Sztuka plays patient game to win Eurocup-3’s third Paul Ricard race

Photo: Eurocup-3

Campos Racing’s Kacper Sztuka picked up his first Eurocup-3 win and the points lead in the third race at Paul Ricard courtesy of a last-lap overtake.

There was drama pre-race as Jesse Carrasquedo Jr had his best two qualifying laps deleted and dropped from pole to 11th.

His team-mate Sztuka inherited first place on the grid, ahead of MP Motorsport’s Valerio Rinicella. Ernesto Rivera (Campos), Andres Cardenas (MP), Mattia Colnaghi (MP) and Jules Caranta (Campos) occupied rows two and three.

As with every other race this weekend, the pole slot proved disadvantageous due to a grip deficit and Rinicella went straight into the lead. Rivera got on the inside of Sztuka into the opening corner, and as they remained wheel-to-wheel into the next braking zone it allowed Colnaghi to briefly nose ahead.

Sztuka headed onto the back straight in second, followed by Colnaghi and Rivera. At Signes, Caranta tried going around the outside of Cardenas but they ended up colliding as they went through Beausset and spun down the order.

Rinicella had a 0.675-second gap, and it took until the end of lap eight to grow it to a second. Sztuka then began to close in, and by lap 12 the leader was weaving down the back straight in an attempt to break the tow before and after the chicane.

It did not work, with Sztuka 0.52s behind going into the 16th and final lap as Rinicella weaved down the pit straight. Sztuka slipstreamed past down the Mistral straight, and had his car firmly ahead before braking for the chicane, but Rinicella was then stuck to his gearbox through the final sector.

At the penultimate corner, Sztuka ran deep and it set up a drag race going onto the pit straight. Sztuka won by 0.166s, with Rivera a further 0.716s behind.

Carrasquedo climbed to seventh on lap one, gained another place on lap two. Ahead, Rivera and Colnaghi almost made contact at the final corner. Rivera slipstreamed past down the pit straight on lap four to take third.

MP’s Maciej Gladysz was Carrasquedo’s next target, and he attacked him into Signes on lap seven. A lap later he went down his inside at the chicane, then closed in on Colnaghi.

On lap 10 he made a great move around the outside of him at the chicane, then had to defend on the run to Signes to ensure he did not try getting back past. Although it looked like he would then hunt down Rivera, a slow sector on lap 12 led to Carrasquedo settling for fourth.

Palou Motorsport’s James Egozi finished seventh, and was never in touch with Gladysz ahead until the final lap.

A remarkable opening lap took Drivex School’s Oscar Wurz up from 19th to 10th, but he made no further progress, while Campos’s Enzo Tarnvanichkul fell from eight to 17th in the race’s first half but recovered to 12th. Caranta was 15th, and Cardenas a very distant 21st.

Race results (16 laps)