Photo: Fotospeedy
Euroformula had three different winners across its three races at a wet Red Bull Ring this weekend.
Practice was topped by points leader Brad Benavides. In a wet FP1 he set a 1m40.919s to lead debuting Motopark team-mate Edward Pearson by 0.741 seconds, with his other debuting team-mate Jose Garfias 1.009s behind.
Benavides’s advantages was reduced in the drier FP2, his 1m24.328s putting him 0.167s ahead of Garfias and 0.372s up on Pearson.
The track was declared wet for qualifying on Saturday morning, and Garfias set a 1m23.571s to take pole by 0.338s over Benavides. Pearson was 0.423s off in third, BVM Racing’s Francesco Simonazzi lagged by 0.508s in fourth and Motopark’s Fernando Barrichello was fifth.
Garfias struggled with his first ever Euroformla start, then struggled to get up the hill and retired before reaching turn three. Benavides took the lead and gapped himself from the rest of the field, going on to win the 19-lap race by 15.634s.
Simonazzi claimed second at turn one, ahead of Michael Shin, Levente Revesz and Pearson. The quartet bunched up on lap three, with Simonazzi having a tricky job diplacing water at the front as conditions significantly worsened.
Pearson cleared Revesz a few laps later, and on lap 10 used suprerior traction exiting turn three to pass Shin too. Revesz then hassled Shin for several laps, but could not get past.
On lap six Pearson attacked Simonazzi, then came under attack from Shin at turn four. He cut him off, and Revesz finally cleared Shin at turn six. Pearson was all over Simonazzi on the next lap, and took second thanks to suprerior uphill traction.
Revesz pulled off another turn six move to overtake Simonazzi on the penultimate lap, and Barrichello was a distant sixth after a big off on the last lap but got reversed-grid pole for race two.
The wet weather meant the safety car led the field for two laps, and when green flags waved Shin instantly attacked Barrichello. A switchback move got him ahead exiting turn one, Barrichello went deep and got back past entering turn three, then Shin led agan at the exit.
Simonazzi also passed Barrichello before the end of lap three, but Barrichello dived past him at turn four next time by to return to second. Shin was already 2.3s up the road
That gap shrunk by a second on lap seven, and on lap 10 he took the lead through turn five. Shin then had to focus on holding off Simonazzi, which he managed to do by just 0.214s. Revesz was fourth, Benavides kept his nose clean in fifth and Garfias passed Pearson for sixth a few laps from the end.
Shin had reversed-grid pole for the dry race three ahead of Barrichello, who had a messy opening lap. He went off at turn three, made a great lunge around the outside of Benavides at turn four to regain second but then went off and fell to last.
Simonazzi moved into third, and Garfias passed Pearson for fourth at turn five on lap two. After that the order was set, and Shin won by 0.507s.
Results round-up
Race 1 (19 laps)
1 Brad Benavides Motopark 31m07.311s
2 Edward Pearson Motopark +15.634s
3 Levente Revesz Motopark +18.244s
4 Francesco Simonazzi BVM Racing +20.631s
5 Michael Shin Motopark +21.000s
6 Fernando Barrichello Motopark +41.038s
Ret Paolo Brajnik NV Racing
Ret Jose Garfias Motopark
Pole: Garfias, 1m23.571s
Fastest lap: Benavides, 1m36.881s
Race 2 (17 laps)
1 Barrichello 30m10.901s
2 Shin +0.975s
3 Simonazzi +1.189s
4 Revesz +3.086s
5 Benavides +3.772s
6 Garfias +6.327s
7 Pearson +9.001s
Ret Brajnik
FL: Garfias, 1m38.345s
Race 3 (20 laps)
1 Shin 28m33.113s
2 Benavides +0.507s
3 Simonazzi +3.257s
4 Garfias +4.512s
5 Pearson +12.171s
6 Barrichello +16.803s
7 Revesz +18.043s
FL: Simonazzi, 1m24.687s
Championship standings
1 Benavides 377 2 Simonazzi 273 3 Revesz 244 4 Jakob Bergmeiter 203 5 Barrichello 197 6 Shin 187 7 Lorenzo Fluxa 59 8 Gerrard Xie 36 9 Pearson 34 10 Garfias 24