One of the 15 Group A runners, Nakamura-Berta was on course to claim pole with a 1m58.076s best, set with a little more than three minutes of the 15-minute session remaining. But a late push cemented the Briton’s fifth top start of the inaugural FIA FREC season after he recorded a 1m57.824s on his final lap.

Sebastian Wheldon, who led the FIA FREC standings at the halfway point of the season, was quickest in Group B, the American’s 1m57.832s effort the benchmark time among the second set of 15 drivers to take to the 5.822-kilometre Circuit Paul Ricard. The MP Motorsport was even on course on outpace Nakamura-Berta for the outright pole position but his last lap of 1m57.870s meant he came up short.

“Being first on track is always very difficult, you’re the ones cleaning the track and the track is always going to ramp up with more rubber down,” Nakamura-Berta said. “We sort of predicted the track would be a lot quicker for the second group and it did look a lot quicker initially. We saw Reno [Francot] go into the 1m57s on his first push, which we only managed to do on the final push. I thought it was a slam dunk that we’d be starting on P2 but finally we had a bit of fortune on our side and we’re starting P1.”

After topping the times during Friday practice in a time of 1m58.588s, Wheldon couldn’t quite convert his early pace into pole position.

“I felt like the track was getting really hot quickly, so we had to get the lap done early,” Wheldon said. “I made a small mistake on my lap, which definitely cost us pole position. But it’s still good starting from the front row and we’ll see what we can do from there. The last round in Hungary was a bit of a disaster and it always feels good to come back strong.”

Alexander Abkhazava (MP Motorsport) was second in Group A with a final-lap effort of 1m57.829s, a result that will put the Kazakhstan driver third in the grid for Race 1. Italian Emanuele Olivieri was the quickest Rookie in Group with a 1m57.912s best for R-ace GP to go third quickest as Norway’s Marcus Sæter (G4 Racing) and Nakamura-Berta’s Colombian Prema Racing team-mate Salim Hanna rounded out the Group A top five.

Behind Wheldon in Group B, UAE’s provisional points leader, Rashid Al Dhaheri, maintained his push for the inaugural FIA FREC title with a 1m57.854s effort for R-ace GP. Brazil’s Gabriel Gomez (1m57.898s) was third fastest for Rodin Motorsport, one place ahead of his Australian team-mate Alex Ninovic (1m57.919s). Reno Francot completed the top five for CL Motorsport, the Dutch driver recording a best lap of 1m57.960s.

Race 1 is due to get under way at 13:00 local time and is scheduled for 30 minutes plus one lap. Watch the action live on YouTube.

FIA FREC explained
Taking over from the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA) for 2026, FIA FREC enjoys the full support of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the global governing body for motor sport and the federation for mobility organisations worldwide.

Positioned one step above Formula 4 in the FIA Single-Seater Pyramid, FIA FREC, which is organised by FIA Member Club Automobile Club d’Italia (ACI), caters exclusively for the second-generation Formula Regional Tatuus T 326. All-new for 2026, the Pirelli-equipped car has been developed by the Italian constructor in partnership with the FIA and follows the aerodynamic philosophy deployed in Formula 1 to encourage closer racing. Its design also represents another step in terms of performance and safety.

The second-generation Formula Regional Tatuus T 326 features the new Race Mode push to pass system, which allows drivers to trigger full engine performance for a period of time when activated by a button pressed from inside the cockpit. The amount of time depends on how many times the button is pressed but each driver has a total of 100 seconds available per race. Race Mode’s introduction for the 2026 FIA FREC season is the result of extensive research and development managed by the FIA.

Click HERE for results. Qualifying 1 results remain provisional.