Sztuka takes pole in Campos top-five lockout of Eurocup-3 qualifying

Photo: Campos Racing

Kacper Sztuka took pole position as Campos Racing locked out the top five places in Eurocup-3’s first qualifying session at Algarve on Saturday.

The day began with free practice three, which ended with a Campos 1-2-3-4 and MP Motorsport drivers occupying the next six places.

MP’s Mattia Colnaghi was fastest at first, then he was toppled by Sztuka who set a 1m40.150s. He lowered the pace three more times by by small increments, then later in the session team-mate Ernesto Rivera beat him by 0.041 seconds with a 1m39.859s lap.

Enzo Tarnvanichkul became the third Campos driver to occupy first place when he edged Rivera by 0.045s one-and-a-half minutes later, but he could find no more pace after that and Jesse Carrasquedo Jr moved ahead by 0.062s after posting a 1m39.752s.

Maciec Gladysz was MP’s top driver, 0.157s off top spot and 0.008s ahead of Colnaghi. Andres Cardenas, Emmo Fittipaldi, Alexander Abkhazava and Valerio Rinicella were covered by 0.123s as they filled the top 10, and under a second split first and 20th place.

The 20-minute qualifying session started off slow, with only 12 of the 30 drivers on track after five minutes. MP’s Cardenas set the first representative laptime, a 1m41.224s, then Tarnvanichkul swiftly beat him with a 1m40.605s.

Garrett Berry set a 1m41.095s to go second fastest, and Sainteloc Racing team-mate Theodor Jensen slotted into fourth after recording a 1m41.339s. Rinicella beat him seven minutes in, but Jensen responded with a 1m41.072s.

Campos’s Jules Caranta set a 1m40.877s to jump up to second after nine minutes, at which point 21 drivers had laptimes next to their names. Berry then got within 0.257s of Tarnvanichkul, but Caranta was also improving and a 1m40.586s put him on provisional pole for race one by 0.019s as the second half of qualifying began.

Sztuka was next to beat Tarnvanichkul’s old benchmark, posting a 1m40.189s to go quickest as Berry improved to 1m40.692s in fourth.

Carrasquedo lowered the pace to 1m40.117s, leading Caranta by 0.061s, with seven-and-a-half minutes to go but Sztuka went fastest again by 0.229s when he next crossed the line. Berry also found more pace to maintain fourth, setting a 1m40.498s to sit 0.098s ahead of Jensen.

Rivera went from outside of the top 10 to second a minute later, getting within 0.163s of Sztuka’s 1m39.888s, as Tarnvanichkul finally improved in fifth.

Carrasquedo was 0.115s slower than Sztuka on his next lap, while team-mate Francisco Macedo leapt up the order to sixth.

Every driver had set a flying lap with four minutes remaining, as Carrasquedo broke the 1m40s barrier to get within 0.014s of Sztuka. Tarnvanichkul set a 1m40.167s in fourth a minute later, and Colnaghi improved to 1m40.225s in sixth before several pole contenders pitted and others failed to get more pace out of their tyres.

Setting identical laptimes in 11th and 12th were Berry and Palou Motorsport’s James Egozi. Berry posted a 1m40.498s first so starts ahead in race one, but Egozi gets reversed-grid pole for race two.

Qualifying results