MP Motorsport’s Mari Boya returned in style to Eurocup-3 field after missing Round 2 winning both races at Monza.
Boya started from Pole and got defensive on the run to the first corner on lap one to ensure he stayed ahead. His team-mate Sebastian Ogaard passed front row starter Esteban Masson for second, then Masson reclaimed the place at the della Roggia chicane but Ogaard got back past again while Boya was pulling away.
Masson ended up having to defend from Javier Sagrera on lap two, with the sixth-placed starter on a charge.
The battle behind top-2 between Masson, Sagrera, Inthrapuvasak and Braschi helped the top two gap themselves, while on lap 9 Braschi went off at the final corner and dropped to 11th.
Boya went into the second half of the race with a lead of 1.1 seconds over Ogaard winning Race 1 at Monza from lights-to-flag over Ogaard & Masson.
Special mention to newcomer Daniel Nogales, finishing in seventh place ahead of the battling Miron Pingasov and Cenyu Han as best Rookie in Race 1. Braschi failed to score in 11th, meaning Masson climbed to the points lead ahead Race 2 on Sunday.
AMAZING RACE 2 WITH BOYA AGAIN ON TOP
Mari Boya completed a mega weekend at Monza by winning Race 2 after a great comeback drive.
The Spaniard started second on the grid alongside Campos Racing’s Francesco Braschi, and chased the Poleman through the opening lap. Then Campos’s Esteban Masson slipstreamed past Boya for second place at the start of lap two, and on lap three he attempted to pass Braschi for the lead too.
He tried again on lap four and got the move done, with Boya attempting to make it a risky three-wide move dropping to fourth behind Javier Sagrera who passed Braschi for second at the final corner.
The slipstream effect meant Boya had been relegated to sixth by turn one with only 13 laps ahead get back to the front.
He immediately reclaimed one spot from Daniel Nogales, then slipstreamed past Jose Garfías two laps later to finally took third from Braschi.
Sagrera took the lead on lap 11 of 18 and his agressive defence enabled Boya to look at passing Masson. It took a while but he finally was able to pass him exiting the final corner thanks to the tow while a mistake from Sagrera kept the pair right on his tail.
Boya recovered P1 on lap 14 managing to defend the lead crossing the finish line in fist place to made it three Eurocup-3 wins from four starts for him ahead of Sagrera, who returns to the podium after his P3 at Spa and Esteban Masson with another third for him in Italy
It was not the best weekend for Braschi in front of his crowd cause he sank to seventh in Race 2 after starting from Pole while Daniel Nogales took some more points for Drivex with Cenyu Han taking double points finish this weekend in his return to the series.
Taking R1 & R2 results into account, Esteban Masson is the new leader (98 points) with Mari Boya jumping into P2 with Esteban Masson, Francesco Braschi & Seb Ogaard by completing top-5.
Next Eurocup-3 event will be held at Zandvoort (The Nederlands) on July 14-16
