Leon wins and Trulli spins in Euroformula’s hectic third Algarve race

Photo: Fotospeedy

Noel Leon claimed a remarkable win in the third Euroformula race at Algarve, as Tim Tramnitz moved into the points lead.

Cian Shields started on reversed-grid pole ahead of Motopark team-mates Bryce Aron and Leon, with BVM Racing’s race two winner Francesco Simonazzi in fourth and CryptoTower Racing Team pair Tim Tramnitz and Enzo Trulli sharing row three.

After suffering a clutch issue at the start of race two, Leon had another slow start to race three and dropped to eighth while Trulli passed Tramnitz for fourth after they ran side-by-side for several corners.

Leon passed Juju Noda for seventh on lap two, while Trulli moved ahead of Simonazzi at turn three on lap three for third place.

Shields held his lead despite an off at turn 13 on lap three, and Leon made up another position by passing Jakob Bergmeister.

On lap five Simonazzi lost another spot to Tramnitz at turn 11 as the latter sought to follow Trulli, who was making up ground faster and passed Aron for second at turn five on lap six despite going off.

A lap later Tramnitz also passed Aron, doing so at turn two, and setting fastest lap to keep Trulli in sight. It took a while longer for them to track down the leader, who Trulli passed going into turn one and Tramnitz overtook at turn three on lap nine. Leon passed Aron for fourth at the same corner, and it only took him one more lap to be catch and pass Shields.

After 10 laps there was 0.492 seconds between Trulli and Tramnitz up front, with Leon a further 1.4s behind. Tramnitz had his first go at the lead at turn one on lap 14, but thought better of it and instead tried the outside of turn five to set up a switchback move.

That put him alongside Trulli through turn six and his rear-right wheel made contact with Trulli’s rear-left but they somehow managed to avoid having a proper crash and Tramnitz took the lead.

Trulli attempted the same move in return on the next lap, but Tramnitz kept him at bay through turns six and seven. He then tried diving down the inside of turn 11 but spun, and the rear-left wheel of his sideways car hit the rear-right of Tramnitz and sent the leader across the dirt on the way to turn 12.

Expecting such a moment was Leon, who breezed past both to take the lead by two seconds. He held that advantage across the next three laps to win, with Tramnitz holding on to second and Simonazzi finishing third.

Simonazzi had passed Aron around the outside of turn one for fifth on lap 12 of 18, then dived down the inside of Shields at turn three on lap 16 for fourth place. Shields gained back a spot from Trulli’s fall down the order after his spin, but then lost fourth to Aron on the last lap as he went around his outside at turn one.

Tramnitz claimed the points lead by finishing second, while Trulli dropped from first to fourth in the standings after meeting the chequered flag in eighth place.

Race result (18 laps)