Photo: Eurocup-3
Jesse Carrasquedo Jr and Emmo Fittipaldi will start today’s Eurocup-3 races at Spa-Francorchamps from pole position.
Campos Racing driver Carrasquedo earned race one pole by topping the first of two 15-minute qualifying sessions this morning.
Isaac Barashi was fastest at first in Q1, which took place on a wet track, but after giving a tow to Drivex School’s Jorge Garciarce he lost top spot to the debutant.
Enzo Tarnvanichkul crossed the line a few seconds later and set a 2m14.524s to go fastest, but only occupied first place for four seconds before team-mate Carrasquedo beat him by 0.115 seconds.
When MP Motorsport’s Valerio Rinicella crossed the line he then went quickest, with a 0.232s advantage over Carrasquedo.
Tarnvanichkul responded on his next lap, moving back ahead with a 2m13.797s. However he was only on provisional pole briefly, as not long after Campos’s Kacper Sztuka went quickest by 0.255s.
Sztuka’s benchmark stood for for two minutes, with some of his rivals doing cooldown laps. Once Carrasquedo got back up to pace, he had two successive improvements and both were good enough for pole.
He posted a 2m13.381s with three minutes to go, then bettered that by 0.02s but had that effort deleted.
Rinicella got within 0.032s of the lap that stood, and MP’s Mattia Colnaghi was 0.028s shy of Sztuka in fourth.
Tarnvanichkul ended Q1 in fifth, but would have been lower had MP’s Maciej Gladysz not had his fastest lap deleted and qualified in eighth.
Campos’s Francisco Macedo in 12th place was the only driver to improve after the chequered flag waved, and Fittipaldi qualified 15th.
The track was still wet for Q2, and it caught out Campos’s Jules Caranta who had an incident that led to red flags and the session ending 95s early.
Palou’s Barashi and Luciano Morano were quickest in the first half of the session, then Garciarce — who was 1.799s off the pace and placed 21st in Q1 — set a more representative pace with a 2m15.718s lap.
He was on top for two minutes, after which Morano got back ahead by 0.554s. But when Garciarce crossed the line he also made a big improvement to 2m14.679s.
That was not going to be enough to qualify near the front though, and with just over two minutes to go Rinicella moved to the top by setting a 2m13.021s.
Laptimes continued to improve, and Campos’s Ernesto Rivera brought the pace down into the 2m12s. He was providing a tow to Colnaghi, who sent fastest by 0.064s with a 2m12.840s, and six seconds later team-mate Fittipaldi posted a 2m12.693s that would not be beaten.
Garciarce could not find any more pace on his last two laps and dropped to 17th, while Sztuka made it up to fifth ahead of Carrasquedo and MP’s Andres Cardenas, Gladysz and Alexander Abkhazava.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Jesse Carrasquedo Jr Campos Racing 2m13.381s
2 Valerio Rinicella MP Motorsport +0.032s
3 Kacper Sztuka Campos Racing +0.161s
4 Mattia Colnaghi MP Motorsport +0.189s
5 Enzo Tarnvanichkul Campos Racing +0.416s
6 Andres Cardenas MP Motorsport +0.504s
7 Jules Caranta Campos Racing +0.505s
8 Maciej Gladysz MP Motorsport +0.576s
9 Kai Daryanani MP Motorsport +0.713s
10 James Egozi Palou Motorsport +0.787s
Race 2 grid
1 Emmo Fittipaldi MP Motorsport 2m12.693s
2 Colnaghi +0.147s
3 Ernesto Rivera Campos Racing +0.211s
4 Rinicella +0.328s
5 Sztuka +0.441s
6 Carrasquedo +0.691s
7 Cardenas +0.727s
8 Gladysz +0.919s
9 Alexander Abkhazava MP Motorsport +0.952s
10 Tarnvanichkul +1.196s