Photo: Fotospeedy
BVM Racing’s Tymek Kucharczyk moved into the Euroformula points lead with a trio of podiums at Paul Ricard last weekend.
The Pole was quickest in practice, setting a 1m56.047s to lead Motopark’s Yevan David by 0.127 seconds. There then a half-second gap to Everett Stack in third, but just 0.102s split him and sixth place.
Kucharczyk remained on top in qualifying, and posted a 1m54.617s to clinch pole by 0.297s over David. Erstwhile points leader Michael Shin was eighth fastest in practice and ninth in qualifying, 1.32s off pole.
BVM’s new signing Preston Lambert, stepping up from a points-free Eurocup-3 campaign, was sixth and felllow debutant Gino Trappa was an off-the-pace 11th. The Argentinian is a Brazilian Formula 4 race-winner.
David tucked in behind Kucharczyk at the start of race one, then had to get defensive against team-mate Fernando Barrichello until Jose Garfias managed to go around the outside of Barrichello at the Mistral Straight chicane.
Diego de la Torre overtook Lambert for fifth there too, then positions settled down until Nielsen Racing’s Ed Pearson crashed into Shin going through Signes on lap three and the safety car appeared. Racing resumed on lap six and de la Torre passed Barrichello, while Lambert resisted Stack’s attacks. Kucharczyk charged away to win by 3.4s.
Lambert had reversed-grid pole for race two, and drove superbly to hold the lead until lap 13 of 15 when Barrichello pulled off a brave overtake around the outside of Bendor after Lambert had hit the kerbs at Beausset.
Kucharczyk finished right behind in third, then crashed into Barrichello on the cooldown lap. Shin could not match the top three’s pace in fourth. David and Garfias went side-by-side into the last corner twice early on before colliding, with both failing to score and Kucharczyk taking the championship lead by one point over David.
Lambert had reversed-grid pole again for race three, and Pearson stalled from the front row alongside him. Garfias took the lead on the inside, with Barrichello going around the outside of Lambert at turn two.
They were side-by-side again though at turn four and Barrichello went off, but was able to rejoin in third ahead of David.
Shin got past David later in lap one when his title rival went off, and overtook Barrichello as lap two began.
David braved his way past Barrichello at Beausset, and on lap three team-mates de la Torre and Stack collided. Racing continued, and on lap four Shin took second from Lambert at Beausset.
It all went wrong for David on lap six, as he tried squeezing past Lambert at turn one. There was not enough room for both to make the corner, and Lambert went off and rejoined alongside David. They made contact at the next braking zone and David spun, with both needing to pit.
Shin was next to hit trouble on lap nine, breaking his front wing and flying off. That left Garfias with a big lead over Kucharczyk he managed to the end, and after Shin pitted he finished ninth. Barrichello was a very distant third.
Results round-up
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Tymek Kucharczyk BVM Racing 31m01.171s
2 Yevan David Motopark +3.401s
3 Jose Garfias Motopark +7.928s
4 Diego de la Torre Motopark +10.024s
5 Fernando Barrichello Motopark +10.697s
6 Preston Lambert BVM Racing +11.182s
7 Everett Stack Motopark +16.072s
8 Finley Green Nielsen Racing +24.136s
9 Gino Trappa Nielsen Racing +45.665s
10 Paolo Brajnik NV Racing +46.851s
Pole: Kucharczyk, 1m54.617s
Fastest lap: Green, 1m56.109s
Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Barrichello 29m15.676s
2 Lambert +0.629s
3 Kucharczyk +1.157s
4 Michael Shin Motopark +2.628s
5 Stack +15.342s
6 Ed Pearson Nielsen Racing +19.319s
7 Trappa +26.893s
8 de la Torre +28.451s
9 Green +37.981s
10 Brajnik +49.215s
FL: Kucharczyk, 1m56.033s
Race 3 (15 laps)
1 Garfias 29m11.366s
2 Kucharczyk +2.179s
3 Barrichello +13.857s
4 Stack +16.396s
5 Trappa +27.057s
6 de la Torre +27.894s
7 Pearson +29.111s
8 Green +30.050s
9 Shin +1m40.895s
10 David +1m44.663s
FL: Kucharczyk, 1m55.965s
Championship standings
1 Kucharczyk 230 2 David 213 3 Shin 212 4 Garfias 193 5 Barrichello 149 6 Pearson 147 7 Stack 146 8 de la Torre 97 9 Shawn Rashid 41 10 Green 31