Photo: Spanish Winter Championship
Mattia Colnaghi held onto the Eurocup-3 winter series points lead after Saturday’s races in round two at Algarve.
A wet track in qualifying led to a slightly unusual order, and MP Motorsport dominated. Valerio Rinicella [pictured] pipped team-mate Andres Cardenas to pole by 0.015 seconds, but everyone else was over a second off the pace.
Palou Motorsport’s Zack Scoular had technical issues on the formation lap for race one and was wheeled off the grid, and with the track still damp it made it tricky for Rinicella as first to encounter the wet patches. At turn two he lost the lead to Palou Motorsport’s James Egozi, who had started fourth, and at the hairpin Cardenas dropped behind team-mate Maciej Gladysz.
There was drama on lap two, as MP’s Emmo Fittipaldi spun around Campos’s Jules Caranta at turn two, Campos’s Francisco Macedo crashed out and Palou’s Isaac Barashi stopped at the side of the track.
The safety car was summoned, but only after Gladysz had got past Rinicella into second. Racing resumed on lap seven, and Gladysz attacked Egozi through the first two corners. Cardenas passed Rinicella before the hairpin, and a brief off-track moment for Egozi set up a three-wide fight at the end of the lap.
Gladysz emerged with the lead after turn one on lap eight, with Rinicella in second. Cardenas passed Egozi at turn two, then Alexander Abkhazava made it an MP 1-2-3-4.
The top two pulled away after that, and Rinicella did not attack the leader until the final lap when he got his car on the inside of Gladysz at the penultimate corner. He used the momentum to take the racing line into the final corner, and win by 0.045s.
Egozi had fallen all the way down to 12th by the finish, with Colnaghi in fifth and Enzo Tarnvanichkul holding off Campos team-mate Lucas Fluxa for sixth. Drivex School’s Oscar Wurz had battled them but finished ninth.
Wurz at least had pole for the reversed-grid race, where drivers opted for a mix of fresh and used tyres. A defensive run to turn one kept Wurz in the lead, then he gapped the battling Colnaghi and Abkhazava before Egozi leapt past both.
Egozi’s charge continued, snatching the lead from Wurz and gapping him before the safety car appeared on lap two. Drivex’s Lenny Ried was spun at turn two while Macedo and team-mate Kacper Sztuka crashed out.
When racing resumed on lap six, Egozi weaved down to turn one. That prevented diving moves from behind, and he then pulled away for a redemptive victory. Colanghi braked late into turn one on lap eight and ran alongside Wurz through to the turn five hairpin where he finally took second, and Rinicella cleared him at the end of the pit straight on lap nine.
Gladysz was fifth, and Caranta fought past Abkhazava at turn 13 on the penultimate lap for sixth.
Results round-up
Race 1 (17 laps)
1 Valerio Rinicella MP Motorsport 31m50.480s
2 Maciej Gladysz MP Motorsport +0.045s
3 Andres Cardenas MP Motorsport +1.315s
4 Alexander Abkhazava MP Motorsport +4.537s
5 Mattia Colnaghi MP Motorsport +4.776s
6 Enzo Tarnvanichkul Campos Racing +11.027s
7 Lucas Fluxa Campos Racing +11.468s
8 Emmo Fittipaldi MP Motorsport +13.725s
9 Oscar Wurz Drivex School +14.746s
10 Jules Caranta Campos Racing +15.055s
Pole: Rinicella, 1m54.140s
Fastest lap: Rinicella, 1m40.409s
Race 2 (12 laps)
1 James Egozi Palou Motorsport 23m03.615s
2 Colnaghi +1.929s
3 Rinicella +2.524s
4 Wurz +3.334s
5 Gladysz +4.195s
6 Caranta +6.636s
7 Abkhazava +8.104s
8 Juan Cota Drivex School +9.143s
9 Tarnvanichkul +9.466s
10 Cardenas +9.612s
FL: Egozi, 1m40.397s
Championship standings
1 Colnaghi 72 2 Gladysz 69 3 Egozi 45 4 Cardenas 41 5 Rinicella 40 6 Caranta 32 7 Fittipaldi 28 8 Cota 27 9 Nikola Tsolov 22 10 Abkhazava 20