Photo: Eurocup-3
Bruno del Pino and Christian Ho took a win apiece in Eurocup-3 round four at Paul Ricard.
MP Motorsport’s Javier Sagrera topped Friday’s pre-event test with a 1m59.655s lap, toping the times by 0.361 seconds over team-mate del Pino and Sainteloc Racing’s Jose Garfias. There was a gap of 0.464s to MP’s Owen Tangavelou in fourth, with Campos Racing duo Ho and Jesse Carrasquedo next up.
Carrasquedo was a new addition to Campos’s line-up, having previously been one of G4 Racing’s Formula Regional European Championship drivers. On Tuesday, G4 had put out a statement saying:
“Last Friday, the managment company behind our driver Jesse Carrasqueo notified G4 Racing that Jesse is leaving FREC with immediate effect to seize another racing opportunity. The team will announce future plans in due course.”
The Mexican teenager was clearly not letting the debacle distract him on track, as on Saturday morning topped first practice. He set a 1m59.751s on his final lap to go 0.024s clear of Sainteloc’s Alexander Abkhazava, with Ho 0.198s back in third.
Ho improved to 1m59.803s in FP2 and topped the times, leading Carrasquedo by 0.164s and Garfias by 0.231s.
In the first qualifying session it was a similar story, as Ho made another improvement and was fastest again. He set a 1m59.485s to claim pole by 0.167s over del Pino, with Sagrera and Tangavelou in third and fourth. Carrasquedo was 0.585s off the pace in eighth.
Del Pino and Sagrera passed Ho on lap one of race one, and while Ho was the fastest driver on track he spent most of the race stuck in third. He did not truly try getting back past Sagrera until lap seven, then again on lap 11, before eventually clearing him before Signes on lap 13.
In the remaining laps he hunted down del Pino, but finished 2.8s behind the points leader.
Garfias took fourth place on lap one and held it to the end, while Tangavelou and Abkhazava ran in formation in fifth and sixth until lap 14 when they traded places twice. Carrasquedo dropped from seventh to 21st early on then retired on lap 10.
Ho was fastest throughout Q2 on Sunday morning, taking pole by 0.253s over Sagrera and 0.288s over del Pino. MP’s Emmo Fittipaldi and Carrasquedo qualified fourth and fifth.
The engine cover was taken off del Pino’s car just before race two began, and he started from the pitlane.
Carrasquedo and team-mate Valentin Kluss passed Fittipaldi at the start, and later in lap one Sainteloc’s Deigo de la Torre spun and then had to pit for a new front wing.
Ho was unrivalled up front, taking his third win of 2024 by 3.387s. Carrasquedo pressured Sagrera at times, but was gapped late on.
Tangavelou overtook Fittipaldi on the final lap, with Garfias, Abkhazava and Campos’s Michael Shin in seventh, eighth and ninth. Abkhazava passed Shin with a few corners to go.
Del Pino took nine laps to go from 23rd to 12th, and in the remaining seven laps gained two more places. He dropped two places in the championship though, with Ho and Sagrera now top of the points table.
Results round-up
Race 1 (16 laps)
1 Bruno del Pino MP Motorsport 32m20.034s
2 Christian Ho Campos Racing +2.815s
3 Javier Sagrera MP Motorsport +6.340s
4 Jose Garfias Sainteloc Racing +7.317s
5 Owen Tangavelou MP Motorsport +13.034s
6 Alexander Abkhazava Sainteloc Racing +14.538s
7 Valentin Kluss Campos Racing +23.306s
8 Emmo Fittipaldi MP Motorsport +23.698s
9 Michael Shin Campos Racing +24.521s
10 George Zhuravskiy Drivex School +27.096s
Pole: Ho, 1m59.485s
Fastest lap: Ho, 2m00.371s
Race 2 (16 laps)
1 Ho
2 Sagrera +3.387s
3 Jesse Carrasquedo Campos Racing +5.390s
4 Kluss +9.109s
5 Tangavelou +10.192s
6 Fittipaldi +10.412s
7 Garfias +12.038s
8 Abkhazava +12.689s
9 Shin +17.313s
10 del Pino +23.413s
P: Ho, 1m59.734s
FL: Ho, 2m01.194s
Championship standings
1 Ho 115 2 Sagrera 113 3 del Pino 106 4 Tangavelou 100 5 Kluss 76 6 Abkhazava 75 7 Fittipaldi 57 8 Garfias 42 9 Shin 35 10 Kirill Smal 27