Photo: Eurocup-3
Campos Racing’s Jesse Carrasquedo Jr narrowly claimed pole in a disrupted second Eurocup-3 qualifying session at Paul Ricard.
Before the red flags, which came after 12 out of Q2’s 20 minutes had passed, very little happened.
MP Motorsport’s Alexander Abkhazava set a 2m00.73s four minutes in to lead Palou Motorsport’s Zack Scoular, and on his next lap improved to 1m59.861s to have a 1.8-second gap to Scoular.
Alceu Feldmann Neto, another Palou driver, was third ahead of Allay Racing’s two drivers.
Abkhazava decided to pit rather than complete his next lap, and Scoular cut his advantage to 1.535s. Feldmann also got faster, but was 2.545s off the pace.
Going into the final eight minutes, the numbers to have completed a lap rose to nine and Sainteloc Racing’s Garrett Berry set a 2m01.577s in third. The red flags then waved, and the next flying laps were not recorded until the last four minutes.
For most it was actually until a minute after that, and it totally shook up the order. MP’s Andres Cardenas posted a 1m59.546s to go quickest by 0.108s over Campos’s Enzo Tarrnvanichkul, with Carrasquedo and MP’s Emmo Fittipaldi also beating Abkhazava’s benchmark. MP’s points leader Mattia Colnaghi slotted into seventh, ahead of Palou’s James Egozi.
With 66s left on the clock, Colnaghi took over first place with a 1m59.379s lap, but Cardenas beat him by 0.09s six seconds later. Egozi improved to fourth, but with 48s to go was sixth as MP’s Valerio Rinicella crossed the line in 1m59.166s to claim provisional pole and Campos’s Jules Caranta went fourth fastest.
Carrasquedo was in eight, but improving his pace and usurped Rinicella by 0.196s. There was 23s left of qualifying, and the track was busy. Able to set two more personal bests was Campos’s Kacper Sztuka, rising to third with a lap 0.246s off the pole time with five seconds to go then after the chequered flag reducing Carrasquedo’s pole-winning margin to 0.099s.
Few were able to improve at the end, and behind the top three were Campos’s Ernesto Rivera, Cardenas, Colnaghi and Caranta. Abkhazave ended qualifying down in 13th, 0.903s off the pace.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jesse Carrasquedo Jr | Campos Racing | 1m58.958s | 6 | |
| 2 | Kacper Sztuka | Campos Racing | 1m59.057s | +0.099s | 6 |
| 3 | Valerio Rinicella | MP Motorsport | 1m59.166s | +0.208s | 7 |
| 4 | Ernesto Rivera | Campos Racing | 1m59.265s | +0.307s | 6 |
| 5 | Andres Cardenas | MP Motorsport | 1m59.289s | +0.331s | 6 |
| 6 | Mattia Colnaghi | MP Motorsport | 1m59.379s | +0.421s | 7 |
| 7 | Jules Caranta | Campos Racing | 1m59.450s | +0.492s | 7 |
| 8 | Enzo Tarnvanichkul | Campos Racing | 1m59.622s | +0.664s | 6 |
| 9 | Maciej Gladysz | MP Motorsport | 1m59.640s | +0.682s | 7 |
| 10 | Francisco Macedo | Campos Racing | 1m59.734s | +0.776s | 6 |
| 11 | James Egozi | Palou Motorsport | 1m59.739s | +0.781s | 7 |
| 12 | Emmo Fittipaldi | MP Motorsport | 1m59.784s | +0.826s | 6 |
| 13 | Alexander Abkhazava | MP Motorsport | 1m59.861s | +0.903s | 10 |
| 14 | Garrett Berry | Sainteloc Racing | 2m00.075s | +1.117s | 7 |
| 15 | Preston Lambert | Drivex School | 2m00.357s | +1.399s | 7 |
| 16 | Owen Tangavelou | Drivex School | 2m00.373s | +1.415s | 6 |
| 17 | Lorenzo Castillo | Sainteloc Racing | 2m00.417s | +1.459s | 7 |
| 18 | Luciano Morano | Palou Motorsport | 2m00.437s | +1.479s | 7 |
| 19 | Oscar Wurz | Drivex School | 2m00.744s | +1.786s | 6 |
| 20 | Lenny Ried | Palou Motorsport | 2m00.756s | +1.798s | 7 |
| 21 | Isaac Barashi | Palou Motorsport | 2m00.772s | +1.814s | 9 |
| 22 | Alessandro Famularo | Drivex School | 2m01.135s | +2.177s | 7 |
| 23 | Zack Scoular | Palou Motorsport | 2m01.433s | +2.475s | 10 |
| 24 | Cristian Cantu | Drivex School | 2m01.625s | +2.667s | 6 |
| 25 | Alceu Feldmann Neto | Palou Motorsport | 2m02.373s | +3.415s | 10 |
| 26 | Emil Hellberg | Allay Racing | 2m02.507s | +3.549s | 10 |
| 27 | Linus Hellberg | Allay Racing | 10 |