Vaidyanathan Takes Brilliant Maiden Win in the Series

Indian driver Vaidyanathan managed to beat Scott (RP Motorsport) to first Euroformula Open win, with the series leader taking second place at the finish. DeFrancesco (Carlin) secured third place and won the Rookie class ahead of Troitskiy (Drivex) and Reddy (Carlin)

The Euroformula Open saw a strong showing from Ameya Vaidyanathan (Carlin) to emerge victorious in Race 1 at Spa-Francorchamps. Vaidyanathan passed Harrison Scott (RP Motorsport) for the lead and stayed at the front from then on. Scott finished second ahead of Devlin DeFrancesco, which was also the first podium in the series for the Canadian in the Formula 3-based championship and claimed win in the Rookie class ahead of Nikita Troitskiy (Drivex) and Tarun Reddy, the latter also making his first visit to the podium of the season.

In the morning, Scott set the fastest time in qualifying. DeFrancesco set early qualifying pace with his lap of 2:14.935 but later improving with his 2:13.643. However, when the session was coming to an end, both Scott and Troitskiy put in last minute charges on their final laps to beat DeFrancesco. Scott claimed his second pole position of the season with a lap of 2:13.220 ahead of Vaidyanathan, who still lapped faster than Troitskiy, finally third. DeFrancesco took 4th on the grid ahead of an all-Campos Racing row three with Matheus Iorio and Thiago Vivacqua. Behind, Reddy started seventh alongside Alex Karkosik (RP Motorsport) and Pedro Cardoso (Teo Martín Motorsport) and Jannes Fittje (Fortec) rounded out the top-ten.

As the lights went out, the pack headed into La Source with Scott leading ahead of Vaidyanatha, Troitskiy, DeFrancesco and Iorio. Still on lap one, DeFrancesco moved up to third after passing Troitskiy. Despite his efforts, Scott failed wasn’t able to fend off Vaidyanathan and the Indian driver took the lead on lap 3. Behind Scott, DeFrancesco was keeping Troitskiy and Vivacqua at bay. Vaidyanathan pulled away from the field setting today´s fastest lap and after 8 laps he had built up a 3-second lead. Scott was under pressure from DeFrancesco but managed to keep him behind. The Canadian young ace was followed by Troitskiy, Vivacqua, Reddy and Cardoso. Iorio, who ran in sixth place at the beginning, spun out by then. After 13 laps, Vaidyanathan crossed the finish line in first place with Scott and DeFrancesco also scoring podium finishes. Troitskiy finished fourth and Vivacqua came fifth. Reddy took sixth place and Simo Laaksonen (Campos Racing) scored valuable points again with his seventh place. Karkosik, Petru Florescu (Campos Racing) and Eliseo Martínez (Teo Martín Motorsport) also made into the top-ten securing points-paying results.