Kean Nakamura-Berta claimed his third pole position of the season at Zandvoort, which hosts the second round of the FIA Formula Regional European Championship. The Prema Racing driver topped Qualifying 2 and will start from the front of the grid for the second and final race of the weekend.
Sebastian Wheldon secured a front-row spot alongside him. The MP Motorsport driver, who converted pole position into victory in Race 1, continued the impressive form he has shown since Friday’s Free Practice. Emanuele Olivieri emerged as the fastest Rookie.
Group B
Sebastian Wheldon topped Group B with a best lap of 1:30.208 at the end of a session that saw all 15 drivers covered by less than a second. The MP Motorsport driver edged Rashid Al Dhaheri (R-ace GP) by just 0.069 seconds, while his teammate Zhenrui Chi secured third place. ART Grand Prix’s Alexandre Munoz finished fourth overall, with Alexander Abkhazava completing the top five also for MP Motorsport.
Group A
Kean Nakamura-Berta dominated the Group A session that was interrupted by a red flag with 6 minutes and 28 seconds remaining, after Gabriel Gomez (Rodin Motorsport) hit the barriers. The Prema Racing driver, who had already become the first to break into the 1m31s bracket, improved further in the closing stages to post a 1:30.135 and secure the pole position. Reno Francot (CL Motorsport) climbed to second place in the last moments, ending up just 0.044 seconds adrift of the overall best time and moving ahead of Emanuele Olivieri. The R-ace GP driver had spent much of the session at the top of the order courtesy of a 1:30.355 lap and finished as the fastest Rookie. Tomass Stolcermanis (Prema Racing) followed in fourth, while Dion Gowda (Van Amersfoort Racing) completed the top five ahead of his teammates Andrea Dupé and Francisco Macedo.
Kean Nakamura-Berta (Prema Racing): “The last couple of races have been quite chaotic, so it’s nice to head into a race knowing that I’ll be starting where I qualified. The pace has been really strong all weekend, and the track has been great fun to drive. There’s not much more to say, really. In qualifying, having a clear track is so important, especially at a circuit like this, where the lap is short, and traffic can make a big difference. Fortunately, I was able to put together a good lap and secure a strong starting position for the race.”
Sebastian Wheldon (MP Motorsport): “It was a pretty solid qualifying session. I had a tricky moment at Turn 3 on my first flying lap, but fortunately, I managed to keep it out of the wall. After that, I was able to put together a good lap on my penultimate run. It’s a bit frustrating that I couldn’t improve on my final attempt because of another mistake at Turn 3, so that’s something I need to work on.”
Race 2 will get underway this afternoon at 16:45 CEST and will be streamed live on the official YouTube channel.