Tramnitz puts it on pole for second FREC race at Barcelona

Photo: Sebastiaan Rozendaal / Dutch Photo Agency

R-ace GP’s Tim Tramnitz claimed his second Formula Regional European Championship pole of the season season in the first qualifying session at Barcelona.

The Saturday morning session was oddly setting the grid for race two of the weekend, with a later session setting the grid for race one, and the 34-car field was split into two groups with each getting 15 minutes on track.

KIC Motorsport’s Maya Weug was first to the top in Group A, then R-ace’s points leader Martinius Stenshorne moved ahead. ART Grand Prix’s Marcus Amand was next to set the pace, then G4 Racing’s Michael Belov lowered the pace by three seconds.

Sainteloc Racing’s Emmo Fittipaldi got within a second of him, then Stenshorne returned to the top by almost 2.2s.

Belov responded with an even bigger pace gain, going fastest by 5.622s. His gap was reduced to 0.972s at the halfway point of their time on track, then Trident’s Roman Bilinski reduced Belov’s advantage further to just 0.042s.

Prema’s Rafael Camara knocked 0.164s off Belov’s benchmark, but he was only in first place for a short while before Race Performance Motorsport’s Maceo Capietto set a 1m36.324s to move into first place.

In the final four minutes there was another change, as Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli jumped from 11th to first with a 1m36.148s laptime. His team-mate Camara got within 0.140s of him but ended the session third as R-P-M’s Santiago Ramos set a 1m36.162s to sit just 0.014s off Antonelli’s pace.

Whether he would start race two on the front row or not depended on the pace of the second group, with ART GP’s Charlie Wurz setting a 1m46.272s in the first five minutes once they took to track.

Trident’s Nikhil Bohra lowered the pace to 1m43.350s, then KIC’s Alex Partyshev set a 1m33.061s. Bohra’s team-mate Owen Tangavelou was next to the top, going 6.91s faster and meaning Antonelli’s benchmark was just 0.003s away with seven minutes of track action still to go.

Tramnitz beat it on his next lap, setting a 1m36.052s as MP Motorsport’s Sami Meguetounif went just 0.021s slower to rise into second place. There was then no change at the top for several minutes before Maschio got beached in the gravel at turn four with three minutes to go and red flags were waved.

The clock stopped and race control decided to restart qualifying once Maschio’s car was clear, but nobody improved their pace and so Tramnitz secured pole.

Not setting any laptimes in their group, and also in Friday practice, was KIC’s Shannon Lugassy.

Qualifying results