Round eight of the Formula Regional European Championship takes place this weekend at Valencia’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo, with Dino Beganovic hoping for a friendly acquaintance in his first-ever visit to the Spanish track.
Drafted in as a replacement round to the Nürburgring following the summer floodings in western Germany, Valencia was not part of the original 2021 schedule and has never before hosted a Formula Regional event, meaning most teams and drivers arrive with a clean sheet of paper.
That is particularly true for Ferrari Driver Academy youngster Beganovic, who is yet to ever turn a lap around the 4.005 km venue perhaps most famous for its sell-out road racing MotoGP events.
“Valencia will be a brand new track for me, so I’m looking forward to going there and finding out what it’s like,” says Dino Beganovic. “It has never been used in this championship before, but I know some drivers and teams have experience of it from Spanish F4 (which raced at the track as recently as last weekend). I’ve driven it on the sim this week and hopefully we can build on the things we learned last time out at Red Bull Ring.”
Beganovic ended the previous round in Austria with a strong sixth-place finish in the last race of the weekend, in a field of 33. While he was subsequently dropped to 11th in the final results after picking up a post-event penalty, the effort still gave cause for optimism, with the Swede and his Prema Powerteam squad now hoping to carry the momentum on to Spain.
Running in Valencia will get underway on Thursday with a four-hour test session. It is followed on Friday by official practice, with qualifying and the two races then playing out across Saturday and Sunday.
As always, live streaming will be accessible from www.dinoracing.se.
TIME TABLE
Formula Regional European Championship
Rd. 8 – Valencia (ESP)
All times local (CEST)
Thursday 23 September
Test: 14.00-18.00
Friday 24 September
Free Practice 1: 09.00-09.50
Free Practice 2: 12.30-13.20
Saturday 25 September
Qualifying 1: 09.00-09.20
Race 1 (30 min + 1 lap): 14.30
Sunday 26 September
Qualifying 2: 09.00-09.20
Race 2 (30 min + 1 lap): 13.05
Streaming, timing and results:
www.dinoracing.se
www.formularegionaleubyalpine.com
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Formula Regional European Championship
After 7/10 rounds
Overall (view full standings)
1: G. Saucy (SUI), 224 p.
2: H. David (FRA), 147 p.
3: Z. Maloney (BAR), 141 p.
4: I. Hadjar (FRA), 109 p.
5: G. Minì (ITA), 109 p.
—
16: D. Beganovic (SWE), 24 p.
Rookies (view full standings)
1: I. Hadjar (FRA), 109 p.
2: G. Minì (ITA), 109 p.
3: M. Boya (ESP), 30 p.
4: T. ten Brinke (NED), 28 p.
5: G. Bortoleto (BRA), 26 p.
—
6: D. Beganovic (SWE), 24 p.
