Pulcini (Campos Racing) extends points lead with dominant win

Pulcini gets his third win of the season after passing pole-sitter Habsburg (Drivex) at the start of the race. Menchaca (Campos Racing) takes another podium finish as he comes third behind Pulcini and Habsburg. Habsburg pocketed another rookie class win and was flanked on the podium by Herta and Andres, both racing under Carlin Motorsport banner

Another exciting weekend of racing came to an end at Paul Ricard. The French circuit brought exciting racing for a large number of fans in attendance at both races. Thrills, speed and drama were the key ingredients of Formula 3 racing at its peak.

After three rounds of the Euroformula Open, Leonardo Pulcini (Campos Racing) sits atop the drivers’ standings with 134 points. Ferdinand Habsburg (Drivex) lies second with 96 points ahead of Diego Menchaca (Campos Racing) and Jack Aitken (RP Motorsport), on 74 and 71 points respectively. Damiano Fioravanti (RP Motorsport) ranks fifth in the drivers’ standings. Habsburg dominates the action in the rookies’ standings on 58 points, ahead of Colton Herta and Keyvan Andres, two of the young aces in at Carlin Motorsport. Campos Racing remains at the top of the teams’ standings on 54 points while RP Motorsport and Drivex sit second and third respectively.

This morning, the second qualifying session featured another closely fought battle that eventually saw Habsburg take his second pole position in a row, beating Pulcini by a mere sixteen thousandths of a second! Herta qualified third and Fioravanti and Menchaca took fourth and fifth spots on the grid. With such small gaps it promised even more thrilling race action.

Unlike Saturday, when Habsburg fended off his rivals to a maiden race win, Pulcini managed to take the lead, passing the Austrian driver on the outside. Despite losing his lead, Habsburg kept Menchaca and Herta at bay, in third and fourth respectively. With battles in the middle of the pack, Pulcini, Habsburg, Menchaca and Herta began to pull away up front. Fioravanti, using effective maneuvers to move up the running order, was 5th ahead of a train comprising of his teammates Tanart Sathienthirakul, Kantadhee Kusiri and Antoni Ptak and “special guest” Igor Walilko (Fortec Motorsports).

At the top, there was an exchange of blows but the frontrunners were running at a similar pace. Finally neither Habsburg nor Menchaca nor Herta couldbenefit from the slipstream and after 15 laps Pulcini took the chequered flag first.

Habsburg came home in 2nd again, ahead of Menchaca, who was again third. Herta came 4th, another narrow Euroformula Open podium miss for the American but surely his first rostrum finish must come sooner rather than later. Ptak, who finally got past his teammates, took fifth place ahead of Sathienthirakul. Walilko overtook Fioravanti for seventh but then the latter was forced to retire. Julio Moreno (Campos Racing) finished 8th, scoring points after his early retirement on Saturday. Andres and Kusiri rounded out the top ten.

The Euroformula Open resumes at Silverstone, the Home of British Motor Racing, on 23-24 July.

 

Race 2

1^st, No. 8, Leonardo Pulcini^, ITA, Campos Racing, Dallara F312, 15 laps, 30:46.240

2^nd, No. 62, Ferdinand Habsburg*^, AUT, Drivex School, Dallara F312, Gap: 1.485

3^rd, No. 7, Diego Menchaca^, MEX, Campos Racing, Dallara F312, Gap: 2.886

4^th, No. 98, Colton Herta*, USA, Carlin, Dallara F312, Gap: 4.627

5^th, No. 1, Antoni Ptak^, POL, RP Motorsport, Dallara F312, Gap: 14.006

6^th, No. 5, Tanart Sathienthirakul^, THA, RP Motorsport, Dallara F312, Gap: 16.848

7^th, No. 37, Igor Walilko^, POL, Fortec Motorsports, Dallara F312, Gap: 18.605

8^th, No. 6, Julio Moreno^, ECU, Campos Racing, Dallara F312, Gap: 25.414

9^th, No. 47, Keyvan Andres*, GER, Carlin, Dallara F312, Gap: 28.925

10^th, No. 2, Kantadhee Kusiri^, THA, RP Motorsport, Dallara F312, Gap: 29.506

11^th, No. 72, Nikita Zlobin, RUS, Teo Martin Motorsport, Dallara F312, Gap: 31.689

12^th, No. 27, Kang Ling, CHN, DAV Racing, Dallara F312, Gap: 32.239

13^th, No. 18, Riccardo Cazzaniga*^, ITA, DAV Racing, Dallara F312, Gap: 33.629

14^th, No. 12, Vladimir Atoev, RUS, DAV Racing, Dallara F312, Gap: 38.957

15^th, No. 20, Daniil Pronenko*^, RUS, BVM Racing, Dallara F312, Gap: 40.556

16^th, No. 9, Gulhuseyn Abdullayev*^, AZE, Campos Racing, Dallara F312, Gap: 50.677

17^th, No. 15, Alex Liang, CHN, Team West-Tec, Dallara F312, Gap: 52.986

18^th, No. 3, Damiano Fioravanti^, ITA, RP Motorsport, Dallara F312, Gap: 1 Lap

 

Not Classified

No. 65, Enaam Ahmed, GBR*, DAV Racing, Dallara F312, Lap 10

16^th, No. 14, Jose Manuel Vilalta, MEX, Teo Martin Motorsport, Dallara F312

 

Did Not Start

No. 51, Ameya Vaidyanathan*, IND, Carlin, Dallara F312

 

Fastest Lap

No. 8, Leonardo Pulcini^, ITA, Campos Racing, Dallara F312, Lap 10, 2:02.258, 172.024 kph

 

^ Spanish Formula 3

• Rookie