The inaugural Eurocup-3 season is finally on the move with its first event ever at Spa-Francorchamps.
Francesco Braschi (Campos Racing) & Mari Boya (MP Motorsport) have made history as first winners of this new era of a championship drawned with the ideology of continue developing young drivers careers after F4 stage at the highest level and at a reasonable cost.
Race 1 on Belgium soil started with Campos Racing’s Francesco Braschi claiming his first ever car racing win in dominant style under mixed conditions at Spa-Francorchamps.
The rain before the event forced to start the race with a lap behind the safety car, with MP Motorsport’s Mari Boya on Pole ahead of Esteban Masson (Campos Racing), Bruno del Pino (MP), Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (Campos) & Cenyu Han (GRS Team) within top-5.
Some drivers were comfortable on slick tyres in the wet conditions, trusting that the asphalt would gradually dry out. Boya led Masson and del Pino after the restart, but by the next lap Han had got past Masson while Braschi had come all the way from eight to lead.
Braschi finished lap three with a 12.7-second lead over Han, with Suleiman Zanfari (Campos) a further 1.4s behind and the top five completed by Boya and Masson.
Safety Car was deployed after as Garfías had spun out, Han picked up damage prior to the restart and Braschi immediately pulled away.
Drivex’s Nick Gilkes followed Ogaard’s strategy of tyre swap, while Braschi finished lap 10 with a 6.082s advantage and Masson tried to overtake Boya for third at Les Combes.
Braschi built a good gap again by setting the fastest lap and crossing the finish line with victory marking his first podium appearance since racing in F4 in 2021. Han’s runner-up spot was the second podium of his car racing career, and third place for Zanfari marked his third career podium too.
MARI BOYA STORMS TO WIN IN RACE 2
Mari Boya won Eurocup-3’s second race at Spa-Francorchamps ahead of Campos Racing’s Francesco Braschi and Palou Motorsport’s Javier Sagrera.
Double Poleman Boya lost the lead on lap one to Sagrera and behind them, Drivex School’s Pierre-Louis Chovet found himself in third having taken the outside line after a brilliant getaway from seventh on the grid but the Frenchman ran wide at the exit of the corner and dropped back to fifth, just behind Braschi and team-mate Nick Gilkes.
The safety car was out 10 minutes into the race as contact between Campos’s Esteban Masson and MP’s Bruno del Pino ended with the Spaniard out of the race. Racing resumed with 15 minutes remaining on the clock, but with no changes in the order at the front.
Then Boya reclaimed the lead from Sagrera with under seven minutes to go on the race clock with Palou’s driver having to defend from points leader Braschi, who passed him for second place with two laps to go.
Taking R1 & R2 results into account, Francesco Braschi leaves Spa-Francorchamps leading Drivers standings with Mari Boya right behind as P2 with Han Cenyu, Suleiman Zanfari & Javier Sagrera by completing top-5.
Next Eurocup-3 event will be held at Motorland Aragón (Spain) on May 26-28
