Photo: Fotospeedy
Enzo Trulli, Levente Revesz and Francesco Simonazzi shared the wins in the final round of the Euroformula season at Barcelona.
Series returnee Trulli topped qualifying by 0.073 seconds over CryptoTower Racing Team team-mate Charlie Wurz, with champion Noel Leon and Cian Shields 0.3s back. Simonazzi was initially fastest but qualified fifth, 0.69s off the pace, and the grid was completed by Jakob Bergmeister, Revesz and Vladimir Netusil.
Wurz failed to get going initially at the start of race one, with Leon doing the same and Simonazzi jumping up to second place. Leon fell back to the back but gained a place back by passing Netusil, while Wurz dropped to fourth.
Netusil retired from the race at the end of lap two, while Leon passed Shields for sixth. He went by Bergmeister at turn one on lap four, while Wurz started to attack Revesz for third place through lap five.
He got ahead at turn one a lap later, and his next target was Simonazzi who was already 2.2s adrift of Trulli. Wurz pulled off an amazing move on lap eight, going around the outside of Simonazzi at turn one. Simonazzi briefly thought about trying to get back past a few corners later but realised he could not match Wurz.
The gaps between the top four grew until lap 10 of 17 when Leon tried passing Revesz around the outside of turn one but punctured his rear-right wheel on Revesz’s front wing and spun into the gravel.
Revesz also dropped down the order, and later pitted for a new front wing, while the safety car came out and bunched up the field.
Racing resumed on lap 13 and Wurz attempted a repeat of his turn one move but cut the first two corners. That put him ahead of Trulli, but he had to hand the lead back to him. Behind them, Shields passed Simonazzi for third.
Trulli ended up taking victory by 0.844s, with Shields completing the podium 4.681s behind.
Bergmeister had reversed-grid pole for race two, but a slow start meant he conceded the lead straight away to Revesz. From fourth on the grid Shields managed to get alongside Revesz on the run to turn one but was unable to take the lead from him.
Wurz passed Simonazzi for third at turn three, with Leon, Trulli and Bergmeister completing the seven-car field as Netusil skipped the race.
Revesz stayed up front for the rest of the race to take his first win on his seventh start, although he did face pressure from Wurz at times. Wurz passed Shields down the inside of turn one on lap four, then he tried going around the outside of Revesz there on lap eight but went off-track. The same thing happened on lap 14, and in the remaining laps he did not try again.
Leon finished fourth after passing Simonazzi down the inside of turn five on lap 12.
Bergmeister got another chance to make use of reversed-grid pole in race three, and this time tucked to the inside to keep himself in the lead down the pit straight. But a late-braking move from Simonazzi into turn one put him into the lead, and he never looked back.
The top two pulled away, while Leon got into third on lap one and stayed there. On lap six Trulli made tyre-on-tyre contact with him at turn one as he trie to pass him, and a lap later they almost made contact again. That helped bring Wurz onto their tail, and Wurz tried passing Trulli around the outide of turn one on lap 11 but had contact and cut the first two corners so had to give fourth place back to Trulli at turn five.
Results round-up
Race 1 (17 laps)
1 Enzo Trulli CryptoTower Racing 29m02.309s
2 Charlie Wurz CryptoTower Racing +0.844s
3 Cian Shields Motopark +4.681s
4 Francesco Simonazzi BVM Racing +5.539s
5 Levente Revesz Motopark +5.940s
6 Jakob Bergmeister CryptoTower +7.457s
Ret Noel Leo Motopark
Ret Vladimir Netusil Effective Racing
Pole: Trulli, 1m31.246s
Fastest lap: Wurz, 1m32.967s
Race 2 (17 laps)
1 Revesz 26m23.150s
2 Wurz +0.490s
3 Shields +1.532s
4 Leon +3.812s
5 Simonazzi +6.278s
6 Trulli +7.165s
7 Bergmeister +8.818s
FL: Wurz, 1m32.278s
Race 3 (17 laps)
1 Simonazzi 26m32.946s
2 Bergmeister +0.947s
3 Leon +1.375s
4 Trulli +3.562s
5 Wurz +3.983s
6 Shields +6.964s
7 Revesz +13.940s
FL: Wurz, 1m32.847s
Championship standings
1 Leon 394 2 Shields 307 3 Simonazzi 289 4 Bryce Aron 238 5 Bergmeister 148 6 Wurz 139 7 Joshua Dufek 138 8 Juju Noda 118 9 Revesz 103 10 Trulli 98