Home Featured Lorenzo Colombo completes double Eurocup victory at Paul Ricard

Lorenzo Colombo completes double Eurocup victory at Paul Ricard

by Bethonie Waring

Photo: Renault Sport / DPPI

Lorenzo Colombo completed a Formula Renault Eurocup double win at Paul Ricard, while fellow front-row starter Oscar Piastri battled back from 17th to sixth.

Colombo made a clean start from pole, quickly breaking away from the rest of the field. He was unchallenged throughout the 16-lap race and set fastest lap multiple times as he built a lead of almost nine seconds.

As Alexander Smolyar and Victor Martins battled for second place, neither could answer Colombo?s pace and he finished 8.8 seconds ahead of the duo.

R-ace GP’s Smolyar, having moved into second off the line, held onto the position despite pressure from championship leader Martins, finishing just 0.696s ahead of the MP Motorsport driver.

Further down the order, two frontrunners were battling forward after early misfortune. Piastri?s poor start put him at the bottom end of the field, but he quickly made back positions. By the race midpoint, he joined the four-car battle at the tailend of the top 10 and, once passing Frank Bird, rapidly closed the gap to Amaury Cordeel.

After running side-by-side on the pit straight, Piastri passed Cordeel at the first corner and set about catching Ugo de Wilde for sixth. A mistake from de Wilde on the final lap allowed Piastri through to take the position, but the Australia still drops to third in the standings behind R-ace team-mate Smolyar.

Also in the battle for points was Leonardo Lorandi, who started from last place. He quickly made up positions, joining the back of the train of cars behind Bird with Piastri. In?the closing stages he got onto the the tail of JD Motorsport team-mate Joao Vieira, but couldn?t pressure a mistake and had to settle for 11th, just 0.198s outside the points.

Caio Collet was the top rookie in fourth for R-ace, ahead of Arden’s Sebastian Fernandez.

 

Race results
Pos Name Team Time
1 Lorenzo Colombo MP Motorsport 16 laps
2 Alexander Smolyar R-ace FP +8.849s
3 Victor Martins MP Motorsport +9.545s
4 Caio Collet R-ace GP +14.654s
5 Sebastian Fernandez Arden +22.182s
6 Oscar Piastri R-ace GP +25.378s
7 Amaury Cordeel MP Motorsport +25.512s
8 Ugo de Wilde JD Motorsport +25.631s
9 Xavier Lloveras Global Racing Service +30.320s
10 Joao Vieira JD Motorsport +35.717s
11 Leonardo Lorandi JD Motorsport +35.915s
12 Frank Bird Arden +36.855s
13 Callan O’Keeffe FA Racing by Drivex +38.316s
14 Patrik Pasma Arden +42.157s
15 Patrick Schott FA Racing by Drivex +46.645s
16 Lucas Alecco Roy M2 Competition +58.543s
17 Federico Malvesitit Bhaitech +1m00.369s
18 Brad Benavides FA Racing by Drivex +1m00.606s
19 Alessio Deledda Global Racing Service +1m09.682s
20 Petr Ptacek Bhaiteh +1m33.239s
21 Kush Maini M2 Competition +1 lap
Fastest lap: Colombo, 2m00.107s

Championship Standings
1
?Martins 119? ?2?Smolyar 116? ?3?Piastri 110? ?4 Colombo 97? ?5 Collet 77? ?6 de Wilde 55? ?7 Vieira 55??8 Maini 42? ?9?Lorandi 36? ?10 Fernandez 21