Alexandre Munoz, champion of the French Formula 4, has achieved pole position in the first race of the weekend of the Formula Regional Europe at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, in a dramatic finish during the qualifying session.
The Prema driver, Kean Nakamura-Berta, seemed on track to secure his fourth pole in five races this season, thanks to a time four tenths faster than Rashid Al Dhaheri’s best in Group A. However, in the final moments, Munoz set a series of personal bests that allowed him to steal the top position from Nakamura-Berta by a margin of just 0.014 seconds.
Giovanni Maschio, who races for RPM, positioned himself sixth in the first group, which will allow him to start from pole in race two, considering the possible penalties from the first race. Maschio faces a five-place penalty following his collision with Kai Daryanani at Zandvoort.
As the vehicles took to the track under perfect conditions, Maschio’s teammate, Jan Przyrowski, was the first to break the 2m14s barrier, just ahead of Zandvoort double winner, Sebastian Wheldon.
In the last minutes of qualifying, Al Dhaheri jumped into first position with R-ace GP, while Wheldon, despite improving his time, could not match Al Dhaheri’s record. Yuki Sano climbed to third position ahead of Emanuele Olivieri, placing three R-ace GP vehicles in the top four positions.
Olivieri, who had exceeded track limits and had not recorded a time, had to make a final attempt as the lights were nearing the end, managing to move up 11 positions after keeping the car within the white lines.
With six minutes remaining for Group B, Marcus Saeter from G4 Racing was the only driver with a competitive time recorded. The Norwegian improved as his competitors finished their laps, but Nakamura-Berta took the lead with three minutes left. Alex Ninovic from Rodin Motorsport, who had struggled to set a good time, positioned himself second with a difference of 0.023 seconds to Nakamura-Berta, while Reno Francot completed the provisional podium for CL Motorsport.
However, in a spectacular finish, Munoz perfectly calculated his last attempt, jumping ahead of the three drivers who preceded him, and Gabriel Gomez positioned himself ahead of Francot at the finish. The competition saw a total of 14 laps eliminated for exceeding track limits, with the first sector at Pouhon presenting particular difficulties, where Andrea Dupe was the first driver to commit two infractions.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
SourceID: SRC_2044a980405d24e30152ddc1000f68a6ab992d1c