Wharton pips Giusti to pole by 0.017s for FREC’s first Red Bull Ring race

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

There was a gap of just 0.017 seconds between the top two drivers in qualifying for Formula Regional Europe’s first race at the Red Bull Ring.

The fastest lap was set in Group A’s session, and it was Prema’s James Wharton who ended up on pole as the eighth and final driver to top the times.

Sainteloc Racing’s Enzo Peugeot, R-ace GP’s Zachary David, Trident’s Roman Bilinski and Niko Lacorte and then MP Motorsport’s Nikhil Bohra and Nikita Bedrin all provisionally held pole but before a representative pace had been reached, with Lacorte being the first to do so when he set a 1m30.547s five-and-a-half minutes in.

Peugeot brought the pace down into the 1m29s and then 1m28s, but his latter benchmark was quickly beaten by Prema’s Rafael Camara and Wharton, and then Bohra who broke into the 1m27s. Bohra was on top for less than a second, as tucked right into his slipstream was Peugeot and he reclaimed provisional pole with a 1m27.735s lap.

Wharton crossed the line six seconds later and shot to the top by a huge 0.46s, then improved again on his next lap by a further 0.267s to 1m27.008s. In the final five minutes Peugeot was shuffled down to fifth, despite improving on his penultimate lap, and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Brando Badoer was Wharton’s closest rival with a laptime just 0.063s slower than him.

Bilinski and Camara were third and fourth, split by 0.009s, and Bedrin was sixth.

Group B’s session was declared wet, but conditions were similar enough to those of earlier that laptimes were similar too.

Again there were eight different drivers who spent time on top, with Sainteloc’s Theophile Nael and Matteo De Palo, Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu, R-ace’s Tuukka Taponen, Trident’s Ruiqi Liu, ART Grand Prix’s Alessandro Giusti and G4 Racing’s Romain Andriolo doing so early on.

Nael nailed down the first serious markrs, setting two laps in the 1m28s, before De Palo broke into the 1m27s. Taponen then went quickest again eight minutes in, setting a 1m27.864s.

On his next lap, Nael moved back ahead with a 1m27.362s but was shuffled back down to third with four mintues remaining as VAR’s Pedro Clerot set a 1m27.095s then Giusti beat him by 0.07s.

It was not quite enough to unsettle Wharton from pole, and Nael improved again on his penultimate lap to be 0.137s behind Giusti and put himself sixth on the grid. Just 0.029s split him, Ugochukwu, KIC Motorsport’s Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi and R-ace’s Enzo Deligny. Camara’s closest title rival Taponen qualified a lowly 16th.

Qualifying results