Vidales Leads Prema Powerteam One-Two in Second FRECA Qualifying at Imola

David Vidales will start the opening race of the 2021 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine season from pole position after coming out on top of a busy but close second Qualifying session at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari on Saturday.

The Spaniard, driving for Prema Powerteam, took top spot in the session with a lap of 1:37.860, with the top four in the session covered by less than a tenth of a second. 

The weather looked for a while to be closing in, with spots of rain falling at parts of the Imola track, but the precipitation held off long enough for everyone to get through without too much drama.  Save for a few trips through the gravel trap and run off areas, it was a relatively clean session, with only traffic to worry about for the thirty drivers.

Paul Aron made it a Prema Powerteam one-two on the front row, with the Estonian missing out on pole position by just 0.044 seconds.  Arden’s Alex Quinn will start third after his final lap saw him move up from sixth, with the Briton being joined on the second row by R-ace GP’s Hadrien David.  Such was the closeness of the session, David was only 0.098 seconds away from the pole time!

Grégoire Saucy, who had claimed pole position for Sunday’s second race by topping the first session earlier in the day, couldn’t replicate his performance in the second session, but the ART Grand Prix driver still finds himself in a competitive fifth for race one.

He will be joined on row three by the third Prema Powerteam driver, Dino Beganovic, while row four is filled by R-ace GP’s Isack Hadjar and ART Grand Prix’s Gabriele Mini.  The top ten is rounded out by Arden’s William Alatalo and R-ace GP’s Zane Maloney.

Less than a second separated pole position to seventeenth placed Oliver Gøthe of MP Motorsport, while just over two and a half seconds separate first to last.  Bélen Garcia will unfortunately fill that position at the back of the grid, although the G4 Racing driver was not that far away from the pace.  She also survived a wild trip across the gravel trap at Tamburello mid-way through the session.

Qualifying 2 Result

POS.	NO.	DRIVER	NAT	TEAM	TIME/GAP	LAPS
1	12	David Vidales	ESP	Prema Powerteam	1:37.860	10
2	1	Paul Aron	EST	Prema Powerteam	+0.044	10
3	21	Alex Quinn	GBR	Arden Motorsport	+0.052	11
4	10	Hadrien David	FRA	R-ace GP	+0.098	9
5	26	Grégoire Saucy	CHE	ART Grand Prix	+0.303	10
6	17	Dino Beganovic	SWE	Prema Powerteam	+0.436	9
7	6	Isack Hadjar	FRA	R-ace GP	+0.459	9
8	46	Gabriele Mini	ITA	ART Grand Prix	+0.503	10
9	8	William Alatalo	FIN	Arden Motorsport	+0.533	11
10	22	Zane Maloney	BAR	R-ace GP	+0.608	10
11	64	Mari Boya	ESP	Van Amersfoort Racing	+0.660	10
12	85	Gabriel Bortoleto	BRZ	DR Formula	+0.735	10
13	19	Andrea Rosso	ITA	FA Racing	+0.794	9
14	51	Francesco Pizzi	ITA	Van Amersfoort Racing	+0.798	11
15	27	Kas Haverkort	NED	MP Motorsport	+0.833	11
16	62	Lorenzo Fluxá	ESP	Van Amersfoort Racing	+0.838	11
17	96	Oliver Gøthe	DEN	MP Motorsport	+0.967	11
18	41	Emidio Pesce	ITA	DR Formula	+1.033	9
19	91	Eduardo Barrichello	BRZ	JD Motorsport	+1.044	9
20	5	Patrik Pasma	FIN	KIC Motorsport	+1.062	11
21	58	Elias Seppänen	FIN	KIC Motorsport	+1.104	11
22	35	Pietro Delli Guanti	ITA	Monolite Racing	+1.165	11
23	14	Nicola Marinangeli	ITA	Arden Motorsport	+1.385	10
24	16	Tommy Smith	AUS	JD Motorsport	+1.418	10
25	71	Brad Benavides	USA	DR Formula	+1.523	11
26	7	Axel Gnos	CHE	G4 Racing	+1.756	9
27	2	Nico Göhler	GER	KIC Motorsport	+1.900	11
28	13	Jasin Ferati	CHE	Monolite Racing	+1.912	11
29	9	Alexandre Bardinon	FRA	FA Racing	+2.227	10
30	72	Bélen Garcia	ESP	G4 Racing	+2.554	11