penultimate lap. The plethora of race neutralisations gave Mini no opportunity to extend a big enough gap at the front to even salvage points.

Mini led into Tamburello at the start with Beganovic already challenging Boya for second. Mini’s lead was over one second when the race was stopped following a serious crash for Sami Meguetounif in sector two. The MP Motorsport driver was reported to be conscious and taken to the medical centre for checks.

Following the safety car restart Aron relieved Montoya of third, while starting lap eight Beganovic drew alongside Boya, possibly with the aid of push-to-pass, to take second into Tamburello.

The Ferrari-backed Swede was unable to make any ground on Mini out front, although he had no need to push, having already been informed of Mini’s penalty.

Two more safety car interventions in quick succession, one for an incident involving Hamda al Qubaisi and Nicolas Baptiste, and a lap later when Owen Tangavalou speared into the gravel, again at Tamburello.

The race reached its logical conclusion when a second red flag was shown on lap 14 for an incident involving Dudu Barrichello and Axel Gnos.

Kas Haverkort took a fine fifth place for Van Amersfoort Racing having passed Joshua Duerksen on lap 7 in one of the race’s rare on-track overtaking moves.

Seventh-placed Gabriel Bortoleto headed home Trident pairing of Leonardo Fornaroli and Tim Tramnitz with Hadrien David inheriting 10th with Mini’s penalty.

Race result (13 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Dino Beganovic Prema 41m21.958s
2 Mari Boya ART Grand Prix +0.349s
3 Paul Aron Prema +0.693s
4 Sebastian Montoya Prema +1.233s
5 Kas Haverkort Van Amersfoort Racing +1.426s
6 Joshua Duerksen Arden +1.889s
7 Gabriel Bortoleto R-ace GP +2.257s
8 Leonardo Fornaroli Trident +2.375s
9 Tim Tramnitz Trident +2.710s
10 Hadrien David R-ace GP +3.064s
11 Lorenzo Fluxa R-ace GP +3.443s
12 Joshua Dufek Van Amersfoort Racing +3.868s
13 Maceo Capietto Monolite Racing +4.027s
14 Roman Bilinski Trident +4.448s
15 Michael Belov MP Motorsport +4.882s
16 Pietro Delli Guanti RPM +5.709s
17 Levente Revesz Van Amersfoort Racing +6.074s
18 Axel Gnos G4 Racing +6.338s
19 Eduardo Barrichello Arden +6.591s
20 Laurens van Hoepen ART Grand Prix +6.884s
21 Dilano van’t Hoff MP Motorsport +7.212s
22 Noel Leon Arden +7.559s
23 Esteban Masson FA Racing +7.835s
24 Patrik Pasma KIC Motorsport +8.293s
25 Keith Donegan RPM +8.611s
26 Matias Zagazeta G4 Racing +8.950s
27 Francesco Braschi KIC Motorsport +9.237s
28 Gabriele Mini ART Grand Prix +9.572s
29 Han Cenyu Monolite Racing +10.212s
30 Pietro Armanni Monolite Racing +10.696s
31 Owen Tangavelou G4 Racing +2 laps
32 Santiago Ramos KIC Motorsport +2 laps
NC Victor Bernier FA Racing +3 laps
Ret Hamda Al Qubaisi Prema
Ret Nicolas Baptiste FA Racing
Ret Sami Meguetounif MP Motorsport
Fastest lap: Mini, 1m40.086s

Championship standings
1
 Beganovic 68   2 Aron 40   3 Boya 32   4 Haverkort 32   5 Belov 28   6 Montoya 20   7 David 19   8 Fluxa 15   9 Mini 15   10 Bortoleto 16