Slater takes sixth FREC pole of season in Monza finale

Photo: ACI Sport

Newly crowned Formula Regional Europe champion Freddie Slater took his sixth pole of the season for the last race at Monza despite a wild ride though the Ascari gravel trap midway through qualifying.

Trident’s Matteo De Palo bounced back from the disappointment of seeing his title hopes evaporate in a dramatic first race with fastest in Group B to join the Prema driver on the front row.

The Van Amersfoort Racing trio were the first to set representative times in Group B, with Dion Gowda benefitting from his team-mates’ slipstream to go top. However, as others completed their first flying laps it was ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire who went fastest with a 1m45.328s.

Next time around, De Palo moved the benchmark below 1m45s, with Giltaire improving but staying second. De Palo went faster still on his sixth lap, to put him 0.553 seconds clear of Giltaire, with R-P-M’s Jan Przyrowski profiting from the triple VAR tow to go third.

Despite being unable to better his time on his final lap, De Palo held on to top spot as Giltaire fell 0.102s short despite a last lap improvement.

A final lap improvement ensured that impressive debutant Przyrowski held onto third, with Gowda and team-mate Pedro Clerot, running at the front of the VAR train throughout the session, just behind.

Slater was immediately on the pace in Group A, lapping in 1m44.897s on his first flying lap, to go 0.306s clear of ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato.

Pushing hard on the following lap, Slater locked up under braking for Ascari, running at almost unabated speed through the gravel before launching the car off the kerb as he rejoined.

Slater’s error allowed team-mates Jack Beeton and Rashid Al Dhaheri to move to the top of the times, with Slater dropping to fifth.

With times not improving, Slater appeared to have missed his chance but pulled out a stunning last lap to take top spot in the group by 0.131s and with it pole position.

Beeton held onto second with another late improver, Sainteloc Racing’s Nikita Bedrin splitting the Prema trio. G4 Racing’s Edu Robinson took an impressive fifth place behind Al Dhaheri.

Qualifying results