Photo: Eurocup-3
Campos Racing’s Christian Ho and MP Motorsport’s Bruno del Pino won Eurocup-3’s two races at Jerez.
Free practice was disrupted by a red flag period caused by Drivex School’s Joao Diaz stopping at turn eight. Either side of that, Ho set the pace and ended the session with a 1m37.417s that put him 0.112 seconds ahead of Global Racing Service’s Nikola Tsolov.
Del Pino was 0.33s behind in third, and team-mate Javier Sagrera was fourth. Drivex’s Linus Hellberg and Gaspard Le Gallais both got stop-go penalties, and Sainteloc Racing’s debuting James Hedley – who came 15th this year – was ninth fastest.
Ho was quickest again in qualifying, setting a 1m37.667s to beat del Pino by 0.124s. Sagrera was a further 0.07s behind, and team-mates Emmo Fittipaldi and Owen Tangavelou were fourth and fifth. The Formula 3-experienced Tsolov was only 13th fastest, a second off pole and just ahead of Hedley.
The pace advantage Ho had in race one was far larger, as he won the 20-lap encounter by 9.37s over Sagrera and cut his championship lead to 14 points. Del Pino moved one metre before stalling at the start, and after dropping to 25th he recovered to 12th.
Campos’s Michael Shin, from sixth on the grid, challenged Sagrera on the first lap but after that had to focus on Fittipaldi behind. The only time he actually came under pressure though was lap 16.
After lap one there was no overtaking in the top 11, although Tsolov challenged Campos’s Valentin Kluss through lap 15.
Sainteloc’s Daniel Nogales was the only retiree, heading to the pits late on, while Hedley ran in 12th before an incident a few laps from the end dropped him to 19th.
Red flags caused by Tsolov disrupted Q2 on Sunday morning, which was topped by del Pino. He set a 1m37.076s to take his first pole of the year by 0.212s, with Fittipaldi, Sagrera and Tangavelou filling the first two rows. Shin and Ho were compounded to fifth and sixth, although Shin had occupied first place before del Pino went fastest.
Del Pino converted pole into victory with no opposition, leading home Sagrera. Shin had to defend once or twice to keep Fittipaldi at bay in third, and Ho finished fifth after trading places with team-mate Jesse Carrasquedo Jr. Late in the race Tsolov got stuck in the gravel, and the field met the chequered flag behind the safety car after Sainteloc’s Alexander Abkhazava and Palou Motorsport’s Theodor Jensen collided.
Results round-up
Race 1 (20 laps)
1 Christian Ho Campos Racing 33m14.995s
2 Javier Sagrera MP Motorsport +9.370s
3 Michael Shin Campos Racing +19.854s
4 Emmo Fittipaldi MP Motorsport +20.485s
5 Michael Belov Drivex School +22.032s
6 Owen Tangavelou MP Motorsport +22.636s
7 Noah Lisle Campos Racing +25.917s
8 Jesse Carrasquedo Jr Campos Racing +27.266s
9 Valentin Kluss Campos Racing +34.895s
10 Nikola Tsolov Global Racing Service +35.813s
Pole: Ho, 1m37.667s
Fastest lap: Ho, 1m38.914s
Race 2 (20 laps)
1 Bruno del Pino MP Motorsport 34m41.695s
2 Sagrera +0.545s
3 Shin +1.207s
4 Fittipaldi +1.418s
5 Ho +1.949s
6 Carrasquedo +2.695s
7 Belov +2.906s
8 Tangavelou +3.595s
9 Daniel Nogales Sainteloc Racing +4.094s
10 Kluss +5.105ss
P: del Pino, 1m37.076s
FL: del Pino, 1m38.572s
Championship standings
1 Sagrera 228 2 Ho 202 3 del Pino 192 4 Tangavelou 150 5 Kluss 109 6 Fittipaldi 103 7 Shin 88 8 Alexander Abkhazava 73 9 Carrasquedo 58 10 Jose Garfias 52