Tramnitz takes third FREC pole from four rounds in Spa Q1

Photo: FRECA

R-ace GP’s Tim Tramnitz picked up his third Formula Regional European Championship pole from four rounds in the first qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps.

Tramnitz was fastest in the second group, while Race Performance Motorsport’s Santiago Ramos topped Group A which was first on track.

All 17 cars headed out at once at the start of Group A and only Van Amersfoort Racing’s Niels Koolen thought to go out at his own pace while the rest drove around as slowly as possible in a big queue in the hope of making use of the slipstream from the cars ahead once they started their flying laps.

Koolen set the first timed lap six minutes into the quarter-hour of track action, and two-and-a-half minutes later he improved to 2m18.165s but did not remain on top as Monolite Racing’s Kirill Smal went fastest.

Many drivers were still prioritising finding a slipstream going into the final five minutes rather than clear track, with ART Grand Prix’s Laurens van Hoepen and R-ace’s points leader Martinius Stenshorne going wheel-to-wheel through a lap.

It backfired for them and they were far outside the top 10 as Prema’s Rafael Camara set a 2m16.178s to move to the top and R-ace’s Matias Zagazeta went third fastest.

VAR’s Kas Haverkort knocked 0.018 seconds off Camara’s benchmark, then Ramos went 0.402s faster than that.

Camara moved up a spot with 72s left on the clock as he got within 0.087s of Ramos, but then Ramos improved on his final lap to finish on top by 0.392s.

Many others improved when they met the chequered flag, most of them having spread out, with Arden’s Joshua Duerksen moving past Haverkort for third and Prema’s Lorenzo Fluxa rising from 13th to fourth. That became third when Duerksen’s fastest lap was deleted due to track limits abuse.

Title contender Andrea Kimi Antonelli set the pace at first in Group B, and it was Monolite’s Giovanni Maschio on top at the halfway point.

Tramnitz’s first proper flying lap not only sent him to the top but was faster than all but Ramos from Group A, and Antonelli got within 0.020s of his pace in the final five minutes.

The response from Tramnitz was a 2m15.358s, ensuring that their group would take pole, and with almost nobody improving after that it meant Tramnitz finished on top.

Qualifying results