Masson on pole for Eurocup-3 decider as rival Boya’s set-up gamble fails

Photo: Eurocup-3

Esteban Masson looks on course to claim the inaugural Eurocup-3 title later today after he put himself on pole for the final race at Barcelona.

There is a gap of 16 points between Masson and his title rival Mari Boya heading into race two of the weekend, and Boya will start sixth on the grid after a set-up gamble in an attempt to beat Masson failed.

Drivex School’s Nick Gilkes was the surprise rival to Masson at first in qualifying, with Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak third and Boya in fourth.

MP Motorsport’s Jose Garfias was next to rival Masson at the top, with the Campos Racing driver lowering the pace to 1m36.503s with eight minutes left of the session. He then improved again to grow his gap at the top of the timesheet to 0.417 seconds.

While Boya remained mired in sixth, Masson improved yet again to 1m36.310s as the clock counted down the final three minutes. Campos’s Inthraphuvasak reduced Masson’s advantage to 0.261s with a minute to go, as MP’s Boya headed to the pits.

The top two followed him in, while Garfias stayed out but was unable to improve his pace as he met the chequered flag.

Bruno del Pino qualified fifth, between Gilkes and Boya, with Francesco Braschi in seventh and Sebastian Ogaard – who dropped out of title contention yesterday – putting himself eighth on the grid.

Propping up the 19-car field was Global Racing Service’s Daniel Mavlyutov, who was a massive 4.178s off the pace.

Qualifying results