Owen Tangavelou returns to Eurocup-3 with Drivex at Paul Ricard

Photo: Eurocup-3

Owen Tangavelou will return to Eurocup-3 this weekend at Paul Ricard, joining Drivex School’s line-up.

The French-Vietnamese racer came fourth in the championship last year with MP Motorsport, claiming pole on debut, winning the first race he started then following that up with two podiums. He was then a consistent top-five threat for three rounds, but became less competitive as the year went on.

Tangavelou has withdrawn from USF Pro 2000’s round at Road America to make his Eurocup-3 comeback, since he has been racing in the USA this year. He is currently 13th in the USFP2000 standings with a best finish of fifth, and was driving for DEForce Racing.

The 20-year-old was in back in a Eurocup-3 car on Thursday as he joined the in-season test day at Paul Ricard. There were two 55-minute sessions in the morning, then a 90-minute session three to conclude the day.

In session one, Sainteloc Racing’s Garrett Berry was first to set a representative laptime, then 12 minutes in MP Motorsport’s Maciej Gladysz lowered the pace to 2m01.560s. He improved to 2m00.773s on his next lap, and found another 0.006 seconds two laps after that.

Palou Motorsport’s James Egozi toppled him five minutes later, setting a 2m00.394s, and remained on top until the session’s second half when Campos Racing’s Jesse Carrasquedo Jr posted a 2m00.297s.

Gladysz returned to track and reclaimed top spot by 0.177s, before successive improvements from Berry brought the pace down into the 1m59s. His time ahead was short-lived, as MP’s Mattia Colnaghi set a 1m59.782s not long after Berry’s best then grew his gap at the top to 0.12s.

A further 0.233s behind was Gladysz, and he had a 0.04s gap to MP’s Andres Cardenas. A second covered the top 13.

Berry was fastest from the off again in session two, but Campos’s Kacper Sztuka quickly demoted him with two two-minute laps. Egozi then set a 2m00.109s that went unbeaten for 24 minutes.

Carrasquedo broke into the 1m59s to take first place, and also held the position for a prolonged period. Colnaghi recorded a 1m59.694s with 10 minutes remaining to go fastest, which Gladysz beat by 0.125s and Carrasquedo outdid by a further 0.019s.

Another improvement, to 1m59.491s, meant Carrasquedo ended session two (and the test) quickest by 0.078s. Rivera was 0.169s behind in third, ahead of Colnaghi and Campos’s Enzo Tarnvanichkul and Jules Caranta. Berry was one of five drivers not to improve on their session one pace.

Five drivers set personal bests in session three. Sztuka laid down the early pace, then 2m00.158s became the benchmark after Gladysz improved twice. Colnaghi responded with a 1m59.912s, and Gladysz set a 1m59.855s on his next lap 17 minutes in that stood as the session’s best.

Campos’s Francisco Macedo trailed by 0.19s in third, Egozi was fourth and MP’s Kai Daryanani, Alexander Abkhazava and Cardenas were all within 0.4s of the pace. Daryanani was the top improver, and Tangavelou was 23rd in the combined classification.

Test results