Photo: Red Bull
Campos Racing’s Ernesto Rivera claimed pole for Eurocup-3 race one at Paul Ricard in the first qualifying session.
Through the first half of the session the track was very quiet, with only Palou Motorsport and Allay Racing’s drivers leaving the pits at first.
Palou’s James Egozi decided to go for flying laps straight away, posting a 2m02.239s at first to sit over 2.5 seconds ahead of team-mate Zack Scoular.
On his next lap, Egozi improved to 2m00.101s and Scoular cut the gap to 1.389 seconds as he remained in second. Alceu Feldmann Neto made it a Palou 1-2-3. Their team-mate Isaac Barashi then made it a Palou lockout of the top four eight minutes in, albeit over six seconds off the pace.
As the second half of the 20-minute session began, Barashi showed his true pace and set a 2m01.529s to jump up to second. There were now others with laptimes to their name, with Sainteloc Racing’s Garrett Berry in fifth.
The track was getting busy, and with seven-and-a-half minutes remaining the order was shaken up.
MP Motorsport’s Andres Cardenas set a 2m00.054s, moving into top spot by 0.022s over Berry and 0.047s over Egozi. A second now split a large group of drivers on pace, and in fourth and fifth were Mattia Colnaghi (MP) and Preston Lambert (Drivex School).
Next to occupy provisional pole position was MP’s Emmo Fittipaldi, who went 0.275s faster than Cardenas. He was on top for less than two minutes, as Colnaghi moved ahead with a 1m59.209s lap with five-and-a-half minutes to go.
Rivera was just 0.024s behind, MP’s Maciej Gladysz trailed by 0.2s in third and just behind him were Campos’s Kacper Sztuka and Jesse Carrasquedo Jr.
With just over three minutes left of qualifying, Colnaghi rose to the top. His 1m59.076s effort put him 0.133s ahead of Colnaghi, and MP’s Valerio Rinicella was 0.196s back in third.
Rivera grew his gap to 0.172s on his next lap, a 1m59.037s, and Sztuka beat Rinicella to third with a lap just 0.01s shy of Colnaghi’s best.
Carrasquedo ended the session in fifth, and Fittipaldi was shuffled down to ninth as he failed to improve his pace late on. However he was still within half a second of pole.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ernesto Rivera | Campos Racing | 1m59.037s | 6 | |
| 2 | Mattia Colnaghi | MP Motorsport | 1m59.209s | +0.172s | 7 |
| 3 | Kacper Sztuka | Campos Racing | 1m59.219s | +0.182s | 6 |
| 4 | Valerio Rinicella | MP Motorsport | 1m59.272s | +0.235s | 6 |
| 5 | Jesse Carrasquedo | Campos Racing | 1m59.373s | +0.336s | 7 |
| 6 | Maciej Gladysz | MP Motorsport | 1m59.409s | +0.372s | 7 |
| 7 | Enzo Tarnvanichkul | Campos Racing | 1m59.457s | +0.420s | 6 |
| 8 | Jules Caranta | Campos Racing | 1m59.480s | +0.443s | 6 |
| 9 | Emmo Fittipaldi | MP Motorsport | 1m59.506s | +0.469s | 7 |
| 10 | James Egozi | Palou Motorsport | 1m59.603s | +0.566s | 10 |
| 11 | Francisco Macedo | Campos Racing | 1m59.634s | +0.597s | 7 |
| 12 | Garrett Berry | Sainteloc Racing | 1m59.811s | +0.774s | 7 |
| 13 | Andres Cardenas | MP Motorsport | 1m59.856s | +0.819s | 7 |
| 14 | Alexander Abkhazava | MP Motorsport | 2m00.173s | +1.136s | 7 |
| 15 | Kai Daryanani | MP Motorsport | 2m00.364s | +1.327s | 7 |
| 16 | Oscar Wurz | Drivex | 2m00.405s | +1.368s | 7 |
| 17 | Owen Tangavelou | Drivex | 2m00.455s | +1.418s | 7 |
| 18 | Lorenzo Castillo | Sainteloc Racing | 2m00.620s | +1.583s | 6 |
| 19 | Preston Lambert | Drivex | 2m00.650s | +1.613s | 7 |
| 20 | Alessandro Famularo | Drivex | 2m00.665s | +1.628s | 7 |
| 21 | Luciano Morano | Palou Motorsport | 2m00.695s | +1.658s | 7 |
| 22 | Lenny Ried | Palou Motorsport | 2m00.957s | +1.920s | 8 |
| 23 | Isaac Barashi | Palou Motorsport | 2m01.080s | +2.043s | 8 |
| 24 | Cristian Cantu | Drivex | 2m01.091s | +2.054s | 7 |
| 25 | Zack Scoular | Palou Motorsport | 2m01.799s | +2.762s | 10 |
| 26 | Alceu Feldmann | Palou Motorsport | 2m01.994s | +2.957s | 10 |
| 27 | Emil Hellberg | Allay Racing | 2m02.215s | +3.178s | 10 |
| 28 | Linus Hellberg | Allay Racing | 2m02.701s | +3.664s | 10 |