Prema’s Rafael Camara leads FREC’s Monza practice

Photo: Prema

Prema’s Rafael Camara was fastest in Formula Regional European Championship practice at Monza on Friday, although he ended the first session in 24th place.

FP1 took place on a wet but drying circuit, meaning there was a huge amount of track evolution and a 10-second improvement in pace from the beginning to the end of the 50-minute session.

MP Motorsport’s Sami Meguetounif and KIC Motorsport’s Maya Weug traded top spot through the first 10 minutes, the R-ace Gp’s Tim Tramnitz took over at the top with a 2m01.514s lap.

ART Grand Prix’s Marcus Amand beat that by 0.072 seconds, then Trident’s Owen Tangavelou went a tenth faster than that. He remained on top for three minutes before Prema’s points leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli put in the first 1m59s lap.

Nobody could get close to that at first, then after 21 minutes Antonelli was shuffled down to fourth by Tramnitz setting a 1m58.776s while G4 Racing’s Alessandro Giusti and Meguetounif also went faster than him.

Meguetounif set a 1m58.148s at the session’s halfway point, and a few minutes later Trident’s Roman Bilinski posted a 1m57.778s. R-ace’s Martinus Stenshorne got within 0.02s of that benchmark, before Trident’s Nikhil Bohra lowered the pace by 0.1s. Two-and-a-half minutes later, Antonelli set a 1m57.543s that would stand as the fastest lap until the final 10 minutes.

At this point the track was at its busiest, helping grip it up, and ART GP’s Laurens van Hoepen and Amand brought the pace down into the 1m56s and then the 1m55s. G4’s Michael Belov set a 1m55.398s to beat van Hoepen by 0.032s before red flags waved due to Monolite Racing’s Hadrien David stopping at turn two.

Following the restart, it was not until after the chequered flag that more improvements came in. Monolite’s Enzo Scionti set a 1m54.442s to go top, then Race Performance Motorsport’s Maceo Capietto posted a 1m54.105s. His team-mate Santiago Ramos smashed that with a 1m53.689s, and the pace was lowered even further as Meguetounif set a 1m53.036s to lead Bilinski by 0.049s and MP’s Victor Bernier by 0.063s.

Antonelli ended up 20th, with Stenshorne in 22nd and Tramnitz in 26th.

Laptimes were immediately faster in the dry FP2, with Ramos and debuting team-mate Noah Stromsted lowering the pace through the first 10 minutes.

Tramnitz and Meguetounif then joined the fight to be fastest before Arden’s Joshua Duerksen crashed at Lesmo 1 and brought out red flags.

Stromsted was first to set a new benchmark when FP2 eventually restarted, then Bohra and Camara were first into the 1m47s. Tramnitz lowered the pace several times, and Camara got back ahead of him by 0.188s with four-and-a-half minutes remaining. The order went unchanged before red flags ended the session following another crash.

Antonelli and main title rival Stenshorne were fourth and 10th fastest.

Free practice results