Round 3 of 2024 Eurocup-3 season had first victories for a non-MP Motorsport driver this year with double-win in Race 1 & 2 for Christian Ho (Campos Racing) and Alex Abkhazava emerging on top in Race 3 for Sainteloc Racing.
In a different weekend schedule with three races, Christian Ho took Poles for Race 1 and Race 3 with a mega performance in Q1 while rookie-leader Valentin Kluss (Campos Racing) was the fastest one in Q2.
The Singaporean driver, with Korean roots, finally capitalized on the potential that had distinguished him since the beginning of the championship, amid bad starts and technical mishaps. Starting from Pole, he was able to handle the most complicated stages, including a restart after the first of two safety cars, and won crossing the finish line behind the Safety Car after an accident occurred to Suleiman Zanfari (Campos Racing).
Bruno del Pino (MP Motorsport) took the lead of the championship after Race 1 with a P2 ahead of Owen Tangavelou (MP Motorsport). The Vietnamese equaled Javier Sagrera (MP Motorsport), fifth in this race after a good comeback.
In fourth was the Saintéloc of Alexander Abkhazava, who battled with Tangavelou himself for the podium in the early laps. After a bad start, Valentin Kluss (Campos) climbed back up to sixth place, while the climbs of Dario Cabanelas (MP Motorsport), seventh, and Noah Lisle, who finished eighth in his Campos, were great too.
Nikola Tsolov (GRS) was up and down in live timing, and stopped where he started: ninth. Daniel Nogales (Drivex), on the other hand, raked in his third point of the year thanks to a race of climbing up from 18th place.
Campos Racing’s hegemony with Alex Abkhazava as special guest
The second race of the third round of the Eurocup-3 at the Algarve International Circuit in Portimão offered four Safety Cars and close contacts between teammates with just a certainity: Christian Ho won the race: and that’s two for him.
He overtook Poleman and teammate Valentin Kluss at the start and he gave no option on restart after the Safety Cars. The German, after losing ground in the early laps, overtook Owen Tangavelou (MP Motorsport) at the end of a tough but fair duel, taking the second step of the podium.
Tangavelou, fifth under the checkered flag, was caught in all the restarts. In particular, in the last one, Noah Lisle (Campos Racing) slipped past him taking the podium. In an attempt to retort, however, the Australian driver widened his trajectory, pushing the Vietnamese as well as himself off the track.
The Australian driver crossed the finish line in third but a post-race penalty gave the third place to Michael Shin (Campos Racing), who won a tight battel over Tangavelou, new leader after Race 2.
José Garfias (Saintéloc Racing), sixth, got caught up in a contact with teammate Alexander Abkhazava while they were battling for a good points placing.
Sainteloc Racing’s Alexander Abkhazava emerged on top in a chaotic final lap of Eurocup-3’s third race at Algarve to take his and his team’s first win.
Starting from Pole, Ho darted to the inside at the start to defend from del Pino and then swept to the left to cover off Abkhazava, but ended up getting passed by both. Del Pino took the lead at turn one, then the Safety Car came out after Drivex School’s Joao Diaz and Campos’s Michael Shin clashed.
Racing resumed on lap four, with Abkhazava had to defend against Ho down the pit straight and into turn one on the next two laps, then Ho dived past him at turn 4.
Moments later his team-mate Noah Lisle got beached in the gravel and the safety car was summoned again. The next restart was on lap 10, and MP’s Javier Sagrera passed Kluss for fourth before turn one.
Then the crazy race started with Ho retiring his car with suspension problems when fighting for the win. There was time for only one more lap of racing after a new Safety Car period and del Pino weaved down the pit straight on the restart. The result of that was almost squeezing Abkhazava into the pit wall and losing the lead to him, then falling even further down the order by the time he reached turn one.
Sagrera attacked Abkhazava at turn two but Sainteloc’s driver defended the position taking his first ever win in Eurocup-3 with Sagrera and Kluss completing the podium. Del Pino recovered to fourth ahead of team-mate Owen Tangavelou and Shin, who beat Palou Motorsport’s Theodor Jensen by just 0.026s.
There are now three drivers level on points at the top of the championship, with Javier Sagrera (80) leading over Owen Tangavelou (80) and Buno del Pino (80) with Christian Ho (67) and Alex Abkhazava (63) knocking the door.
Valentin Klaus still as the best rookie with 110 point with four rookie poidums in a row ahead Christian Ho and Dario Cabanelas while Mp Motorsport (209) lead is reduced to 60 points over Campos Racing (149).
The Eurocup-3 will return to the track in France, at the Circuit Paul Ricard on July 5-7.
