Photo: Palou Motorsport / Fotocar13
The first ever test for the new Eurocup-3 championship concluded at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit today, and a new team set the pace.
In the Wednesday morning session it was Palou Motorsport’s Javier Sagrera who was fastest, setting a 1m27.778s lap to top the times by 0.137 seconds.
Palou Motorsport was launched from scratch in January by 2021 IndyCar champion Alex Palou, and is run by his father Ramon. The team is yet to announce any signings for the inaugural Eurocup-3 campaign, but through the two-day Valencia test has run GB3 podium-finisher Sagrera and Spanish Formula 4 regular Miron Pingasov.
The benchmark pace from Eurocup-3’s first day of testing was a 1m28.302s, set by Campos Racing’s Esteban Masson, and Sagrera beat that by 0.524s on Wednesday morning.
MP Motorsport’s Bruno del Pino was the only other driver to lap sub-1m28s, while four teams were represented in the top four as Drivex School’s Nick Gilkes was third fastest, 0.283s off Sagrera’s pace, and Global Racing Service’s Cenyu Han was 0.380s back in fourth.
The top nine were covered by just over eight tenths of a second, with the slowest driver being Pierre-Louis Chovet. However the Frenchman was testing in one of Drivex’s cars as part of his new role as driver coach for the team, and was building up an understanding of the car – an upgraded version of a Tatuus Formula Regional chassis – to help the drivers he will be working with this year.
Masson was ninth fastest in the morning, and set the pace in the afternoon with a 1m28.535s lap. His team-mate Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak was only 0.018s slower, and Drivex’s William Karlsson was 0.055s behind in third.
The only three drivers to go faster than they did in the morning were Masson, Karlsson and Chovet, which put the first two ninth and 10th overall in the day’s combined timesheet.
Gilkes was 0.107s back in fourth place in the afternoon session, with no other drivers able to lap within a second of Masson’s benchmark time.
Inthraphuvasak completed the most laps, doing 102 in total over the day as he completed 51 in both sessions.
Day two results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gaps | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Javier Sagrera | Palou Motorsport | 1m27.778s | 45 | |
| 2 | Bruno del Pino | MP Motorsport | 1m27.915s | +0.137s | 59 |
| 3 | Nick Gilkes | Drivex School | 1m28.061s | +0.283s | 80 |
| 4 | Cenyu Han | GRS | 1m28.158s | +0.380s | 64 |
| 5 | Jose Garfias | MP Motorsport | 1m28.408s | +0.630s | 54 |
| 6 | Sebastian Ogaard | MP Motorsport | 1m28.410s | +0.632s | 56 |
| 7 | Francesco Braschi | Campos Racing | 1m28.467s | +0.689s | 49 |
| 8 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | Campos Racing | 1m28.476s | +0.698s | 102 |
| 9 | Esteban Masson | Campos Racing | 1m28.535s | +0.757s | 53 |
| 10 | William Karlsson | Drivex School | 1m28.590s | +0.812s | 70 |
| 11 | Sebastian Gravlund | MP Motorsport | 1m28.895s | +1.117s | 68 |
| 12 | Miron Pingasov | Palou Motorsport | 1m29.001s | +1.223s | 53 |
| 13 | Suleiman Zanfari | Campos Racing | 1m29.042s | +1.264s | 86 |
| 14 | Pierre-Louis Chovet | Drivex School | 1m31.577s | +3.799s | 36 |