Maya Weug continued her impressive form in FRECA by securing her best qualifying result to date and then converted this performance into a third consecutive point-scoring finish.
Maya Weug continued her impressive form in the Formula Regional European Championship with a further points finish, this time coming at Mugello. The Ferrari Academy Driver secured her best qualifying result for race one, lining up fifth before converting this performace into a ninth place finish. Weug was on course to challenge for more points in race two before an unfortunate deployment of the fire extinguisher resulted in a retirement.
Maya enjoyed her best weekend to date in the Formula Regional European Championship at Spa-Francorchamps with a pair of points finishes and was looking to continue this form at Mugello. Ending the collective test on Thursday in ninth was a positive start, just seven tenths of a second away from the fastest tine of the day. In Friday’s two free practice sessions, the KIC Motorsport driver finished 18th and 10th respectively, providing further encouragement at a track at which Weug scored points at in the 2022 Italian F4 Championship.
Qualifying was up next on Saturday morning with Maya running in group A. Weug improved her times consistently and ran around the top-5 for the majority of the 15-minute session. A brilliant final lap put the KIC Motorsport driver third in group A, only behind multiple race winners Martinius Stenshorne and Tim Tramnitz. This superb effort was over a second fastest than her previous best time from testing and meant that Maya lined up 5th for the opening race of the weekend.
Following her best qualifying effort in the Formula Regional European Championship to date, Maya was hoping to add to her points tally. Weug made a superb start to hold her position after the opening exchanges, remaining inside the top-5 for the opening four laps. Despite a great defensive effort, Joshua Dufek overtook the KIC Motorsport driver on lap five, followed by Lorenzo Fluxa on lap seven. After Rafael Camara overtook Maya on lap eight, she was in eighth and could settle down into a rhythm with a comfortable gap behind her.
Maya’s pace was encouraging as the race passed the halfway mark, with a safety car deployed on lap nine halting her progress. As the race restarted, gaps within the top-10 were extremely tight and Weug lost out to Maceo Capietto dropping the Ferrari Driver Academy racer to ninth. It was a strong end to the race for Maya who fended off Alessandro Giusti in the closing stages to finish in ninth, scoring her third consecutive points finish and claiming second in the rookie classification.
Aiming to build upon her best qualifying result of the season, Maya was looking to take this one-lap pace in the second session on Sunday morning. Group A were the second set of drivers to take to the track and times were extremely close throughout the session. Weug’s fastest time was seventh in group A, less than two tenths of a second behind the third place driver highlighting the fine margins of the Formula Regional European Championship.
Lining up 14th on the grid for race two, the KIC Motorsport driver was aiming for four consecutive points scoring results. Holding her position after the opening lap, Maya was soon on the move and made her way into 13th by lap two as the safety car was deployed.
After holding off Levente Revesz at the restart, Weug made a smart move on Matias Zagazeta on lap nine to move into 12th and was pushing towards the points, displaying impressive race pace at a track historically tough on tyres. On lap ten, an unfortunate incident occurred with the fire extinguisher deploying leading to an early retirement to bring her points scoring streak to an end.
Despite the race two misfortune, Maya proved her increase in performance at Spa-Francorchamps could translate to other circuits with consistently strong pace at Mugello. Finishing as the second highest rookie in race one while in position to claim the same accolade in race two, further highlights the step forward taken by Maya and KIC Motorsport since the start of the season.
Maya now sits 13th in the overall championship, second highest of the rookie drivers and she will be looking forward to build upon these performances at the next round of the championship at Paul Ricard on the weekend of 22nd/23rd July.
