Mason survives last-lap impact with Noda for fourth Euroformula win

Photo: Fotospeedy

Josh Mason claimed the fourth win of his Euroformula career in what is currently set to be his last race in the series.

After racing full-time in the series through 2021 and ’22, Mason returned to Euroformula last time out at Spa-Francorchamps with Motopark’s Japanese offshoot CryptoTower Racing Team.

He was then called up to race again this weekend at the Hungaroring, and finished third and second in the first two races.

For race three he started third on the reversed grid, behind Jakob Bergmeister and Juju Noda, and wa immediately into second as Noda repeated her previous struggles by squirrelling away from her grid box.

Mason moved past Bergmeister too to take the lead, while Noda had Cian Shields and Francesco Simonazzi alongside her into turn one and Shields got ahead. But Noda moved back past after turn two.

Mason finished the lap 0.842 seconds clear, and then managed that gap while Bergmeister became preoccupied with Noda behind.

After being within half a second of Bergmeister for six laps, Noda finally moved ahead on lap 12 of 17. She overtook Bergmeister into turn one, and he ran off track at the exit to carry more speed so he could be alongside into turn two. But Noda was stronger under braking and got her move done.

Later around the lap, Shields went wide at turn 11 and lost fourth place to Noel Leon, then fifth to Bryce Aron and sixth to Simonazzi at th final corner.

Noda upped her pace once in clean air and quickly closed in on Mason. The leader got crossed up under braking into turn one on the last lap, and Noda was all over him. She was right on his rear going into turn two and got caught out by Mason’s braking point, ending up going airborne as she hit the rear of his car.

The suspension damage picked up from the impact and landing meant Noda could only nurse her car to the finish in ninth and last place, while Mason came under pressure from Bergmeister and Leon in the final corners but held on to win.

Earlier in the race, Simonazzi and Aron had collided at turn one but it was deemed a racing incident, while Leon clipped his front wing on one of Shields’ rear tyres but both got away with it unscathed.

Vladimir Netusil spun on lap two and finished 76s behind the winner.

Race result (17 laps)