Home Featured Colombo takes Bhaitech’s maiden Eurocup win, Martins edges towards title

Colombo takes Bhaitech’s maiden Eurocup win, Martins edges towards title

by Craig Woollard

Lorenzo Colombo took a maiden Formula Renault Eurocup win for Bhaitech at Hockenheim as a mechanical problem hampered title contender Caio Collet.

ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins entered the race with a chance of clinching the championship with two races to spare but needed to win with R-ace GP’s Collet failing to score.

Martins made a good start to lead from Colombo initially but, while defending from MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto, Martins opened the door for Colombo to go around the outside of the Turn 6 hairpin.

There, Colombo ran off the circuit but was ahead of Martins when he did so, and no investigation followed.

Colombo was then able to open up a small gap before a safety car was brought out as Collet came to a halt.

After dominating on Saturday, Collet had a clutch change right before Sunday’s qualifying began and started down in eighth. He had moved his way up into fourth and was resisting pressure from Arden’s Alex Quinn when his car came to an abrupt halt towards the midpoint of the 30-minute race.

On the restart with a third of the race remaining, Colombo was once again able to open a gap to Martins on his way to his first victory of a difficult season. He only took part in the weekend’s races having missed Friday’s practice running before getting a negative COVID-19 test result.

Martins now needs just seven points on home soil at Paul Ricard next weekend to seal the title. ART has secured the teams’ title in its first season back in the category.

Colapinto was several seconds behind in third, ahead of top rookie Quinn.

Paul Aron rounded out the top five for ART, ahead of R-ace’s Michael Belov. JD Motorsport’s David Vidales, Arden’s Ugo de Wilde, JD’s William Alatalo and Arden’s Reshad de Gerus rounded out the points finishers.

In addition to Collet, two further drivers retired due to mechanical problems. MP’s Hadrien David pulled off in the early stages of the race with smoke at the rear of the car, while ART’s Gregoire Saucy pulled in with an issue towards the end of the race.

Race results
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1 Lorenzo Colombo Bhaitech 19 laps
2 Victor Martins ART Grand Prix +1.803s
3 Franco Colapinto MP Motorsport +5.901s
4 Alex Quinn Arden +6.979s
5 Paul Aron ART Grand Prix +11.075s
6 Michael Belov R-ace GP +14.020s
7 David Vidales JD Motorsport +14.520s
8 Ugo de Wilde Arden +15.571s
9 William Alatalo JD Motorsport +17.031s
10 Reshad de Gerus Arden +18.531s
11 Amaury Cordeel FA Racing by Manor +19.231s
13 Petr Ptacek MP Motorsport +21.879s
14 Tijmen van der Helm FA Racing by Manor +23.640s
15 Laszlo Toth Bhaitech +30.902s
16 Nicola Marinangeli Bhaitech +52.152s
Ret Gregoire Saucy ART Grand Prix
Ret Caio Collet R-ace GP
Ret Hadrien David MP Motorsport
Fastest lap: Colombo, 1m37.652s

Championship standings
1
 Martins 318   2 Collet 274   3 Colapinto 183.5   4 Quinn 163   5 Vidales 157   6 Colombo 120   7 Saucy 89.5   8 Alatalo 86   9 de Wilde 80.5   10 David 69