Prema’s Wharton tops wet FREC practice at Red Bull Ring

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Prema’s James Wharton was fastest overall in Formula Regional European Championship practice at the Red Bull Ring, as drivers faced two more wet sessions after a cold test day.

Wharton and his team-mates were the drivers to beat for a long time in the wetter morning practice session, but ultimately were beaten by a 1m40.265s from ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire.

Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael set the pace at first, then Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu brought the laptime to beat down into the 1m42s. His team-mate Rafael Camara bettered him two seconds later, but Uhochukwu responded with two successive improvements and a new 1m42.231s benchmark.

Wharton was the first to beat that, by just 0.039 seconds, then he and Camara began trading fastest laps for the next seven minutes. They both lapped in the 1m41s, and Camara held top spot for 10 minutes before Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Clerot posted a 1m41.360s to go quickest by 0.15.

Another 10 minutes after that came the response from Camara, with the points leader setting a 1m41.092s. Ugochukwu later beat that by 0.077s, only for Camara to break into the 1m40s and lower the pace again after that.

With just over one minute left on the clock he was shuffled down to third though, as Giltaire snuck into first place and his team-mate Alesandro Giusti pipped Camara’s laptime by 0.001s. VAR’s Brando Badoer shuffled Ugochukwu down to fifth, and Race Performance Motorsport’s Noah Stromsted beat Wharton to sixth.

Every single driver improved their pace in FP2, and in total 14 of the 29 drivers on track spent time atop the timesheet.

Nael was again the initial pacesetter, then team-mate Matteo De Palo swiftly beat him and Giltaire set a 1m41.774s on his first flying lap. After eight-and-a-half minutes the quickest lap from FP1 had already been beaten, with Giusti being the first to achieve that. He also lapped sub-1m40s before anyone else, and improved on five consecutive laps to bring the pace own to 1m39.312s.

That benchmark stood until 24 minutes in when Stromsted set a 1m38.907s, and it did not take long for drivers to then start lapping in the 1m37s. Wharton and Stromsted did so first, split by 0.005s, then Giusti went quickest again.

Four different drivers set new fastest laps before Camara broke the 1m37s barrier, then it became another Prema-led battle to end on top. In the space of 10 minutes, Wharton was able to go purple four times (with Giusti and MP Motorsport’s Valerio Rinicella briefly ahead inbetween) and he ended practice 0.227s clear of Clerot in second.

Free practice results