Freddie Slater exited the seventh round of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine on top of the driver standings despite a tricky weekend at Red Bull Ring. The British driver faced some issues on Saturday, qualifying in row 9, and maximized what he could achieve with P12 in the first race. In qualifying 2, Slater secured third in his group and then proceeded to finish the race in a positive P4.
Rashid Al Dhaheri continued to show a great pace and achieved a double points finish after being impressive in qualifying and putting up a solid and consistent pace. The Emirati had a best finish of P5 at the Austrian venue.
Jack Beeton had an improving weekend. The Australian had a tough qualifying session and was affected by contact in race 1. For Race 2, he delivered progress, qualifying in the top seven and equalling his best finish of the year with P6
Last but not least, Alex Powell returned to PREMA to make his FRECA debut and focused on gaining chemistry with the new series for him. Lining up with more experienced drivers, he took the weekend as a learning process, gaining miles and experience aboard the Formula Regional car.
The next round for FRECA will be in a two-week time in Barcelona.
#14 RASHID AL DHAHERI
"A positive weekend after a difficult one in Imola. This time, we made a good step forward. I think the conditions were quite tricky for all when it's cold and the track grip isn't high. We did a good job in improving and fixing the car, and improved from Q1 to Q2. In the races, the pace was quite good. So overall, a positive weekend, and Barcelona should be a good track for us. We'll see how it goes."
#27 FREDDIE SLATER
"It was a pretty tricky weekend for us. The pace was very good in practice. We knew we were fighting for the front, but we also knew it was going to be close. Unfortunately, we had two technical issues in qualifying and in race 1 that were out of our control. For qualifying 2 and race 2, we were there, but the step we had to take was huge, and there was not much chance for overtaking. We need to bounce back in Barcelona and hopefully have a few things go our way. We need a bit of a flow, and we hope it will happen there."
#41 ALEX POWELL
"First FRECA weekend done. For sure, a learning experience, and a lot of lessons to take forward. Very different from what I'm used to, but I'm happy to be back with PREMA and to get the good vibe again. A challenging weekend to say the least, but I learned a lot and I should be in a better place the next time I will race."
#45 JACK BEETON
"The pace was great in testing, but everything went a bit downhill after that. I was quite slow on Friday and Saturday, a combination of circumstances, some of them in my control and some not. In Race 1, I was involved in a contact. I went back to the pit lane to change the front wing and finished at the back. On Sunday, the car was fine, I ended up with P7 on the grid, and I stayed there for the whole race. I got up to P6 due to penalties, but the pace was pretty decent. Cheers to the team for that. We keep pushing, three more rounds to go!"