Marta García scores third top-20 of FRECA campaign in le Castellet

Marta García made significant progress at the Le Castellet round of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine, recovering multiple positions to secure her third top-20 finish of the season in Race 1 and demonstrating fighting spirit in both the extreme heat and rain throughout the weekend.

Photo by: Racers - Behind the Helmet

Iron Dames' Marta García had a strong showing in the first race of the Le Castellet round, the sixth meeting of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine, as she recovered seven positions to claim her third top-20 finish in the series so far.

The inaugural F1 Academy champion is making good progress in her first season of the highly competitive series, consistently battling around the top 20 in a strong 33-car field often separated by a little over a second.

Coming off a challenging round at the very demanding Mugello circuit, which was nevertheless a good learning experience, García fought back at Le Castellet, returning to the circuit where the Valencian was victorious twice last year in F1 Academy, albeit on a different track layout.

García's progression throughout the FRECA season has been steady, with a top-15 finish at Spa Francorchamps in only her second weekend, followed by a P20 at Hungaroring, where she again showed good pace and determined battles. Just one week after Mugello, Marta aimed to return to these positions, but she would have to fight through extreme heat on Saturday and a rainstorm on Sunday.

García made good steps forward in Friday practice, running for most of the collective testing inside the top-20 and making good progress over the first day to finish P22, barely one second off the overall pace setter, Brando Badoer, with a personal best of 2:00.179 on Friday, having found seven-tenths between sessions.

The first qualifying of the weekend on Saturday morning saw all three female drivers in the series in Group B. In a difficult group, Marta ended 13th fastest with a 1:59.370, just ahead of her teammate Doriane Pin, and would start P26 for the first race of the weekend, contested in torrid conditions.

Championship leader Rafael Camara took pole from Michael Belov, who had topped Group B, with the two lining up ahead of Brando Badoer and Tuukka Taponen, second in their respective groups. Marta lined up P26 on the grid, determined to fight her way up the order.

Remarkably, the start was clean through the first couple of corners, and Marta gained two positions off the line, then one more on Kanato Le at the end of the first lap, moving up to P23. Le set fast sectors and fought back on the second lap, but Garcia remained glued to the G4 Racing car. Camara had retained the lead from Belov, while Ivan Dominguez demoted Taponen for fourth.

An off-track moment for Noah Stromsted at turn 8 gained García P23; she was now chasing Romain Andriolo closely. The Iron Dame set her personal best on lap 7 and was looking to attack Andriolo and Le in a three-car battle for P21. As the race seemed to have settled, Clerot hit trouble and pitted, then Edgar Pierre and Enzo Deligny collided at turn 3, with both drivers continuing.

This played into Marta García's hands, who climbed her way up to P20, having also overtaken Andriolo in the process. García drove away from the Frenchman and tried to close in again on Kanato Le with a handful of laps to go. On the penultimate lap, she set her personal best of the race and almost caught Le but ran out of time to attack.

A post-race penalty for Deligny promoted García to P19: the F1 Academy champion thus collected her third top-20 finish of the season with a strong first race at Le Castellet, gaining seven positions in a series where it’s notoriously difficult to pass.

Photo by: Racers - Behind the Helmet

Sunday morning's second qualifying session was marked by significantly different conditions, with light rain showers before the session and heavier rain as cars hit the track. Marta, in the first group to go out on Sunday morning alongside teammate Pin, faced very changeable conditions, with significant track development and tumbling times at each run.

Nevertheless García made a good improvement at the end and was P11 in Group, starting just outside the top 20.

The second race started under safety car conditions due to heavy rain throughout most of the afternoon; while the rain slightly eased just before the start, visibility remained tricky and as cars followed the pace car, the time effectively started ticking, with Rafael Camara leading Michael Belov, Brando Badoer, and Tuuka Taponen.

The race had a thrilling start with plenty of carnage in the first corners once the green flag finally dropped: Badoer spun, and Marta was quick to gain two places right at the restart, moving up to P20.

More chaos ensued as Enzo Peugeot and Tuukka Taponen made contact at the final corner, moving Marta up to P18. She continued to make up ground before the race was neutralized again behind the safety car. Camara retained the lead ahead, with Alessandro Giusti and Kanato Le making their way up into podium contention, as Ugochukwu and Bohra followed in the top five.

García had made sterling progress in the first laps under green, gaining four places: when the safety car made its way back to the pits at the end of lap 6, Giusti surprised Camara into turn 1, while Deligny spun and dropped down, with more cars taking the escape road into the chicanes. Ugo Ugochukwu meanwhile passed Camara, who also lost out to Le and Stromsted. Marta was up to 19th after another hectic lap - and looking strong for another recovery drive.

Unfortunately, Marta fell down to P21 as a few fast cars recovered from behind, although she soon tried to recover with strong pace, lapping in the 2:24 range. While battling just inside the top 20, having again moved up the order from her starting position, she lost out to Edgar Pierre on the final lap, still securing an encouraging P21.

Despite the challenging conditions, the weekend brought many learning opportunities for the FRECA Iron Dames duo, with significant progress and many midfield battles showing how García is making strides towards the front.

The next round will be at Imola, on September 7-8, after the summer break.

Photo by: Racers - Behind the Helmet