Photo: Fotospeedy
Motopark’s Brad Benavides wrapped up the Euroformula title at Barcelona after winning one of the weekend’s three races.
Jose Garfias topped free practice one with a 1m32.386s, leading team-mate Benavides by a tiny 0.06 seconds. The top six were covered by 0.982s, with the debuting Ricardo Escotto 1.648s off the pace in seventh and last.
Benavides topped FP2, setting a 1m32.227s on his penultimate lap to sit 0.44s clear of Garfias. Only 0.232s split second and fifth, with 0.01s between Garfias and BVM Racing’s Francesco Simonazzi in third. The only driver to set a personal best was Benavides, which meant he ended up fastest overall by 0.159s.
In qualifying, Benavides remained on top. He lowered the pace to 1m31.296s, clinching pole by 0.189s over Garfias. Edward Pearson was 0.413s behind in third, beating Benavides’ sole title rival Simonazzi by 0.054s. Escotto improved to be 1.111s off pole, but was slowest again.
Garfias made a strong start to race one and got around the outside of Benavides at turn one. But he could not maintain enough speed on that line going into turn two and Benavides got back ahead, while racing returnee Vladislav Ryabov passed Simonazzi.
At turn seven Simonazzi got back past, while Benavides built a gap of 0.777s up front. He had grown that to 1.2s by lap eight, then it almost tripled in size the lap after as Garfias had an off and fell into the clutches of Pearson.
However he was unable to maintain a challenge to Garfias, and the gaps grew between most drivers. Benavides won the 17-lap encounter by 3.953s, and Fernando Barrichello made it a Motopark lockout of the top four places by passing Simonazzi on the last lap.
Ryabov started on reversed-grid pole for race two the next day, joined by Simonazzi on the front row.
Simonazzi led into turn one, as a four-wide fight for second occurred behind. Benavides on the outside took to the escape road and claimed the position, ahead of Barrichello, Ryabov and Pearson.
Benavides let Barrichello back past, and in the final sector Pearson pulled off a switchback move on Ryabov for fourth. Simonazzi was 1.4s clear by the end of lap one, and two seconds clear by lap five. Nothing happened thereon, with Simonazzi earning his eighth Euroformula win by 2.772s and Benavides being crowned (under the points system in the most recent version of the sporting regulations).
Barrichello had reversed-grid pole for race three, and at turn one Ryabov swept around the outside of him into a lead he would not give up. The Russian, who last raced in a Euroformula cameo last year, took his first single-seater win.
Pearson also made a great move on Barrichello, going around his outside at turn six on lap three, and held off a late challenge from Garfias for second. There was often a queue of cars, with Benavides stuck in fourth as Pearson sent him off on lap one and he had to recover from seventh. But that was plenty enough to celebrate being champion, since he finished ahead of Simonazzi.
Results round-up
Race 1 (17 laps)
1 Brad Benavides Motopark 26m27.816s
2 Jose Garfias Motopark +3.953s
3 Edward Pearson Motopark +7.420s
4 Fernando Barrichello Motopark +13.996s
5 Francesco Simonazzi BVM Racing +16.570s
6 Vladislav Ryabov Motopark +17.715s
7 Ricardo Escotto Motopark +20.475s
Pole: Benavides, 1m31.296s
Fastest lap: Benavides, 1m32.841s
Race 2 (17 laps)
1 Simonazzi 26m33.539s
2 Barrichello +2.772s
3 Benavides +5.286s
4 Pearson +6.629s
5 Ryabov +10.065s
6 Garfias +11.999s
7 Escotto +23.195s
FL: Simonazzi, 1m33.052s
Race 3 (17 laps)
1 Ryabov 26m45.582s
2 Pearson +1.496s
3 Garfias +1.978s
4 Barrichello +4.289s
5 Benavides +4.632s
6 Simonazzi +5.201s
7 Escotto +7.634s
FL: Pearson, 1m33.688s
Championship standings
1 Benavides 409 2 Simonazzi 315 3 Barrichello 237 4 Levente Revesz 236 5 Jakob Bergmeister 201 6 Michael Shin 187 7 Pearson 80 8 Garfias 63 9 Lorenzo Fluxa 59 10 Ryabov 43