MP Motorsport’s Javier Sagrera turned his Pole Positions into victories in both races of the recent Eurocup-3 Round 5 at Zandvoort.
Race 1 was heavily disrupted by a major crash involving Campos Racing’s Michael Shin and Sainteloc Racing’s Alexander Abkhazava, who thankfully escaped uninjured. A starting gantry light issue, which had delayed the preceding British F4 race, caused a delay and led to a rolling start behind the safety car.
Once the Safety Car withdrew, Sagrera quickly established a lead over Campos driver Christian Ho and his MP teammates Bruno del Pino, Dario Cabanelas, and Owen Tangavelou. Shin, starting seventh due to a grid penalty, battled Abkhazava on lap two. They collided in the high-speed turns five and six, crashing into the barriers, with Shin’s car barrel-rolling multiple times.
The race was red-flagged and, after a lengthy delay, restarted under a Safety Car as rain began to fall. Luciano Morano of Palou Motorsport spun, causing further delays. When racing resumed, Sagrera maintained his lead ahead of Ho and del Pino. Tangavelou and Cabalenas fought for fourth but lost out to Campos’s Noah Lisle. Cabalenas retired with rear wing damage, and the race ended under the SC.
Tangavelou claimed fourth before the stoppage, followed by GRS’s Nikola Tsolov in sixth, Palou’s Theodor Jensen in seventh, MP’s Emmo Fittipaldi in eighth, GRS’s Isaac Barashi in ninth and newcomer Sainteloc’s Yevan David in tenth.
In Race 2, the Safety Car appeared on the opening lap after Abkhazava collided with another car and hit the barriers. Sagrera led from Pole, with del Pino and Campos’s Valentin Kluss moving ahead of Tangavelou into second and third.
Sagrera defended against a challenge from del Pino to win by 0.914 seconds. Tangavelou and Kluss battled for third, with the Vietnamese settling for fourth ahead of Ho. Sainteloc Racing’s Jose Garfias overtook Shin for sixth, with his teammate Yevan David in eighth, followed by Tsolov and Cabanelas.
The South Korean received a 10-second penalty for causing a collision during the race dropping to final P9 right after David (P7) and Tsolov (P8).
Javier Sagrera is back to the lead with 167 points with Christian Ho second as best rookie (144). Bruno del Pino (140) is third with Owen Tangavelou (124) and Valentin Kluss (91) knocking the door while MP Motorsport (361) lead is increases now to 93 points over Campos Racing (268).
The Eurocup-3 action will return in Spain at Motorland Aragón on July 26-28.
