MP’s Sami Meguetounif sets the pace in FREC practice at Barcelona

Photo: FRECA

MP Motorsport’s Sami Meguetounif topped Formula Regional European Championship practice at Barcelona.

Arden’s Levente Revesz led in the first five minutes of FP1, then Prema’s Rafael Camara and Andrea Kimi Antonelli took over at the top with Antonelli 2.51 seconds clear.

A fifth of the way into the 50-minute session there had been laptimes set by 21 of the 34 drivers, but almost all had already returned to the pits.

At the 15-minute mark there were five cars on track, and Race Performance Motorsport’s Santiago Ramos set a 1m41.702s to go fastest by 1.69s. Arden’s Tom Lebbon meanwhile jumped up to third.

Ramos improved to 1m39.091s on his next lap, and Lebbon also found more pace but sat 6.734s back in third.

Another improvement from Ramos after 20 minutes brought the pace down to 1m38.442s, and a minute later team-mate Maceo Capietto set a 1m41.838s to take second place.

The track finally then became busy again, with second place swapping between Trident’s Roman Bilinski and Capietto multiple times while there was lots of change in the order from fifth place downwards and Antonelli was shuffled to 11th at the session’s halfway mark.

Moving to the top at that point was Van Amersfoort Racing’s Joshua Dufek, who set two laps good enough for first place, and Camara went third fastest when he returned to track but was then demoted a spot by ART Grand Prix’s Charlie Wurz who became Dufek’s closest rival, 0.404s back.

R-ace GP’s Tim Tramnitz cut Dufek’s advantage to 0.167s as Antonelli left the pits and went fifth fastest, but then he found himself in seventh as G4 Racing’s Alessandro Giusti and Bilinski slotted into third and fourth.

With 11 minutes to go a new benchmark was set by Kas Haverkort, a 1m37.555s putting him ahead of team-mate Dufek by 0.107s after the latter improved.

Antonelli and then Tramnitz occupied third, with R-ace’s Matias Zagazeta hopping up to fifth before yellow and then red flags were waved at turn 14 due to Monolite Racing’s Enzo Scionti getting into trouble.

Seconds before the session was ended, with eight-and-a-half minutes left on the clock, Ramos set a 1m37.153s to go fastest by 0.402s.

Trident’s Nikhil Bohra set the early pace in FP2, with most drivers heading out in the opening minutes. Initially he and Dufek were the only ones in the 1m37s, then Bilinski set a 1m36.902s to put him on top for almost 30 minutes.

During that time Antonelli set a 1m37.215s to go second fastest, with Haverkort and Meguetounif completing the top four while Dufek briefly stopped in sector one of the lap and dropped to 10th on the timesheet.

Once Bilinski was beaten there was a flood of improvements with 10 minutes remaining. Meguetounif went fastest with a 1m36.361s, having been 30th in FP1, team-mate Victor Bernier rose to second before Dufek and then Capietto quickly occupied that position.

Within a minute Tramnitz had shuffled both down, and Antonelli dropped to 17th before returning to second place with five minutes to go. Points leader Martinius Stenshorne then went sixth fastest, and Ramos finished 16th in a top 19 covered by less than a second. He, Giovanni Maschio and Lucas Medina set their fastest laps in FP1.

Shannon Lugassy missed both sessions, and KIC Motorsport team-mate Alex Partyshev missed FP2.

Free practice results