Emmo Fittipaldi outshines Eurocup-3 title contenders at Barcelona

Photo: Eurocup-3

MP Motorsport’s Emmo Fittipaldi took a lights-to-flag victory in the first Eurocup-3 race at Barcelona, outshining the title contenders.

There was plenty of attention on Javier Sagrera (MP), Christian Ho (Campos Racing) and Bruno del Pino (MP) going into qualifying, with the three knowing the session would be crucial for their title hopes.

There was little action at the first as the clock began to count down from 20 minutes, with Drivex School’s Emil Hellberg the surprise pacesetter at first. Sainteloc Racing’s Daniel Nogales then moved ahead, before team-mate Alexander Abkhazava shot to the top by over 2.5 seconds with a 1m38.295s lap.

Palou Motorsport’s Luciano Morano beat him by 0.421s, but Abkhazava responded by improving by a second to hold a 0.272s gap in first place over Nogales.

Drivex’s Nikita Bedrin edged Abkhazava’s benchmark by 0.103s with eight minutes to go, as Palou’s Everett Stack leapt to third. MP’s Owen Tangavelou then became the first driver to break into the 1m36s, and Fittipaldi soon got within 0.006s of him.

Bedrin found more pace on his next lap, setting a 1m36.223s to move back ahead by 0.402s over Campos’s Valentin Kluss. Sagrera made an important gain to fifth place, then to fourth with five-and-a-half minutes remaining as rival Ho went from 22nd to third with a 1m36.604s.

Neither were in contention for pole as Fittipaldi set an unbeatable 1m35.837s, and in the remaining minutes the only big changes were Ho improving to second, 0.375s off Fittipaldi’s pace, and del Pino snatching sixth on race one’s grid.

Del Pino made the best start, darting to the inside and making room for himself so by braking late into turn one he could pass Campos’s Jesse Carrasquedo Jr and Sagrera.

Fittipaldi weaved his way down the pit straight in an attempt to break the tow, and then spent the first half of the race sitting around 0.9s ahead of Ho.

While bland at first, it was very impressive as Fittipaldi was routinely fastest on track and half a second quicker than anyone but his immediate pursuer.

Ho did fill Fittipaldi’s mirrors on lap 15 of 20, and dived down his inside at turn one on lap 16. Fittipaldi tried staying alongside but went off, and when he rejoined he then swept around the outside of Ho at turn three to get back ahead.

He brought the gap back up to 0.9s after that, with Bedrin finishing third on-the-road and 8.75s behind but a five-second penalty for cutting turn two on lap one (which lifted him to third) dropped him to fifth. Once his race-winning pass was reviewed, Fittipaldi was confirmed as victor several hours after the race.

Del Pino and Carrasquedo, both over 11s behind the winner, inherited third and fourth while Sagrera retained the points lead in fifth – boosted by Bedrin’s guest driver status. Ho is now 12 points behind Sagrera with one race remaining, and del Pino is out of contention.

Race results (20 laps)