Tramnitz tops FREC’s pre-event test session at Spa-Francorchamps

Photo: Diderik van der Laan / Dutch Photo Agency

R-ace GP’s Tim Tramnitz was fastest by almost half a second with his final lap in the pre-event Formula Regional European Championship test session at Spa-Francorchamps.

The three-hour morning session began with almost everyone heading out on track, and it was series returnee Hadrien David who set the pace at first with a 2m17.194s lap.

After 13 minutes red flags came out, and action resumed eight minutes later. David had an advantage of 0.994 seconds over Tramnitz at the top of the timesheet at that point, but soon Marcus Amand made it an ART Grand Prix one-two by setting a 2m18.114s to move into second place just as David improved to 2m16.787s.

Moments later Tramnitz crossed the line and returned to second, 0.372s off David, while Amand was shuffled down to fifth by R-ace duo Matias Zagazta and Martinius Stenshorne.

More improvements were set 27 minutes in, with David setting a 2m16.316s, Tramnitz a 2m16.919s and MP Motorsport’s Dilano van’t Hoff posting a 2m17.121s to go third fastest.

Ten minutes later the pace was lowered again by the drivers in second to fifth, while David had remained in the pits through that time.

His advantage at the top was reduced to 0.343s by Van Amersfoort Racing’s Kas Haverkort after 51 minutes, then Tramnitz slashed it to 0.189s despite David returning to track and setting a 2m16.217s.

Two laps later Tramnitz finally bettered David with a 2m15.880s to go fastest by 0.220s, and the first hour ended with Tramnitz on top ahead of Prema’s Rafael Camara and David.

The pace did not improve too much during the second hour, with the next benchmark being a 2m15.443s from Tramnitz while David returned to second place with a 2m15.977s.

At the start of the final hour two successive personal bests lifted Race Perfomance Motorsport’s Santiago Ramos from outside the top half of the order to fourth and then to second, 0.403s off Tramnitz.

In the final 15 minutes the track was busy again with drivers improving their pace, and Tramnitz broke into the 2m14s while Monolite Racing’s Kirill Smal surprised to become his closest rival.

Camara was not far behind in third, while Stenshorne and David had improved slightly earlier on and were demoted to fourth and fifth as the track got faster.

The order was set with three minutes left on the clock as red flags waved again and ended the session.

Test results