F.Regional: Floersch takes P7 and P8 in Monza qualifying, as Scolari has an off in Q1.

RACERS

Oct 18, 20192 min read

Sophia Floersch will start the final Formula 3 Regional races of 2019 from 7th and 8th on the grid, while ScoRace team achieved a remarkably quick repair to Scolari's rear wing.

The 2019 final practice day of the inaugural Formula Regional European Championship opened today under the threat of torrential rain forecasted for the weekend. Luckily, the rain did not make its appearance on the legendary Italian circuit, and the sky remained overcast but dry for each sessions.

Sophia's team Van Amersfoort Racing welcomed newcomer Andreas Estner, stepping in for Dan Ticktum. Finnish Nico Kari also entered the series for the first time, taking over Jake Hughes' seat at KIC Motorsport.

Racing on what it may be considered her home track, Sharon Scolari was confident for a good result, as Monza was the only circuit on the Formula Regional calendar where she had previously raced at. The Swiss started to improve her lap-times in the first practice session, but then struggled with tyre temperatures and had a spin at Ascari during her best lap in FP2.

The first practice session was topped by Portuguese Igor Fraga, as DR Formula had a perfect start to its weekend, with also Raul Guzman constantly within the top-4.

Sophia Floersch lapped in 1:47.368 during FP1 and signed the 8th fastest lap. The German found some more speed during the early afternoon session, as she climbed to fifth thanks to her 1:46.694 effort. In both sessions, the 18-year old lady was the fastest VAR driver.

Unfortunately, Floersch could not make further progresses into qualifying: on a significantly slower track, Sophia finished Q1 in 7th place, 1.4 seconds off the pace from pole sitter Igor Fraga. Newly-crowned champion Frederik Vesti took second half a second behind, while Raul Guzman will be taking the start from 3rd on the grid.

Friday pace-setter Fraga also claimed the second race pole position, ahead of Vesti and Fittipaldi, who previously had a technical issue in Q1 that prevented him from posting a competitive lap time.

Floersch could not do better than 8th, 26 thousandths of a second behind her FIA F3 racer teammate Andreas Estner.

Sharon Scolari had a troubled qualifying session: the driver of the #7 Tatuus spun at Ascari on her second lap, slightly touching the outside barrier. The contact was enough to damage her rear wing, but the small ScoRace team pulled off an amazing repair job that incredibly allowed Sharon to take part in the second qualifying.

The first race of the Monza season finale will go green Saturday at 13:25 CET, while the second and third races will be contested on Sunday.