Photo: Renault Sport
Victor Martins pipped Formula Renault Eurocup title rivals Oscar Piastri and Lorenzo Colombo in the Thursday free practice session at Spa-Francorchamps.
Championship debutant Rui Andrade was the surprise pacesetter at the beginning of the session for FA Racing by Drivex, but by the 10-minute mark it was MP Motorsport’s Martins who sat at the front.
Martins lowered the benchmark time shortly after, and was still in first place by the mid-way point of the session. New M2 Competition signing Callan O’Keeffe had climbed to second, with Arden’s Sebastian Fernandez, R-ace GP’s Piastri and MP’s Colombo completing the top five.
O’Keeffe sank down the order during the second runs, in which team-mate Kush Maini briefly held second place, and it looked like Colombo would end the session on top until Martins put in a good enough improvement with five minutes left to snatch first place.
Piastri was also able to better Colombo, with the trio split by 0.079 seconds. Maini was a strong fourth, 0.142s behind, while R-ace GP’s Caio Collet led a closely packed midfield in fifth.
Free Practice results
| Pos | Name | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Victor Martins | MP Motorsport | 21m19.283s |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | R-ace GP | +0.060s |
| 3 | Lorenzo Colombo | MP Motorsport | +0.079s |
| 4 | Kush Maini | M2 Competition | +0.142s |
| 5 | Caio Collet | R-ace GP | +0.400s |
| 6 | Amaury Cordeel | MP Motorsport | +0.494s |
| 7 | Franco Colapinto | FA Racing by Drivex | +0.566s |
| 8 | Joao Vieira | JD Motorsport | +0.588s |
| 9 | Alexander Smolyar | R-ace GP | +0.644s |
| 10 | Leonardo Lorandi | JD Motorsport | +0.647s |
| 11 | Sebastian Fernandez | Arden | +0.675s |
| 12 | Patrik Pasma | Arden | +0.741s |
| 13 | Ugo de Wilde | JD Motorsport | +0.812s |
| 14 | Callan O’Keeffe | M2 Competition | +0.955s |
| 15 | Rui Andrade | FA Racing by Drivex | +0.964s |
| 16 | Petr Ptacek | Bhaitech | +1.047s |
| 17 | Brad Benavides | FA Racing by Drivex | +1.090s |
| 18 | Frank Bird | Arden | +1.189s |
| 19 | Federico Malvesititi | Bhaitech | +1.444s |
| 20 | Xavier Lloveras | Global Racing Service | +1.512s |
| 21 | Alessio Deledda | Global Racing Service | +2.863s |