ART Grand Prix’s Laurens Van Hoepen set the benchmark after almost seven hours of testing at Barcelona, where the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine 2023 season officially kicked off.
With dry condition 33 cars have attended the first session in the morning. Van Hoepen set the best time of 1:36.083 in the final stages ahead Alessandro Giusti (G4 Racing) who emerged as best of the rookies after having secured the second quickest time, 0.124 seconds behind the Dutchman.
Tim Tramnitz (R-ace GP) and Levente Revesz (Arden Motorsport) where third and fourth with Maceo Capietto‘s RPM car leading five different teams in the top 5.
Joshua Durksen (Arden Motorsport), Roman Bilinski (Trident Motorsport), Santiago Ramos (RPM) and Owen Tangavelou (Trident Motorsport) have covered positions from sixth to ninth, that group blanketed by little more than a tenth, underlining the strength in depth of the competition this season.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Prema Racing) topped the afternoon session, setting 1:36.103 ahead of Frenchman Sami Meguetounif (MP Motorsport) and the other Prema car of Rafael Camara, while Victor Bernier (MP Motorsport) was fourth. Good performance once again for Ramos and his teammate Capietto (RPM) who covered the fifth and sixth positions ahead of fastest rookie of the session Tom Lebbon (Arden Motorsport).
Tomorrow action will start at 9.00 am.
