Home Featured Tramnitz completes FREC clean sweep at Barcelona to take points lead

Tramnitz completes FREC clean sweep at Barcelona to take points lead

by Roger Gascoigne

Photo: FRECA

Tim Tramnitz took his second Formula Regional European Championship victory of the weekend at Barcelona on Sunday, once again leading home Andrea Kimi Antonelli in a largely incident-free race.

Prema’s Antonelli was able to stay within a second of Tramnitz throughout the race but the R-ace GP driver never looked to be under serious threat.

After spinning out at Imola, Tramnitz made amends in style, his two wins lifting him into the points lead after two rounds.

Tramnitz made a strong start from pole, moving across to take the inside line into turn one. Antonelli pulled out at the last moment to dive for the inside but was unable to find a way through.

MP Motorsport’s Sami Meguetounif had made the best getaway from the second row, pulling alongside the top two before having to drop back behind into the first corner.

As the leaders pulled away, Meguetounif was able to gap himself from a fierce battle behind between Race Performance Motorsport’s Santiago Ramos and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Joshua Dufek, with Ramos weaving down the straight on occasion as he tried to break the tow.

Up front, the lead wavered around the one-second mark as Antonelli tried to push Tramnitz into a mistake.

On the penultimate lap, he brought the gap down to 0.625s as he made a final attempt to challenge Tramnitz. As he pushed to close him down, Antonelli ran slightly wide at turn nine, dropping two wheels onto the dirt on the exit, costing him 0.3s and any chance of a final push.

The two were in a class of their own, Tramnitz finishing over 10s ahead of Meguetounif, who gained compensation from his lap one elimination in the weekend’s first race.

With few overtaking moves in the race, Ramos held on to fourth from Dufek and Prema’s Rafael Camara took sixth.

G4 Racing’s Michael Belov snatched the final point in 10th place from Prema’s Lorenzo Fluxa after a lengthy duel.

An off from Sainteloc’s Lucas Medina at turn 12 brought out the safety car on lap two, while Monolite Racing’s Giovanni Maschio brought out yellow flags after making his customary visit to the gravel on the penultimate lap.

Race results (19 laps)

Pos Driver Team Time
1 Tim Tramnitz R-ace GP
2 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Prema +0.791s
3 Sami Meguetounif MP Motorsport +10.122s
4 Santiago Ramos R-P-M +11.040s
5 Joshua Dufek Van Amersfoort Racing +11.580s
6 Rafael Camara Prema +12.927s
7 Maceo Capietto R-P-M +13.680s
8 Roman Bilinski Trident +16.327s
9 Laurens van Hoepen ART Grand Prix +20.438s
10 Michael Belov G4 Racing +20.839s
11 Lorenzo Fluxa Prema +21.911s
12 Martinius Stenshorne R-ace GP +22.301s
13 Kas Haverkort Van Amersfoort Racing +22.732s
14 Nikhil Bohra Trident +23.357s
15 Victor Bernier MP Motorsport +25.899s
16 Owen Tangavelou Trident +26.865s
17 Alessandro Giusti G4 Racing +27.215s
18 Charlie Wurz ART Grand Prix +27.744s
19 Kirill Smal Monolite Racing +28.198s
20 Marcus Amand ART Grand Prix +36.747s
21 Joshua Duerksen Arden +36.984s
22 Dilano van’t Hoff MP Motorsport +39.110s
23 Matias Zagazeta R-ace GP +40.602s
24 Maya Weug KIC Motorsport +40.922s
25 Tom Lebbon Arden +41.459s
26 Emmo Fittipaldi Sainteloc Racing +42.084s
27 Levente Revesz Arden +44.914s
28 Adam Fitzgerald R-P-M +45.760s
29 Niels Koolen Van Amersfoort Racing +57.929s
Ret Giovanni Maschio Monolite Racing
Ret Alex Partyshev KIC Motorsport
Ret Enzo Scionti Monolite Racing
Ret Lucas Medina Sainteloc Racing
Fastest lap: Antonelli, 1m37.898s

Championship standings
1 Tramnitz 58   2 Antonelli 54   3 Haverkort 50   4 Stenshorne 49   5 Fluxa 24   6 Camara 23   7 Dufek 22   8 Bohra 21   9 Ramos 20   10 Capietto 18