Home Featured Saucy picks up second FREC pole of season at Barcelona

Saucy picks up second FREC pole of season at Barcelona

by Bethonie Waring

Photo: FRECA

Gregoire Saucy picks up his second pole of the Formula Regional European Championship season in the opening qualifying session at Barcelona.

Saucy jumped up to the top of the times late in the session with a 1m41.667s lap. It put him more than a tenth of a second clear of ART Grand Prix team-mate Gabriele Mini, who was relegated to second place.

While many in the field found improvements in the closing stages of the session, none could get close to either of the pair, and they line up on the front row of the grid for the opening race of the weekend.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Mari Boya ended the session in third, ahead of Prema’s Paul Aron and Arden’s Alex Quinn, who had both set the pace early on.

Many drivers had their final laps disrupted by Quinn’s team-mate Nicola Marinangeli, who ran through the gravel twice during the session. Both times he was able to get out of the gravel unaided, but briefly brought out the yellow flags while drivers tried to complete their final flying lap.

He himself was unable to break into the top 20, though team-mate William Alatalo was seventh fastest behind Prema’s Dino Beganovic.

R-ace GP pair Isack Hadjar and Zane Maloney and ART GP’s Thomas Ten Brinke completed the top 10. The other two R-ace cars featured at the back, with Lena Buhler qualifying 32nd for her series debut after recovering from a hand injury and Hadrien David spending much of the session in the pits with the team working on the rear of his car and he failed to set a representative lap.

There was drama early in the session as Prema’s David Vidales came under investigation for an unsafe release. The Imola race winner’s session didn’t improve much from that point on, as he struggled to find a rhythm and ended the session in 19th.

Qualifying results

Pos Driver Team Time
1 Gregoire Saucy ART Grand Prix 1m41.667s
2 Gabriele Mini ART Grand Prix +0.135s
3 Mari Boya Van Amersfoort Racing +0.269s
4 Paul Aron Prema +0.322s
5 Alex Quinn Arden +0.386s
6 Dino Beganovic Prema +0.496s
7 William Alatalo Arden +0.613s
8 Isack Hadjar R-ace GP +0.668s
9 Zane Maloney R-ace GP +0.684s
10 Thomas ten Brinke ART Grand Prix +0.752s
11 Patrik Pasma KIC Motorsport +0.767s
12 Lorenzo Fluxa Van Amersfoort Racing +0.781s
13 Franco Colapinto MP Motorsport +0.782s
14 Pietro Delli Guanti Monolite Racing +0.870s
15 Andrea Rosso FA Racing by MP +1.115s
16 Oliver Goethe MP Motorsport +1.246s
17 Francesco Pizzi Van Amersfoort Racing +1.262s
18 Alessandro Famularo G4 Racing +1.267s
19 David Vidales Prema +1.276s
20 Gabriel Bortoleto FA Racing by MP +1.375s
21 Jasin Ferati Monolite Racing +1.429s
22 Brad Benavides DR Formula +1.566s
23 Axel Gnos G4 Racing +1.677s
24 Eduardo Barrichello JD Motorsport +1.698s
25 Elias Seppanen KIC Motorsport +1.729s
26 Emidio Pesce DR Formula +1.742s
27 Nicola Marinangeli Arden +1.750s
28 Belen Garcia G4 Racing +1.917s
29 Kas Haverkort MP Motorsport +1.976s
30 Alexandre Bardinon FA Racing by MP +2.037s
31 Nico Gohler KIC Motorsport +2.070s
32 Lena Buhler R-ace GP +2.220s
33 Tommy Smith JD Motorsport +2.341s
34 Hadrien David R-ace GP +19.307s