Ramos and Masson top FREC practice sessions at Paul Ricard

Photo: Niels Broekema / DPPA

Race Performance Motorsport’s Santiago Ramos continued his recent strong Formula Regional European Championship pace by topping free practice at Paul Ricard.

Ramos headed FP1, held early on Friday session, being the only driver to dip below the two-minute-mark around the 5.8-kilometre circuit.

The evening session, held on a significantly cooler track, was brought to an early close by red flags, preventing late improvements from a field building up speed on their second stints.

As a result, Sainteloc Racing’s Esteban Masson finished FP2 on top with a time 0.038 seconds slower than Ramos’s earlier benchmark.

R-ace GP’s Tim Tramnitz and Prema’s Rafael Camara led the way early in FP1 as drivers returned to the pits at the mid-point, with Tramnitz’s time of 2m00.589s, set on his seventh lap, edging Camara’s best by just over a tenth of a second.

They were the only two to have set sub-2m01s laps, with Ramos half a second back in third.

In the final 10 minutes, MP Motosport’s Sami Meguetounif jumped to the top and compatriot Masson moved into third, before Camara quickly moved back to the front.

However with eight minutes to go, Ramos broke the two-minute barrier with a 1m59.748s, before improving again by just 0.004s on his final tour.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Kas Haverkort took second with a late improvement, and was over three-tenths down on Ramos, with Maceo Capietto underlining R-P-M’s pace in third place.

Tramnitz and Camara had to settle for fourth and fith ahead of MP duo Victor Bernier and Meguetounif as the team made its first appearance since the tragic events at Spa-Francorchamps earlier this month.

With track temperatures over six degrees cooler for FP2, laptimes fell quickly. Ramos, Meguetounif, Camara and Laurens van Hoepen took turns at the front, before Meguetounif and Haverkort broke into the 1m59s with 30 minutes remaining.

Tramnitz had just joined them in that exclusive group as the top two pitted for fresh tyres.

As the shadows around the track lengthened, the field ventured out for their final runs with 15 minutes left on the clock, and Masson immediately jumped to the top. He was fastest in the first two sectors and recorded a 1m59.782s laptime.

Before anybody else could improve, an incident between Alessandro Giusti and Giovanni Maschio at the final corner with seven minutes to go brought out red flags and stewards deciding not to resume the session.

Series debutants Pierre-Alexandre Provost for G4 Racing and Ivan Klymenko, replacing Alex Partyshev at KIC Motorsport, finished their first day 28th and 32nd respectively.

Free practice results