Colnaghi comes out on top in first Eurocup-3 practice of season

Photo: MP Motorsport

MP Motorsport’s Mattia Colnaghi ended practice for the Eurocup-3 season opener at the Red Bull Ring on top by over a third of a second.

The schedule was adjusted to extend the session to 45 minutes, and after the first 10 minutes Colnaghi and Campos Racing’s Jesse Carrasquedo Jr jointly led the way having both set 1m26.679s laps. Five drivers had still not recorded laptimes at that point, and practice Palou Motorsport’s Isaac Barashi caused an early red flag period by stopping on track.

Alexander Abkhazava (MP) soon went fastest by 0.297 seconds, and a few minutes later improved to 1m26.231s but Carrasquedo reduced his advantage to 0.252s as team-mate Ernesto Rivera demoted Colnaghi to fourth.

Rivera moved ahead approaching the 15-minute mark, setting a 1m26.109s, and Carrasquedo set another personal best to sit 0.015s behind Abkhazava. Drivex School’s Oscar Wurz then moved up to fourth, 0.381s off the new benchmark time.

Abkhazava returned to first place when Rivera’s lap was deleted, and Campos’s Kacper Sztuka rose to third with a lap that was just 0.062s shy of the fastest. Rivera was a further 0.003s behind him as he set a new personal best that counted.

Drivers headed to the pits following that, and two improvements led to Wurz rounding out a top five covered by 0.115s.

When the next runs began, Campos’s Jules Caranta shot to the top with a 1m25.958s lap. He lowered the pace further to 1m25.646s, but was demoted to second place with 18 minutes to go as MP’s Valerio Rinicella set a 1m25.553s. Abkhazava had been shuffled down to fifth, behind James Egozi (Palou) and Emmo Fittipaldi (MP).

Caranta then had his fastest lap deleted, dropping him to third, and although he responded with a new personal best it only gained him one spot as Egozi went quickest with a 1m25.334s.

Rinicella shaved 0.127s off Egozi’s time a minute later but then had his effort deleted, and Egozi went 0.415s clear at the top when he posted a 1m25.020s. However that got deleted too, and the next actual change at the top came with 11 minutes to go when MP’s Maciej Gladysz set a 1m25.090s.

Rivera and Colnaghi were just 0.009s and 0.079s slower than him respectively, and Global Racing Service’s Yani Stevenheydens was 0.101s off top spot in fourth.

Colnaghi set two laps in the 1m24s before anyone else went sub-1m25s, which Gladysz achieved four minutes from the end. Carrasquedo beat him with two minutes to go, but was 0.335s off Colnaghi as he improved to 1m24.626s.

MP’s Andres Cardenas matched Stevenheydens’ best effort, Sztuka ended practice 0.591s behind Colnaghi in seventh, and a failure to improve late on left Egozi in eighth. Barashi was able to rejoin practice and was 25th fastest, 2.4s off the pace.

During the session, Wiktor Dobrzanski (Drivex), Alceu Feldmann Neto (Palou), Preston Lambert (Drivex) and Rinicella had to serve stop-go penalties.

Free practice results