Photo: FRECA
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Ivan Domingues snatched pole for the second Formula Regional Europe race of the weekend at Hockenheim in a dramatic split qualifying.
Domingues topped Group B, the first out on track, by just 0.004 seconds over Red Bull junior Enzo Deligny, and then watched on as race one winner Rafael Camara fell just 0.005s short of his time in Group A’s running.
Continuing VAR’s strong showing all weekend, Pedro Clerot was second fastest in Group A and will line up fourth on the grid.
Track limits abuse had a significant impact with the fastest laptime in each group being deleted for running wide at turn one.
Prema’s James Wharton set a 1m35.445s early on in Group A, which would have been good enough to take pole. But he had it taken away and qualified 10th.
Domingues emerged on top of Group B after a session-long battle with R-ace GP’s Deligny and ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire. He actually set the fastest lap in the group, a 1m35.595s, but like Wharton it was lost to a track limits violation.
GIltaire had been first to drop into the 1m35s with six minutes remaining, but was almost immediately deposed by Deligny and then Domingues.
Deligny improved by 0.13s but with less than a minute on the clock, Domingues snatched a front row starting position by going fastest.
Brando Badoer was unable to match the top three, but bounced back from his bad Saturday qualifying to be fourth fastest. Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael was fifth.
Early pacesetter Niko Lacorte struggled to keep his car within the track limits, and with four deleted laps ended up sixth in the group. Completing the top 10 was Iron Dames’ debutant Doriane Pin.
While Group B had featured the top nine posting their best valid laptimes at the end of the session, in Group A there was no improvement by the top four after the halfway mark. Race one runner-up Tuukka Taponen ended that session in third, with an impressive Enzo Peugeot fourth fastest for Sainteloc after making some changes to the car overnight.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Group B | Group A |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ivan Domingues | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m35.602s | |
| 2 | Rafael Camara | Prema | 1m35.607s | |
| 3 | Enzo Deligny | R-ace GP | 1m35.606s | |
| 4 | Pedro Clerot | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m35.723s | |
| 5 | Evan Giltaire | ART Grand Prix | 1m35.638s | |
| 6 | Tuukka Taponen | R-ace GP | 1m35.727s | |
| 7 | Brando Badoer | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m35.772s | |
| 8 | Enzo Peugeot | Sainteloc Racing | 1m35.926s | |
| 9 | Theophile Nael | Sainteloc Racing | 1m35.836s | |
| 10 | James Wharton | Prema | 1m35.991s | |
| 11 | Niko Lacorte | Trident | 1m35.933s | |
| 12 | Alessandro Giusti | ART Grand Prix | 1m36.032s | |
| 13 | Nikhil Bohra | MP Motorsport | 1m35.959s | |
| 14 | Nikita Bedrin | MP Motorsport | 1m36.076s | |
| 15 | Matteo De Palo | Sainteloc Racing | 1m35.985s | |
| 16 | Noah Stromsted | R-P-M | 1m36.102s | |
| 17 | Ugo Ugochukwu | Prema | 1m36.036s | |
| 18 | Roman Bilinski | Trident | 1m36.355s | |
| 19 | Doriane Pin | Iron Dames | 1m36.070s | |
| 20 | Giovanni Maschio | R-P-M | 1m36.481s | |
| 21 | Ruiqi Liu | Trident | 1m36.085s | |
| 22 | Valerio Rinicella | MP Motorsport | 1m36.522s | |
| 23 | Zachary David | R-ace GP | 1m36.138s | |
| 24 | Costa Toparis | KIC Motorsport | 1m36.618s | |
| 25 | Alex Sawer | KIC Motorsport | 1m36.263s | |
| 26 | Nadhavud Bhirombhakdi | KIC Motorsport | 1m36.804s | |
| 27 | Romain Andriolo | G4 Racing | 1m36.409s | |
| 28 | Kanato Le | G4 Racing | 1m36.849s | |
| 29 | Lena Buhler | ART Grand Prix | 1m36.892s | |
| 30 | Jesse Carrasquedo | G4 Racing | 1m37.042s | |
| 31 | Edgar Pierre | R-P-M | 1m36.970s | |
| 32 | Marta Garcia | Iron Dames | 1m37.087s | |
| 33 | Yaroslav Veselaho | ART Grand Prix | 1m37.264s |