Published on Sunday, April 18, 2021

PREMA Powerteam shows winning form in FRECA opener

PREMA Powerteam showed winning form in the opening round of the 2021 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine at Imola. The Italian squad secured one win with Spaniard David Vidales in race 1 and brought home more valuable silverware and points with Estonian Paul Aron in race 2.

Starting from pole, Vidales pulled away at the start of race 1 and managed the following two safety-car restarts to perfection. With smart timing and quick action, he was always able to run off to a comfortable cushion until a third safety-car situation came to effectively end the race. Vidales eventually found his way to P7 in race 2 after an early mishap.

Aron made the most of his qualifying for race 2, vaulting to P2 from third place at the start and maximizing his points. In race 1, he had finished fourth. After losing track position at the start, he didn't quite find the right opening for a move, but still secured a good top-5.

Dino Beganovic brought home P8 overall and was second among rookies in race 1. The Swede experienced a more than fair amount of attrition in race 2, having to duck to the pits with contact damage before eventually recovering to P20.

With Vidales and Aron holding P2 and P3 in the series respectively, PREMA Powerteam heads towards round 2 at Barcelona with the lead in the team classification.

#1 Paul Aron

"Definitely not a bad weekend, and a positive start to the season with good points and consistency. Shame for race 1 when we struggled with the start, but the good point is that we managed to fix it today and had a strong race. Ending P4 and P2 is not bad at all. The car was quick enough for a win and for sure in Barcelona we will try to find that little bit to get the pole position and convert it to a race win. Anyway, the key is consistency, which we had here."

Qualifying 1: P3 Fastest lap: 1'38"347

Qualifying 2: P2 Fastest lap: 1'37"904

Starting Grid Race 1: P2 Race 1: P4

Starting Grid Race 2: P3 Race 2: P2

#12 David Vidales

"It was a very positive weekend with a victory in race 1 and a point finish in race 2. It could have been better because we were already P4 fighting for P3 in the first lap and we finished P7. But there are so many positives even from race 2: we did the fastest lap and the pace was great. Also, I felt extremely comfortable with the car. We did a very good step. We even understood some things that might be important for the next race."

Qualifying 1: P5 Fastest lap: 1'38"581

Qualifying 2: P1 Fastest lap: 1'37"860

Starting Grid Race 1: P1 Race 1: P1

Starting Grid Race 2: P5 Race 2: P7

#17 Dino Beganovic

"Qualifying was pretty good, I was the best rookie in Q1 and Q2 as well so I'm happy with that. We always want more, but the starting positions were OK for the races. In race 1 I was a bit unlucky at the beginning, but I made a good recovery. In race 2 I had a really good start. I was fighting, and I was again the best rookie. Then I got into an incident and, after that, I tried to gain experience, overtaking cars. The pace is there, the potential is there. I'm confident for the next race."