Harrison Scott (RP Motorsport) Charges to Spa Victory

Briton Scott qualified sixth but put it a brilliant effort to win race 2 at Spa-Francorchamps. DeFrancesco (Carlin) took his second podium finish with 2nd place ahead of Vivacqua (Campos Racing). DeFrancesco also won the Rookie class ahead of Troitskiy (Drivex) and Fittje (Fortec).

Great Britain’s Harrison Scott (RP Motorsport) delivered another strong performance in the Euroformula Open as he scored his third win of the season at Spa-Francorchamps today. Scott excelled in race 2 as he moved through the field from 6th on the starting grid. Behind, Canadian Devlin DeFrancesco (Carlin) stepped second onto the podium ahead of Thiago Vivacqua (Campos Racing), another driver delivering another recovery drive.

After 6 races, Scott currently lies first in Drivers’ classification on 97 points ahead of Ameya Vaidyanathan and Devlin DeFrancesco, they both racing under the Carlin banner. Brazilian Thiago Vivacqua (Campos Racing) has now taken fourth place and Nikita Troitskiy (Drivex) rounds out the top-five. In the Rookie Trophy, both DeFrancesco and Troitskiy are first ex aequo on 26 points and Jannes Fittje (Fortec) lies currently third. On the other hand, RP Motorsport tops the Teams’ classification on 38 points. Behind, Carlin and Campos Racing are 3rd and 4th respectively.

In the morning, Russian Troitskiy managed to beat Fittje to pole position in a wet Spa-Francorchamps. Scott topped the session at the beginning but several drivers including Troitskiy himself improved his 2:37.121 clocked at the beginning. Finally Troitskiy set a lap of 2:36.276 to take his second pole position of the season. Fittje was three tenths slower than Troitskiy but still secured a front-row start ahead of Vaidyanathan and Matheus Iorio (Campos Racing). Vaidyanathan brought out a red flag ending the session two minutes early as he crashed into the guardrail.

At the start, Troitskiy fended his rivals off at the first corners but no less than three, Vaidyanathan, DeFrancesco and Fittje managed to pass him on the Kemmel straight. Behind, Iorio was also struggling to keep Scott at bay. On lap 2, both Troitskiy and Scott passed Fittje and, only one lap later, Vaidyanathan spun at Les Combes as DeFrancesco was putting pressure and handed over the lead. As a result, the Indian racer dropped two additional places with Scott and Troitskiy, running right behind, as they moved up into second and third place respectively.

Despite DeFrancesco trying to pull away from Scott, the driver of RP Motorsport took advantage of the slipstream and the leader was unable to throw a defensive move on the Kemmel straight. Behind, Vaidyanathan moved up to third and Troitsky, a few moments later, dropped another place as Vivacqua also passed him.

Following a clash involving Alex Karkosik (RP Motorsport) and Pedro Cardoso (Teo Martín Motorsport) in the last chicane, the safety car was deployed. As the safety car pulled into the pit lane after three laps, Scott still managed to keep it under control and took the flag in first place. Behind, DeFrancesco came second ahead of Vivacqua, who overtook Vaidyanathan on lap 12 to step onto the podium. Behind Vaidyanathan (4th), Iorio came fifth and Troitskiy brought sixth place home. Fittje and and Petru Florescu (Campos Racing) was 7th and 8th respectively. Tarun Reddy (Carlin) scored another points-scoring finish with ninth place and Alexey Chuklin (Fortec) took tenth.

Round 3 will take place at Pau Ricard in two weeks’ time.