It was an intense and above all wet qualifying session for the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine, which returned to action this morning on the over 4-kilometer-long Styrian circuit, hosting the second official session. On this occasion, Noah Strømsted (RPM) secured his first pole position, marking the first pole for the team led by Keith Donegan. The Danish driver was unstoppable on the wet track, setting the fastest lap with a time of 1’40”768.
The rookie standings leader achieved this important result by topping Group B, where he was the only driver to break the 1’41” barrier, beating a fast Théophile Naël (Sainteloc Racing), who secured a second-row start for the second Austrian race. Behind the French driver, Pedro Clerot (Van Amersfoort Racing) finished the session in third place, ahead of Alessandro Giusti (ART Grand Prix), who had just come off a third-place podium finish in yesterday’s first race, and Ugo Ugochukwu (Prema Racing), completing the top 5 of the session. It’s been a challenging weekend for Tuukka Taponen (R-ace GP), who will start from the eighth row and will need to stage a comeback to stay in the title fight against Rafael Camara (Prema Racing).
The championship leader, Camara, had to contend with a very fast Brando Badoer (Van Amersfoort Racing) in Group A. On his 18th birthday, Badoer gifted himself a front-row start for the weekend’s final race. Under increasingly heavy rain, the Italian driver set the fastest time in his group in the early stages, ahead of Camara, who will start from the second row alongside Naël. Third in this group was Zachary David (R-ace GP), while the two MP Motorsport cars of Valerio Rinicella and Nikita Bedrin were again among the standouts of the weekend, finishing fourth and fifth in the session.
Notably absent from the track was Yaroslav Veselaho (ART Grand Prix), still feeling the effects of the contact in yesterday’s race.
Noah Strømsted – RPM
“We’ve had good pace in the rain here in Austria, starting from the tests, and today we maximized everything to be just as fast in qualifying.”
Brando Badoer – Van Amersfoort Racing
“I’m quite happy with the qualifying, where the conditions were pretty difficult with heavy rain. The first push was enough to secure the front row, thanks to a car that performed very well. I’m confident about having a good race this afternoon.”
The final race of the weekend will start this afternoon at 15:25, with a duration of 30 minutes plus one lap. Live coverage is confirmed on the series’ YouTube channel.
