Photo: Palou Motorsport
Eurocup-3’s new era with the Dallara 326 chassis began as its winter series got underway at the Algarve circuit, where James Egozi claimed the first two wins before Keanu Al Azhari seized the points lead.
After Ean Eyckmans topped both of Thursday’s collective test sessions for MP Motorsport, Alpine junior Al Azhari set the pace for Hitech GP in Friday’s test sessions, leading the first one by 0.32 seconds over team-mate Gino Trappa and the second by 0.259s ahead of Campos Racing’s Alex Powell.
Eyckmans claimed pole in qualifying on Saturday morning by 0.057s over compatriot and former Spanish Formula 4 rival Thomas Strauven of Campos. Powell was third ahead of Rene Lammers and Egozi, with Al Azhari only eighth behind fellow GB3 converts Gianmarco Pradel and Patrick Heuzenroeder.
When the lights went out, both Eyckmans and Powell failed to get away properly. That allowed Strauven to lead from Egozi, who then grabbed the lead further around the opening lap before the safety car was deployed to retrieve Trappa’s car from the Turn 4 gravel trap.
Egozi, driving for the Palou Motorsport team that has Prema engineering support, broke away from Strauven at the restart only for another safety car to be triggered by Tecnicar’s Costa Rican single-seater debutant Benjamin Beckley stopping with a puncture. Another interruption followed after Pradel tangled with Rafael Perard at the restart.
Less than eight minutes remained at the final restart, where Egozi remained ahead while Al Azhari took third from Lammers. Al Azhari then went on to grab second Strauven down the inside of Turn 4, and Lammers demoted Strauven to fourth before the end.
The top 12 from qualifying were reversed to form the grid for the shorter race two, putting Luca Viisoreanu on pole from Hector Dall’Agnol, but it was Trappa that burst through to take the lead from third on the grid, while Egozi leapt from eighth to second within the first half a lap.
After another early safety car period, Egozi immediately attacked Trappa on the restart, but the Argentine held on. Heuzenroeder slowing to a halt out of sixth caused another intervention late on, and Egozi this time got the job done to snatch the lead from Trappa before Turn 1.
Trappa then made contact with Pradel in Turn 3, damaging both cars, while Lammers was eliminated from the battle behind by a further clash later in the lap. That caused the race to finish under safety car, but not before Al Azhari came through to second past the compromised Pradel.
Al Azhari claimed pole for race three by 0.092s over Eyckmans, who got the launch at the start to take the lead, while Egozi was slow away from third and fell to the back of the field.
After just one lap, Al Azhari managed to take the lead from Eyckmans down the inside of the first corner. Any attempt by Al Azhari to pull away was halted by a safety car after his team-mates Trappa and Stefan Bostandjiev collided.
With the last 20 minutes staying under green flag conditions, Al Azhari and Eyckmans pulled away from the rest, separated by 0.869s at the chequered flag. Lammers was 6s further back after managing to keep Powell at bay for another podium finish.
Results round-up
Race 1 results (16 laps)
1 James Egozi Palou Motorsport 31m55.808s
2 Keanu Al Azhari Hitech GP +2.269s
3 Rene Lammers MP Motorsport +5.758s
4 Thomas Strauven Campos Racing +7.250s
5 Patrick Heuzenroeder Campos Racing +8.048s
6 Christopher Feghali Drivex +9.875s
7 Yani Stevenheydens GRS +10.465s
8 Enzo Tarnvanichkul Campos Racing +11.362s
9 Alceu Feldmann MP Motorsport +12.265s
10 Ean Eyckmans MP Motorsport +12.882s
Pole: Eyckmans, 1m35.656s
Fastest lap: Egozi, 1m36.210s
Race 2 (11 laps)
1 Egozi 23m45.880s
2 Al Azhari +0.397s
3 Alex Powell Campos Racing +2.464s
4 Eyckmans +2.963s
5 Stevenheydens +3.259s
6 Stefan Bostandjiev Hitech GP +4.842s
7 Strauven +5.365s
8 Feghali +6.207s
9 Tarnvanichkul +6.574s
10 Feldmann +6.743s
FL: Powell, 1m36.868s
Race 3 (18 laps)
1 Al Azhari 32m30.341s
2 Eyckmans +0.869s
3 Lammers +6.840s
4 Powell +7.533s
5 Strauven +8.990s
6 Tarnvanichkul +12.370s
7 Pradel +13.229s
8 Rafael Perard Palou Motorsport +20.538s
9 Filippo Fiorentino Drivex +22.569s
10 Heitor Dall’Agnol Palou Motorsport +23.183s
P: Al Azhari, 1m35.452s
FL: Al Azhari, 1m36.102s
Championship standings
1 Al Azhari 55 2 Egozi 36 3 Lammers 30 4 Eyckmans 28 5 Strauven 26 6 Powell 21 7 Tarnvanichkul 14 8 Stevenheydens 12 9 Feghali 11 10 Heuzenroeder 10