Cem Bolukbasi takes remarkable Euroformula win on debut

Photo: Fotospeedy

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Cem Bolukbasi took a remarkable win on his Euroformula debut at the Hungaroring.

The Turkish driver started the race from fifth, but a three-wide battle going into the first corner between slow-starting poleman Jak Crawford, his Motopark team-mate Cameron Das and CryptoTower Racing Team’s Louis Foster led to him jumping to third as Crawford broke his front wing on the rear-right of Foster who tried going around the outside and spun.

Crawford then locked up into turn two while defending from Bolukbasi’s team-mate Rafael Villagomez, allowing Bolukbasi through to second place.

Das led the way though by several seconds, before brake issues at the front of his car sent him way off track and ceded first place to Bolukbasi. A few moments later, a major brake failure then led to Das flying off into the gravel. Remarkably, the points leader got his car back to the pits sans front wing and front brakes, but had to retire.

Bolukbasi ended up 2.5 seconds ahead of Villagomez, who was being chased by Drivex School’s debutant Joshua Duerksen.

For the second half of the race the pressure Duerksen applied on Villagomez led to him slipping away from Bolukbasi, who claimed his and VAR’s first Euroformula win despite limited laps in free practice and only seeing the Dallara 320 car for the first time a few days ago.

Double R Racing’s Joshua Mason finished fourth ahead of the third VAR car of Casper Stevenson, while Nazim Azman came sixth. Foster’s spin sent him to the back but he recovered to seventh, and kept the position despite a five-second penalty for jumping the start.

After pitting for a new front wing, Crawford came a distant 12th.

Race results (18 laps)