The Rookie category contender recorded a 1m45.102s around the 5.793-kilometre Italian Grand Prix venue to top Qualifying 2 Group A and secure pole position for his team, R-ace GP, at his home event.

Seventeen-year-old Olivieri, who lined up on pole position for the inaugural FIA F4 World Cup in Macau last November, is the fifth different driver to qualify at the front in FIA FREC. He secured two FIA FREC points for his efforts.

“It feels really good,” Olivieri said. “Honestly, I was feeling really confident with the team and I really need to thank them a lot after the crash I had in Race 2. They rebuilt the car overnight, so this result is really good for them. Anything can happen in the race, but we have a really good pace and I’m really confident.”

Kean Nakamura-Berta continued his strong FIA FREC qualifying form by setting the pace in Qualifying 2 Group B. Having clocked a 1m45.376s best to land top spot on the grid for Race 1, the British driver delivered again in a time of 1m45.511s. Prema Racing’s FIA FREC points leader will therefore join Olivieri on the front row of the grid for Race 3, which is due to get under way at 13:00 local time.

With the Group B drivers the first of the day to take to the Autodrome Nazionale Monza at 08:30 local time, Nakamura-Berta reckoned the conditions weren’t ideal to record the ultimate lap time.

“Overall, you are lacking a bit of lateral grip through corners, a bit of braking grip as well and the track is always improving and you have to improve with the track,” he explained. “But we did a decent job, we didn’t have much slipstream, but we still managed to put it together so I’m pretty happy with it.”

Brazil’s Gabriel Gomez finished up a FIA FREC career-best second in Qualifying 2 Group B, just 0.017s behind Nakamura-Berta for Rodin Motorsport as RPM’s Jan Przyrowski took third. ART Grand Prix pair Kabir Anurag and Alexandre Munoz were next up with Rodin’s Alex Ninovic sixth.

Colombian Salim Hanna, who is aiming for a third consecutive Monza podium for Prema Racing, was seventh fastest and was followed by Alexander Abkhazava (MP Motorsport), Mattéo Giaccardi (ART Grand Prix) and G4 Racing’s Marcus Sæter.

After winning Race 2, Rashid Al Dhaheri (R-ace GP) had to settle for the 13th fastest time. “Qualifying was far from ideal, Monza is such a strategic qualifying and things have to go well,” the UAE driver said. “For us, everything went wrong. But the car is good, the pace is there when we’re able to do things normally and I believe we have a Race 3 where we can gain a lot of positions.”

In Qualifying 2 Group A, Frenchman Jules Roussel, who joined Olivieri on the front row of the FIA F4 World Cup grid at Macau – a race he eventually won – was second fastest for CL Motorsport, 0.197s behind Olivieri. Maksimilian Popov ended the 15-minute session third quickest for Trident Motorsport followed by MP Motorsport pair Sebastian Wheldon and Chi Zhenrui.

Reno Francot and FIA FREC newcomer Kyuho Lee were sixth and seventh for CL Motorsport as Yuki Sano (R-ace GP), Dion Gowda (Van Amersfoort Racing) and fellow Indian driver Kai Daryanani rounded out the top 10.

FIA FREC qualifying group formations are based on odd and even numbers according to championship positions with two drivers selected at random to pick from a sealed envelope whether odd-number drivers are Group A or Group B. Both driver groups get 15 minutes of track time in qualifying with the drivers who go first in Qualifying 1 going second in Qualifying 2 and vice versa.

The overall fastest driver out of both groups (Group A and Group B) starts from pole position. Second position goes to the driver achieving the fastest time in the ‘other’ group with third place awarded to the driver who has achieved the second fastest time in the group of the overall fastest driver, and so on.

Race 3, which is scheduled for 30 minutes plus one lap, is due to begin at 13:00 local time and will be streamed live on YouTube as well as being broadcast by 70 networks across 200 territories worldwide.

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 2 results remain provisional.