Photo: Eurocup-3
Mattia Colnaghi got the better of Ernesto Rivera to reclaim the Eurocup-3 points lead with victory in the first race at Paul Ricard.
Red Bull junior Rivera was slow away from pole position in race one, allowing fellow front-row starter Colnaghi to lead clearly into the first turn as Rivera managed to keep Kacper Sztuka and the rest at bay.
The safety car was deployed after Oscar Wurz and Alexander Abkhazava stopped with damage, and at the restart Colnaghi was forced to defend from Rivera down the first part of the Mistral straight.
Colnaghi couldn’t pull away from his rival through the middle of the race, with the gap growing no bigger than 0.7 seconds.
Rivera closed back in on Colnaghi in the closing stages, and got close enough to have a look around the outside of Le Beausset with two laps to go.
This gave Sztuka the chance to catch up, and a lap later he would drive around the outside of Rivera around the Le Beausset to snatch second. Rivera responded by squeezing Sztuka out on the outside of the penultimate corner, with the pair appearing to make contact.
Valerio Rinicella would get up the inside of Sztuka at Le Beausset on the final to grab third, which then became second when Rivera ran wide and off-track into the penultimate turn, falling to fourth.
Sainteloc Racing’s Garrett Berry won the reversed-grid second race from pole position.
The American kept the lead at the start while compatriot James Egozi challenged Francisco Moreno for second, only to end up losing third to Emerson Fittipaldi Jr.
There was again an early safety car deployment while the car of Alessandro Famularo was recovered and it proved to be a length one, with only eight minutes left on the clock at the restart.
Berry would take his maiden victory by one second over first-time podium finisher Macedo, with Fittipaldi completing the podium having previously finished no higher than ninth this season.
Red Bull junior Jules Caranta had a day to forget. He fell down from sixth early in race one, finishing 13th, and it was a similar story in the reversed-grid race, where he sustained damage on lap one running wide in a battle with Enzo Tarnvanichkul and finished 19th.
Results round-up
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Mattia Colnaghi MP Motorsport 33m30.264s
2 Valerio Rinicella MP Motorsport +1.969s
3 Kacper Sztuka Campos Racing +2.552s
4 Ernesto Rivera Campos Racing +3.018s
5 Jesse Carrasquedo Campos Racing +3.049s
6 Enzo Tarnvanichkul Campos Racing +3.070s
7 Maciej Gladysz MP Motorsport +3.887s
8 Francisco Macedo Campos Racing +6.716s
9 James Egozi Palou Motorsport +8.323s
10 Andres Cardenas MP Motorsport +8.884s
Fastest lap: Rivera, 2m00.980s
Race 2 (10 laps)
1 Garrett Berry Sainteloc Racing 23m37.204s
2 Macedo +1.067s
3 Emerson Fittpaldi Jr +1.776s
4 Gladysz +3.357s
5 Egozi +4.150s
6 Rinicella +4.841s
7 Tarnvanichkul +6.670s
8 Rivera +7.587s
9 Colnaghi +8.570s
10 Kai Daryanani MP Motorsport +12.925s
FL: Colnaghi, 2m00.816s
Championship standings
1 Colnaghi 87 2 Rivera 84 3 Sztuka 76 4 Rinicella 71 5 Gladysz 52 6 Carrasquedo 50 7 Jules Caranta 47 8 Egozi 41 9 Berry 31 10 Tarnvanichkul 28