Pradel pips Al Azhari and Eyckmans to Eurocup-3 pole

Photo: Spanish Winter Championship

MP Motorsport’s Gianmarco Pradel came out on top of a super close top five in the first qualifying session at Jarama for Eurocup-3’s winter series.

There was 80 minutes of pre-event testing on Friday, and MP’s drivers filled the top three places. Rene Lammers’ 1m24.986s earned him top spot by a scant 0.064 seconds over Pradel, and Ean Eyckmans was 0.348s off Lammers in third.

Hitech GP’s Keanu Al Azhari and Gino Trappa both set 1m25.349s to be joint fourth fastest, and Campos Racing’s Enzo Tarnvanichkul was sixth. His team-mate Alex Powell was quickest in the first session, putting him seventh overall and 0.43s off Lammers’ later benchmark. A second covered the top 19.

Qualifying took place the next day, and the 20-minute session began with 19 of the 28 drivers heading out. Pradel posted the first laptime three minutes in, a 1m32.787s, and led Eyckmans by 0.578s.

A minute later they were down in 10th and 11th. Powell lowered the pace to 1m28.624s, leading Double R Racing’s Lorenzo Campos by 0.35s and Drivex School’s Filippo Fiorentino by half a second. Bart Harrison (Double R) and Thomas Strauven (Campos) were also within a second of the pace.

Lammers was next to the top, setting a 1m24.985s to pip Eyckmans by 0.05s and Powell by 0.197s. Palou Motorsport’s James Egozi trailed by 0.41s, and was just ahead of Pradel. At this point a second covered the top 12, with 17 drivers having lapped at a representative pace while eight had still recorded no laptimes at all.

Eyckmans went quickest with a 1m24.547s six-and-a-half minutes in, putting him 0.327s ahead of the improving Lammers, 0.39s clear of Drivex’s Christopher Feghali and with a 0.52s gap to Pradel. Powell took fourth from Pradel a minute later, then on his next lap got within 0.06s of Eycckmans as most of the top half of the field pitted.

Tarnvanichkul and Double R’s Yuanpu Cui stayed out, and went third and seventh fastest respectively.

Hitech GP’s Stefan Bostandjiev jumped to fifth with five minutes remaining and improved again on his next lap to 1m24.923s. By that point everyone had set flying laps, and team-mate Santino Panetta was up into seventh.

Pradel was down in eighth, but with three-and-a-half minutes remaining posted a 1m24.357s to clinch pole. Hitech’s Keanu Al Azhari quickly lapped 0.099s shy of the new benchmark, and Fiorentino was 0.106s off Pradel when he crossed the line.

Lammers, Palou’s Rafael Perard, Egozi and Feghali improved in sixth, eighth, ninth and 10th respectively, while Powell and Tarnvanichkull stayed fifth and seventh with personal bests.

Al Azhari reduced Pradel’s gap to 0.042s with two minutes left, and after that third place was traded. Lammers got within 0.085s of pole, then Eyckmans was 0.044s off the fastest lap to demote Lammers to fourth.

Qualifying results