Wharton pips Camara as Prema dominates FREC qualifying at Zandvoort

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

A stunning lap from James Wharton denied runaway championship leader Rafael Camara pole for Formula Regional Europe race one at Zandvoort.

Allocated to the same qualifying group, the Prema team-mates traded best times with Wharton nabbing pole on his final lap.

R-ace GP’s Tuukka Taponen will line up alongside Wharton after topping a rain-affected Group B, with fellow Ferrari junior Camara starting on the second row alongside Williams junior Alessandro Giusti.

Camara and Wharton dominated Group A, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Clerot almost 0.7 seconds behind in third.

Wharton had been the first to set a sub-1m30s lap with the fastest splits in each of the three sectors. His team-mate improved next time around but still lagged Wharton by 0.223s, despite going fastest in the final sector.

R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny had moved up to third, 0.45s behind Camara, with Ivan Domingues taking fourth from team-mate Clerot. KIC Motorsport’s John Bennett was lapping impressively on his series debut, moving up to sixth.

Clerot and Deligny were trading third on each lap as the track got faster, with Clerot taking the position at the end by 0.027s.

Camara had moved to the front with just over a minute remaining, setting new sector one and three benchmarks to edge past Wharton by just 0.002s.

However, Wharton was not to be denied. Timing the start of his final flying lap perfectly he flew to a 1m29.856s after the chequered flag fell, while Camara did not improve.

Light rain affecting parts of the circuit prevented Group B from challenging Wharton’s pace, with most drivers recording their best times on their first run.

Taponen topped the group’s timesheet on his fifth lap, setting a 1m30.277s, then made sure of first place as he improved by 0.172s three laps later, one of the few drivers to find more pace in the final minutes.

ART Grand Prix’s Giusti had been just 0.007s shy of Taponen after their first runs, but was unable to match his imrovement and ended qualifying 0.179s behind.

Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu was unable to replicate his team-mates’ pace but moved up to third midway through Group B’s session. However, the McLaren junior lost the car on entry to turn 11 on his final lap, ending up in the gravel and bringing out yellow flegs which prevented others from improving. Behind him was ART GP’s Evan Giltaire, who had a 0.014s gap to R-ace’s Zachary David in fifth.

Qualifying results