Bruno del Pino and Owen Tangavelou finally got to showcase their real pace in Eurocup-3’s Spielberg round on Sunday, appearing on the podium in both races as part of two MP Motorsport 1-2-3 finishes. 

By Juan Arroyo

The Spanish driver qualified fourth for the first race of the weekend and finished the race in second – claiming his first podium of the year and in the series. Race two saw him pile the pressure on Campos Racing’s Christian Ho immediately, baiting the Singaporean into going wide at Turn 3 and overtaking him with a switchback move into the following straight.

Del Pino took his first win in Eurocup-3, followed by Ho, who was then demoted after receiving a 5-second penalty for exceeding track limits. Javier Sagrera and Owen Tangavelou – del Pino’s teammates – were promoted in turn, completing an MP Motorsport 1-2-3.

Tangavelou, meanwhile, was the one to comfortably take victory in the first race from pole position. The Vietnamese driver made up for the Spa round, where he was unable to start the weekend’s only race from pole due to a mechanical issue. 

Yet again, it wasn’t the weekend to be for Campos. The team faced more mechanical problems as Ho retired midway through race one, while Valentin Kluss pulled into the pits with two laps to go. Suleiman Zanfari was later unable to start race two. Nevertheless, Ho’s final classification of fourth is their best result of the year.

In the midfield battle, Isaac Barashi quietly achieved GRS’ first points finish of the year with eighth place in race two, while Alexander Abkhazava continues to lead Saintéloc’s efforts with a sixth-place in race one. Abkhazava could not follow up on that result, finishing 24th in race two after being given 15 seconds’ worth of time penalties.

Track limits were a constant source of conversation throughout the weekend. Between the 26 drivers – all of whom had laps invalidated – 100 lap-times were deleted across both sessions for track limits violations.

Gaspard Le Gallais, Joao Diaz, Theodor Jensen, Diego de la Torre, and Finley Green were all disqualified during race one for excessive track limits violations, though Eurocup-3’s sporting regulations do not specify how many of these may occur before a driver is shown the black flag.

Feeder Series analyses the key talking points from the weekend.

A title battle yet unclear

There’s still a big mystery as to who exactly the title favourite is this year.

Sagrera and Ho looked fastest after pre-season testing, and the Spanish driver was in total control at the round in Spa – which arguably adds more to the confusion given the rainy conditions that the field raced in.

Ho also suffered mechanical problems on that occasion. Two months on from the non-championship round and pre-season testing, we still haven’t seen what the Singaporean’s real form is.

With the order relatively unclear, Sagrera rocked up to Spielberg as the driver to watch, only to qualify 15th for race one. He made up for it by qualifying fourth for race two, which he then converted into a podium in second place – but it meant he was completely overshadowed by Tangavelou and del Pino.

Tangavelou is certainly one of the top MP drivers now. His pole position in Spa was taken in less-than-competitive conditions – times were taken from a wet practice session without much running as qualifying was rained out – but he was able to prove that it was not a fluke this weekend. A pole position, a victory and a podium is exactly what he needed to get into form.

On del Pino’s side, this is a performance that we could’ve seen coming. He was in the mix for the top positions constantly during pre-season. After what could only be described as a terrible weekend in Spa – mostly out of his control – the Spanish driver dominated this weekend and is now third in the standings behind Sagrera and Tangavelou.

For now, these four look the strongest, though Campos should be wary of their horse falling behind in this race if they suffer more mechanical issues. Ho will have key ground to make up in Portugal next month.

How fast is Kirill Smal?

Kirill Smal missed the non-championship round in MotorLand Aragón. He then also missed pre-season testing. He was announced as a Palou Motorsport driver just a day prior to the Spa round. And yet, he’s been the best outside of MP’s drivers in these two rounds.

Smal is the most experienced of Palou’s line-up, having completed laps in Formula Regional Middle East, Formula Regional Europe, F4 UAE, and even the Le Mans Cup in the LMP3 category last year. It’s not a surprise that he’s faster than his less experienced teammates for now. But to take the team as high as he has for two consecutive rounds is an impressive feat.

Though he lucked out in Spa’s qualifying lottery with fifth place, the end result – a third-place finish in extreme wet conditions – was all his doing. So was qualifying fifth in Spielberg for race one, which he converted into fourth place.

Up from his ninth-place grid position, Smal had been running in fifth for a large portion of the second race before his tyres started degrading. With three minutes to go, he had just been overtaken by Dario Cabanelas for seventh place. On the approach into Turn 9 – the sweeping downhill right-hander situated just before the pit entry – the Palou driver suffered a puncture in his left-front tyre. It ended a strong weekend that, in numbers, could have been even stronger.

He is fifth in the standings after this weekend. His start has been similar to that of Sagrera’s last year, when he was also with Palou Motorsport. If that is anything to go by, then Smal should be seeing the podium again soon. Best of the rest is no doubt on the cards.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency