Photo: ACI Sport
Trident’s Maximilian Popov set the fastest time in qualifying for the second Formula Regional Europe race at Spa-Francorchamps.
On a damp but drying track, slicks were the order of the day from the start, and Popov headed the first session from race one winner, ART Grand Prix’s Alexandre Munoz. As the racing line continued to dry, conditions were expected to favour the second group on track, but R-ace GP’s Rashid Al Dhaheri fell short by 0.046s.
Apart from Al Dhaheri, the championship leaders struggled to match the fastest times. MP Motorport’s Sebastian Wheldon will line up on row four with Prema’s Kean Nakamura-Berta two races further back.
CL Motorsport’s Reno Francot fared even worse and could only manage the 12th best time in Group B.
MP Motorsport’s Alexander Abkhazava set the early pace in Group B before first Nakamura-Berta and then Popov pushed him down the order with five minutes remaining. The Kazakhstani driver improved again to go back to second but as he looked to go faster still managed to outbrake himself at the chicane, bringing out a yellow flag and frustrating his rivals’ hopes of a late improvement.
Nakamura-Berta had been on a faster time but was one of those that had to back out of their laps in the final sector.
Munoz had just managed to get his car across the line to move to second before the yellow flag came out. Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Ninovic dropped to fourth ahead of G4 Racing’s Marcus Saeter who again impressed, setting the absolute fastest time in the middle sector.
The drivers in the second session were clearly biding their time in the expectation of a drier line emerging with RPM’s Jan Przyrowski going top, still 0.050s adrift of Popov’s time, with just over four minutes remaining.
CL Motorsport’s Jules Roussel moved up to second but dropped back in the final stages as others improved. Instead, it was Mercedes-AMG junior Al Dhaheri who stopped the stopwatches at 2m13.248s to head the group.
His R-ace GP team-mate Emanuele Olivieri was also flying but a moment in the third sector cost him what could have been his best lap. Nevertheless, he still got in a flying lap at the end to jump from 10th to third in the group, just ahead of Wheldon.