Carrasquedo claims pole for Eurocup-3 race one at Barcelona

Photo: Campos Racing

Campos Racing’s Jesse Carrasquedo Jr claimed pole for Eurocup-3’s first race at Barcelona in qualifying one.

Early in the 20-minute session Maciej Gladysz who set the pace ahead of Emmo Fittipaldi and Andres Cardenas.

While 16 drivers headed out and started postinglaptimes, 11 did not and soon MP Motorsport had a lockout of the top five as Valerio Rinicella set a 1m36.39s to move to the top and Alexander Abkhazava went fifth fastest.

Drivex School’s Adam Hideg was best of the rest six minutes in, then Sainteloc Racing’s Garrett Berry jumped to third.

Gladysz got within 0.018s of Rinicella on his next lap, with Cardenas trailing by 0.1s and Fittipaldi by 0.158s. But Rinicella improved to 1m35.971s to go 0.437s clear.

Carrasquedo then broke MP’s stronghold, lappimg 0.138s off Rinicella’s new benchmark while team-mate Francisco Macedo rose to fourth with a lap 0.514s off the pace.

When Berry crossed the line he returned to third, 0.271s slower than Rinicella. The leading drivers pitted on their next laps, and after nine minutes there were still 11 drivers without laptimes.

Berry and Global Racing Service’s Yani Stevenheydens were the only drivers who had done a run not to swoop to the pits, and banker laps were finally set by the drivers at the bottom of the timing sheet as the session entered its second half.

Gladysz was already back out before the 11-minute mark, as the drivers on their first runs slotted into places outside of the top 15.

That changed with seven-and-a-half minutes to go, as GRS’s debutant Maximilian Popov went seventh. He improved to fourth on the following lap, 0.315s off Rinicella.

Berry had now pitted, and would remain there, while Campos’s Ernesto Rivera jumped to sixth. His team-mate Kacper Sztuka was last to set a lap, doing so with four-and-a-half minutes left of qualifying but at an unrepresentative pace.

A few moments later the battle for pole reignited as a 1m35.947s put Campos’s Jules Caranta narrowly on top. Tecnicar Motorsport’s debutant Daniel Macia jumped to 12th, then a new personal best from Gladysz left him 0.058s off top spot in third.

Cardenas posted a 1m36.046s with four minutes to go to sit fourth, before Fittipaldi lowered the pace to 1m35.896s. Rinicella took back provisional pole with a 1m35.747s, until Carrasquedo beat him by 0.227s.

Drivex’s Michael Belov snuck into third, 0.37s off Carrasquedo, and with two-and-a-half minutes remaining Gladysz improved again to 1m35.893s in fourth. That became fifth when Fittipaldi went third quickest, 0.346s off pole.

Sztuka was 10th with his first flying lap, and snatched third place with 90s to go. He held the position briefly as team-mate Enzo Tarnvanichkul outpaced him by 0.033s with a 1m35.809s, and the top positions were set.

Macedo demoted Caranta to ninth in the last minute, and Berry was shuffled down to 12th ahead of Popov, Abkhazava, Macia and MP’s Kai Daryanani who were all within a second of pole.

Qualifying results