The opening round of the Formula Regional European Championship (FRECA) was held this weekend at Misano, Italy, and Taito Kato got his season underway to a strong start.

The Honda Formula Dream Project driver has already completed the Formula Regional Middle East Championship this season, including celebrating a podium finish in Abu Dhabi in January, having graduated as 2024 French F4 Champion.

Consistency was the name of the game for Kato as the opening round held at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. From the very first session his pace was strong, finishing the first Collective Test of the weekend sixth fastest, just 0.353s shy.

The second Collective Test was a similar story, with Kato going sixth fastest, this time just 0.183s adrift and 0.001s shy of his ART Grand Prix teammate Evan Giltaire.

Kato then went fourth quickest in Qualifying Group B for Saturday’s opening race, putting him seventh on the grid when results were combined with Qualifying Group A. An incident on the opening lap eliminated two cars ahead of him, meaning Kato inherited a fifth position which he kept until the flag (setting the fourth fastest lap of the race in the process) to earn ten championship points.

With the temperature slightly cooler on Sunday, (dropping from 38 degrees Celsius track temperature for race 1 to 29 degrees Celsius for race 2), Kato couldn’t quite replicate his pace for the final day of the weekend.

Qualifying saw Kato set the 7^th fastest time in Qualifying Group B, which resulted in a grid position of 14^th for Sunday’s 30min +1 lap race two. Working hard in the cooler conditions, Kato climbed to 12^th by the end of the first lap and then on lap 9 was able to climb one more to 11^th, where he crossed the line. Unfortunately, a post-race penalty for a collision with Jin Nakamura added five seconds to his race time, demoting Kato to 17th.

The next round of FRECA is in two weeks, 16-18 May, at the Belgian venue of Spa Francorchamps.

Ⓒ ACI Sport