Ogaard eats into Masson’s Eurocup-3 lead with Jerez win

Photo: Eurocup-3

Sebastian Ogaard homed in on the Eurocup-3 points lead by winning race two at Jerez as Esteban Masson suffered another retirement.

Ogaard started second on the grid, but looked on course on pole for much of qualifying in the morning. A 1m38.302s lap put him on top for most of the session, with Campos Racing’s Francesco Braschi getting within 0.001 seconds of him with four-and-a-half minutes to go.

A minute later Nikola Tsolov went fastest by 0.01s, and in the last half-minute improved by 0.053s to secure his second pole from two attempts in the series.

But Tsolov made a slow start when it came to the race, and Ogaard launched into a lead which he would not give up. Despite the drivers behind also making better starts, Tsolov managed to drop back no further than second, with Bruno del Pino and Francesco Braschi in third and fourth.

Mari Boya and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak were battling for fifth when the safety car was called out due to Miron Pingasov crashing out. Inthraphuvasak got ahead before the yellow flags waved, and points leader Esteban Masson also passed Boya before reaching yellow flags.

Niels Koolen retired in the pits on lap two, and race one winner Braschi ended his race in the turn eight gravel when racing restarted on lap five. That promoted Masson to fifth, but on lap seven he was back down to sixth after Boya passed him at turn one and then he got spun around into retirement by Jose Garfias.

The safety car came out again, with the next restart being on lap 10. Inthraphuvasak passed del Pino for third, then the top three held their positions for the rest of the 17-lap race.

Ogaard’s celebrations across the finish line meant Tsolov ended up only 0.394s behind him, while Inthraphuvasak trailed by 4.258s following the application of a one-second penalty for track limits abuse.

Del Pino lost fourth place to Boya due to an identical penalty, and Nick Gilkes scored a point in 10th place after Dario Cabanelas and Sebastian Gravlund ahead got track limits penalties too.

Masson’s retirement and Ogaard’s win, his first in the series, means there is now seven points separating them at the top of the standings. Boya has also closed in to be 21 points behind Masson.

Race result (17 laps)