Jesse Carrasquedo Jr. took his first ever win in the Eurocup-3 and Javier Sagrera left round 6 with a 15-points lead
The Mexican from Campos Racing was the protagonist on Saturday’s Race 1 at Motorland Aragon, which points leader Javier Sagrera retired from on lap one.
The fight to be fastest was almost as close in qualifying, which Carrasquedo topped by just 0.01s over Sagrera having set a 1m53.504 on his penultimate lap. Ho was third, only 0.052s off pole, and Tangavelou occupied fourth place again.
Sagrera was slow off the line in the race, immediately battling Tangavelou while Ho took second place. Tangavelou found a gap between the pit wall and his team-mate approaching the first corner, but as they turned in the front-right of his car made contact with the rear-left of Sagrera’s and sent him spinning.
Unable to get going again, Sagrera had to retire and the Safety Car was called. Campos’s Michael Shin and David sat in third and fourth, with del Pino rising in fifth. Carrasquedo weaved down the back straight during the lap four restart, and Ho attempted to pass on the outside at the end of the straight. Ho entered lap five 0.07 seconds behind, staying on the outside at turn one where he briefly took the lead but went off track.
Ho gave up the position before attempting another pass at turn 16, and they went side-by-side through the final corners, separated by just 0.105 seconds as lap six started.
A small gap formed, but Ho attacked again on lap 11. He couldn’t find a way through, and a sliding moment on lap 15 cost him time. They finished the 16-lap race 0.392 seconds apart, with Shin 7.549 seconds behind, marking a 1-2-3 finish for Campos Racing in Eurocup-3.
Sunday was a new opportunity for everyone and MP Motorsport’s Javier Sagrera extended his Eurocup-3 points lead with victory in Race 2 at Motorland Aragon.
Having both failed to finish in race one on Saturday after clashing with each other on lap one, Owen Tangavelou and team-mate Sagrera were battling each other again on Sunday morning but this time it was for R2 Pole.
Tangavelou prevailed, setting a 1m51.727s to clinch his third pole of the campaign by 0.175 seconds over team-mate Bruno del Pino, with points leader Sagrera and Campos Racing’s Christian Ho 0.222s behind in third and fourth.
There was pre-race drama as Chovet stalled on the formation lap and was collected by GRS’s Douwe Dedecker. Chovet got going again but then stopped at the side of the track, and the start was delayed as both cars were recovered.
Del Pino ended lap one side-by-side with Tangavelou, and they continued to go wheel-to-wheel through the first corners of lap two. Del Pino then went off, and Sagrera swept by into the lead. Tangavelou dropped to fifth in the process, behind Ho and Fittipaldi, then the Safety Car was called out.
The restart took place on lap six, and Sagrera weaved down the back straight to try to break the tow to his rivals. He could not escape del Pino, while behind them GRS’s Nikola Tsolov took sixth from Lisle around the outside of the final chicane on lap eight while the order mostly went unchanged till chequered flag. Some post-race penalties gave P2 to Pietro Fittipaldi and P3 to Nikola Tsolov with del Pino dropping to P4, Tangavelou to P6 and Ho to P9 Javier Sagrera heads into summer break leading with 192 points with Christian Ho second as best rookie (164) and tied with Bruno del Pino (164) in P3. Owen Tangavelou (134) and Valentin Kluss (103) are closing top-5. On the other hand, MP Motorsport (416) lead goes now to 88 points over Campos Racing (328).
The Eurocup-3 action will return after a long summer break next October 4-6 at Circuito de Jerez Ángel Nieto.