Photo: Eurocup-3
MP Motorsport’s Javier Sagrera converted both of his poles into victories at the latest Eurocup-3 round at Zandvoort.
Sagrera won a heavily disrupted race one which was marred by a huge crash involving Campos Racing’s Michael Shin and Sainteloc Racing’s Alexander Abkhazava who both avoided injury.
An issue with the starting gantry lights which had caused the postponement of the preceeding British Formula 4 contest led to the race being delayed and then beginning with a rolling start behind the safety car.
Sagrera immediately pulled a clear gap ahead of Campos driver Christian Ho and his MP team-mates Bruno del Pino, Dario Cabanelas and Owen Tangavelou when the safety car was withdrawn.
Having lined up seventh after serving a three-place grid penalty, Shin went wheel-to-wheel with Abkhazava on lap two, but the pair made contact through the high-speed turns five and six before crashing heavily into the barriers, with Shin then launched into a series of barrel-rolls.
The race was immediately red-flagged, and there was a lengthy delay before it was restarted. Rain started to fall as the cars returned to track behind the safety car, and a spin for Palou Motorsport’s Luciano Morano delayed proceedings further.
Sagrera led away once the action finally resumed ahead of Ho and del Pino, while behind them Tangavelou and Cabalenas squabbled over fourth before both losing out to Campos’s Noah Lisle. Cabaneleas soon retired with rear wing damage, resulting in the race finishing behind the safety car.
Tangavelou edged Lisle to fourth before the stoppage, with Global Racing Service’s Nikolva Tsolov taking sixth ahead Palou’s Theodor Jensen and MP’s Emmo Fittipaldi.
The safety car was deployed on the opening lap of race two after Abkhazava tripped over another car and slid into the barriers. Sagrera led from pole while del Pino and Campos’s Valentin Kluss moved ahead of Tangavelou into second and third, and Kluss resisted a challenge from Tangavelou at the restart.
Sagrera survived a lunge and contact from del Pino early on to lead his MP team-mate home by 0.914 seconds. Tangavelou continued his tussle with Kluss throughout but had to settle for fourth ahead of Ho. Sainteloc Racing’s Jose Garfias passed Shin to finish sixth, with his team-mate Yevan David eighth ahead of Tsolov and Cabanelas.
Results round-up
Race 1 (10 laps)
1 Javier Sagrera MP Motorsport 54m43.862s
2 Christian Ho Campos Racing +0.334s
3 Bruno del Pino MP Motorsport +0.728s
4 Owen Tangavelou MP Motorsport +0.848s
5 Noah Lisle Campos Racing +1.014s
6 Nikola Tsolov Global Racing Service +1.161s
7 Theodor Jensen Palou Motorsport +1.683s
8 Emmo Fittipaldi MP Motorsport +2.164s
9 Jose Garfias Sainteloc Racing +3.360s
10 Isaac Barashi Global Racing Service +3.449s
Pole: Sagrera, 1m43.172s
Fastest lap: del Pino, 1m34.463s
Race 2 (19 laps)
1 Sagrera 33m04.495s
2 de Pino +0.914s
3 Valentin Kluss Campos Racing +5.497s
4 Tangavelou +5.956s
5 Ho +6.691s
6 Garfias +7.232s
7 Michael Shin Campos Racing +8.338s
8 Yevan David Sainteloc Racing +12.050s
9 Tsolov +12.660s
10 Dario Cabanelas MP Motorsport +21.097s
P: Sagrera, 1m42.776s
FL: Garfias, 1m32.552s
Championship standings
1 Sagrera 167 2 Ho 144 3 del Pino 140 4 Tangavelou 124 5 Kluss 91 6 Abkhazava 73 7 Fittipaldi 61 8 Garfias 51 9 Shin 43 10 Kirill Smal 27