Photo: Eurocup-3
Eurocup-3 champion James Egozi claimed his ninth victory of the season in the penultimate round at the Hungaroring a week ago.
Hitech GP’s Keanu Al Azhari was quickest in pre-event testing, by just 0.09 seconds over MP Motorsport’s Rene Lammers, and in practice their positions swapped with Lammers fastest by 0.008s.
They were outshone in qualifying one, in which Campos Racing’s Maximilian Popov was briefly on top before MP’s Ean Eyckmans lowered the pace three laps in a row and claimed pole by 0.053s over Palou Motorsport’s Heitor Dall’Agnol. Al Azhari was third, ahead of MP’s Gianmarco Pradel, Popov, Lammers and Egozi.
Eyckman’s pole advantage only lasted briefly when it came to racing, as Al Azhari made a great launch to get on his outside before turn one while Dall’Agnol squeezed past on the inside to lead despite locking up. Al Azhari went off but rejoined ahead of Eyckmans, with Palou driver Egozi demoting Eyckmans to fourth later in the lap.
Dall’Agnol was rapid, and was two seconds clear of Al Azhari after four laps. The gap reduced in the laps following that, Dall’Agnol then lowered the pace and pulled away again, but it was down to under a second when the safety car appeared on lap 14 due to Palou’s Bianca Bustamante stopping trackside.
The field bunched up in time for three more laps of racing, and Dall’Agnol weaved down the pit straight on the restart. Egozi tried going around the outside of Al Azhari at turn two, and although the latter locked up he went off and rejoined behind Eyckmans.
Dall’Agnol was unchallenged thereon, with the top four places settled. Pradel was fifth prior to the safety car period, and lost the position to Hitech’s Santino Panetta on the final lap.
The boldest pass in the race was by Lammers, who dived down the inside of Campos’s Thomas Strauven at turn one on lap three for ninth place. While Lammers made up two more positions following the restart, Strauven fell to 12th.
Strauven rebounded by initially being fastest in qualifying two, and although he improved after that he ended up in 11th place as Egozi lowered the pace and pipped Dall’Agnol to pole by 0.032s. Pradel was third, and 0.01s split Al Azhari, Lammers, Tecnicar Motorsport’s Kacper Sztuka and Drivex School’s Christopher El Feghali behind.
Egozi went on to lead race two lights-to-flag, with Lammers his closest rival throughout. However he had jumped the start, copping a 10s penalty that consigned him to 25th place due to the race ending behind the safety car.
Al Azhari passed Pradel on lap one, Eyckmans climbed three spots to sixth ahead of Sztuka, then the top 13’s order went unchanged.
Dall’Agnol had to cover the inside of turn one following pressure from Al Azhari on lap six, TC Racing’s Rahim Alibhai stopped off-track and caused a safety car period from laps nine to 11, and Hitech’s Stefan Bostandjiev also stopping was the trigger for the one the race ended under.
Results round-up
Race 1 (19 laps)
1 Heitor Dall’Agnol Palou Motorsport 32m42.544s
2 Keanu Al Azhari Hitech GP +0.567s
3 Ean Eyckmans MP Motorsport +3.337s
4 James Egozi Palou Motorsport +3.980s
5 Santino Panetta Hitech GP +7.415s
6 Kacper Sztuka Tecnicar Motorsport +7.682s
7 Rene Lammers MP Motorsport +8.393s
8 Enzo Tarnvanichkul Campos Racing +9.439s
9 Daniel Macia Tecnicar Motorsport +10.064s
10 Christopher El Feghali Drivex School +11.573s
Pole: Eycmans, 1m35.152s
Fastest lap: Dall’Agnol, 1m36.419s
Race 2 (18 laps)
1 Egozi 33m55.524s
2 Dall’Agnol +1.125s
3 Al Azhari +1.734s
4 Gianmarco Pradel MP Motorsport +2.081s
5 Eyckmans +2.410s
6 Sztuka +2.706s
7 Panetta +3.001s
8 Maximilian Popov Campos Racing +3.221s
9 Thomas Strauven Campos Racing +3.503s
10 Tarnvanichkul +3.774s
P: Egozi, 1m34.756s
FL: Egozi, 1m35.520s
Championship standings
1 Egozi 323 2 Al Azhari 178 3 Lammers 167 4 Eyckmans 166 5 Dall’Agnol 164 6 Sztuka 84 7 Alex Powell 82 8 Rafael Perard 72 9 Pradel 65 10 El Feghali 56