Photo: ACI Sport
Williams junior Kean Nakamura-Berta put a disastrous Saturday behind him by claiming pole for the second Formula Regional Europe race at Zandvoort.
The Prema driver topped Group A, the second group on track this morning, by just 0.044s from CL Motorsport’s Reno Francot, after Gabriel Gomez had brought out the red flag with six-and-a-half minutes remaining.
Nakamura-Berta had been on track to go fastest at the time, having set purple times in each of the first two sectors, but just as he sped through the banked final turn had to abort his lap.
However, when the session resumed, he quickly picked up where he had left off, nailing the quickest time of the session with three minutes remaining.
Race one winner, Sebastian Wheldon will line up alongside him on the front row for home team MP Motorsport, after setting the fastest time in Group B.
RPM’s Jan Przyrowski had set the early pace in that groups with a 1m30.646s, 0.065s better than Wheldon’s opening attempt. However, the Anglo-American, who has been on the pace all weekend, put in a 1m30.208s to head the times.
Both R-ace GP’s Rashid Al Dhaheri and MP’s Newman Chi left it late, moving up to the top three on their final laps and demoting ART Grand Prix’s Alexandre Munoz to fourth. Prema’s Salim Hanna, who had pressed race winner Wheldon to the flag in race one, could only manage the eighth-fastest time, giving him plenty to do in the race.
Trident’s Maximilian Popov headed the initial times from Nakamura-Berta before Gomez moved to the front with a 1m30.762s. The driver who looked most likely to challenge Nakamura-Berta for pole was R-ace GP’s Emanuele Olivieri who put in a 1m30.355s time before the red flag.
Gomez was lying second at the time, but unable to improve and with his best lap deleted anyway for causing the interruption, the Brazilian ended the session in last place.
Aside from Gomez, Olivieri was the only driver who failed to better his time in the final six minutes after catching a yellow flag after Rahim Alibhai’s off at Turn 8, slipping to third as a result, 0.036s quicker than Prema’s Tomass Stolcermanis.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Group A | Group B | Laps |
| 1 | Kean Nakamura-Berta | Prema Racing | 1m30.135s | 9 | |
| 2 | Sebastian Wheldon | MP Motorsport | 1m30.208s | 9 | |
| 3 | Reno Francot | CL Motorsport | +0.044s | 9 | |
| 4 | Rashid Al Dhaheri | R-ace GP | +0.069s | 9 | |
| 5 | Emanuele Olivieri | R-ace GP | +0.220s | 9 | |
| 6 | Newman Chi | MP Motorsport | +0.132s | 9 | |
| 7 | Tomass Stolcermanis | Prema Racing | +0.256s | 9 | |
| 8 | Alexandre Munoz | ART Grand Prix | +0.191s | 9 | |
| 9 | Dion Gowda | Van Amersfoort Racing | +0.273s | 9 | |
| 10 | Alexander Abkhazava | MP Motorsport | +0.338s | 9 | |
| 11 | Andrea Dupe | Van Amersfoort Racing | +0.386s | 9 | |
| 12 | Jan Przyrowski | RPM | +0.380s | 10 | |
| 13 | Francisco Macedo | Van Amersfoort Racing | +0.404s | 9 | |
| 14 | Jules Roussel | CL Motorsport | +0.384s | 9 | |
| 15 | Max Popov | Trident Motorsport | +0.435s | 9 | |
| 16 | Salim Hanna | Prema Racing | +0.490s | 9 | |
| 17 | Reza Seewooruthun | Rodin Motorsport | +0.436s | 9 | |
| 18 | Kabir Anurag | ART Grand Prix | +0.541s | 9 | |
| 19 | Alex Ninovic | Rodin Motorsport | +0.481s | 10 | |
| 20 | Yuki Sano | R-ace GP | +0.561s | 9 | |
| 21 | Matteo Giaccardi | ART Grand Prix | +0.606s | 9 | |
| 22 | Marcus Saeter | G4 Racing | +0.568s | 9 | |
| 23 | Thomas Strauven | CL Motorsport | +0.608s | 9 | |
| 24 | Miguel Costa | RPM | +0.570s | 10 | |
| 25 | Andrija Kostic | Trident Motorsport | +1.073s | 9 | |
| 26 | Saqer Almousherji | G4 Racing | +0.793s | 9 | |
| 27 | Rahim Alibhai | G4 Racing | +1.144s | 9 | |
| 28 | Giovanni Maschio | RPM | +0.842s | 9 | |
| 29 | Kai Daryanani | Trident Motorsport | +0.984s | 9 | |
| Gabriel Gomez | Rodin Motorsport | +8.497s | 5 |