Feeder Series reviews the second round of the Eurocup-3 and Eurocup-4 winter series at Portimão, where drivers faced unexpected rain in qualifying and a plethora of post-race penalties.

By Feeder Series

Portimão was the site of the Spanish Winter Championship package’s second round and only round outside of Spain, and it delivered plenty of action – including a thrilling final-corner overtake in the first Eurocup-3 race.

The Formula Regional–level series made it to five different winners in the first five races before Jerez race one winner Mattia Colnaghi returned to the top step in the third race. In Eurocup-4, meanwhile, Thomas Strauven stole the show with consecutive wins on Saturday to take the championship lead as early dominator Jan Przyrowski faltered.

Prior to those races, F3’s first pre-season test with its new car concluded in Barcelona on Friday. Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin set the pace on the final day in wet conditions as Nikola Tsolov topped the test overall with his 1:26.618 set on the second morning.

F2’s 22 drivers will put the Dallara F2 2024 through its paces at the same track from today until Wednesday. Note that the coming weekend’s preview and schedule will also arrive on Wednesday to precede FR Middle East and F4 Middle East’s Thursday and Friday races.

1. Eurocup-3 Spanish Winter Championship: Colnaghi extends lead as Egozi scores historic victory
2. Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship: Strauven leads intra-Campos battle for points lead

Eurocup-3 Spanish Winter Championship: Colnaghi extends lead as Egozi scores historic victory

Maciej Gładysz and Mattia Colnaghi once again mirrored each other’s results early in the weekend, with Gładysz finishing second in race one with Colnaghi in fifth and vice-versa in the sprint. But a late-race retirement for the Polish driver on Sunday and a win for his Italian-Argentine rival now means that Colnaghi leads the standings by 28 points.

Hot off his Asian Le Mans Series title win, Valerio Rinicella narrowly took pole for race one ahead of Andrés Cárdenas. However, like his Italian compatriot at Jerez, he was quickly threatened by Palou Motorsport’s James Egozi, who took the lead around the outside of Turn 3. The pair jostled for position on lap two, with Rinicella’s off at Turn 8 helping Gladysz to second before Francisco Macedo and Isaac Barashi’s collision brought out the safety car. 

Egozi and Gładysz battled throughout lap seven at the restart and, as Cárdenas and Rinicella joined the fray, went four-wide on the main straight on lap eight. Gładysz prevailed into Turn 1 as Cárdenas and Rinicella also overtook Egozi into Turn 3. The American driver eventually dropped to 12th.

After spending the entire final lap nose to tail, Rinicella’s commitment on the inside through the final two corners enabled him to slip past Gładysz and take victory by 0.045 seconds, with Cárdenas completing the podium. 

With a commanding victory in the sprint, Egozi gave Palou Motorsport their first win in Eurocup-3 ahead of Colnaghi and Rinicella. Colnaghi and Alexander Abkhazava’s opening-lap tangle at Turn 5 helped Egozi overtake them both for second before he dispatched reverse-grid polesitter Oscar Wurz for the lead before the Turn 4 hill the following lap.

Behind them, Kacper Sztuka and Macedo crashed out of the race at Turn 1, bringing out the safety car. The Portuguese driver fractured his thumb and had to withdraw from the final race, for which Sztuka was given a five-place grid penalty for causing the incident.

Egozi jumped late on the restart as he, Colnaghi, Wurz and Alexander Abkhazava broke clear from the rest of the pack. He was unchallenged for the rest of the sprint as the trio battled amongst themselves for the podium positions, with an ascendant Rinicella eventually claiming third from Wurz.

Rinicella again took pole for race two but had a poor start, losing out to a fast-starting Colnaghi from third on the run down to Turn 1. Colnaghi led the race from there, with the only threat coming on the last lap when Rinicella had a late look on the inside of Turn 5.

Elsewhere, Sztuka, recovering from his grid penalty, was the victor in a tight battle for fourth with Egozi and Jules Caranta. In one fell swoop, the Polish driver overtook Egozi on the outside exiting Turn 9 and Caranta on the inside entering Turn 10. This eventually proved the move that decided third place when Gladysz pulled off on the inside of Turn 14 on the penultimate lap with a technical issue.

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Valerio Rinicella, 1:54.410	Andrés Cárdenas, +0.015s	Maciej Gladysz, +1.003s
Race 1 (17 laps)	Valerio Rinicella, 31:50.480	Maciej Gładysz, +0.045s	Andrés Cárdenas, +1.315s
Sprint (12 laps)	James Egozi, 23:03.615	Mattia Colnaghi +1.929s	Valerio Rinicella, +2.524s
Qualifying 2	Valerio Rinicella, 1:38.823	Maciej Gładysz, +0.075s	Kacper Sztuka, +0.171s
Race 2 (19 laps)	Mattia Colnaghi, 31:40.991	Valerio Rinicella, +0.593s	Kacper Sztuka, +11.156s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Mattia Colnaghi, 97	MP Motorsport, 199	Mattia Colnaghi, 97
P2	Maciej Gładysz, 69	Campos Racing, 91	Maciej Gładysz, 69
P3	Valerio Rinicella, 61	KCL by MP Motorsport, 67	James Egozi, 57
P4	James Egozi, 57	Palou Motorsport, 57	Andrés Cárdenas, 51
P5	Andrés Cárdenas, 51	Drivex, 46	Jules Caranta, 32
P6	Emerson Fittpaldi Jr, 39	Griffin Core by Campos, 39	Juan Cota, 27
P7	Jules Caranta, 32	Saintéloc Racing, 1	Oscar Wurz, 19
P8	Juan Cota, 27	Sparco Palou MS, 0	Lucas Fluxá, 14
P9	Kacper Sztuka, 27	Allay Racing, 0	Enzo Tarnvanichkul, 12
P10	Nikola Tsolov, 22	GRS Team, 0	Preston Lambert, 0

Report by Seb Tirado

Read the previous round’s report here.

Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship: Strauven leads intra-Campos battle for points lead

Thomas Strauven brought himself into Eurocup-4 title contention after winning race one and the sprint at Portimão, capitalising on misfortune for teammate Jan Przyrowski. But the Polish driver’s resurgent win in the last race means Strauven holds only a five-point lead.

From pole position, Strauven took his first victory in race one, which was replete with safety cars. The first came on the opening lap when several incidents at the Turn 5 hairpin eliminated Yani Stevenheydens and Stepan Suslov and forced Matúš Ryba to pit and retire.

Przyrowski then retired on lap six after receiving terminal damage from contact with Nathan Tye out of the Turn 5 hairpin. Eyckmans, who was on Tye’s inside, went on to finish second ahead of Christopher Feghali. 

The second safety car came after Alexander Jacoby forced Niklas Schaufler wide through Turn 11, causing the Austrian driver to lose his front wing, slide down the hill across the gravel, and spin onto the apex of Turn 12 and into Santiago Baztarrica’s path. The Argentine’s car was too damaged to start race two.

The race ended under the third safety car, which was called when Vivek Kanthan spun Jean Paul Karras into Turn 5 on lap 12 and left both stranded on track. Jacoby was dropped from 14th to 17th by a three-second time penalty, whilst Tye and Kanthan were both penalised with five-place grid penalties for the sprint for being at fault for their respective incidents.

Later that day, Strauven took a hard-fought victory in the sprint from eighth, overcoming reverse-grid polesitter Miguel Costa. Stevenheydens, Feghali and Costa crossed the line behind Strauven but were all given five-second penalties post-race, eventually finishing eighth, ninth and 12th. Stevenheydens’ penalty was for track-limits violations; Feghali’s for hitting Eyckmans; and Costa’s for spinning Sacha van ’t Pad Bosch at Turn 6 on the opening lap. The Brazilian was also given a five-place grid penalty for an incident on lap five in which he spun then-leader Filippo Fiorentino at Turn 3.

Kanthan and Noah Monteiro inherited second and third respectively, while Przyrowski was spun out earlier at Turn 3 by Tye but recovered to 10th on track, which became seventh after penalties.

Przyrowski was behind polesitter Strauven for most of the final race but slipped past for the lead into Turn 1 with four laps to go. Kanthan rounded out the podium after fighting Feghali throughout the race. They swapped positions multiple times until the American made his final overtake up exiting Turn 1 on lap 17. Strauven also earned a five-second penalty for track-limits violations, which proved inconsequential.

Having entered the round second in the standings, René Lammers is now fourth, 48 points behind Strauven and facing an extremely tough road to the title. His best result this weekend was sixth in the sprint; he finished fifth on the road in both the first and third races but earned five-second penalties for causing the collision with Ryba in the former and for track-limits violations in the latter.

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Thomas Strauven, 1:47.673s	Jan Przyrowski, +0.132s	Ean Eyckmans, +0.432s
Race 1 (15 laps)	Thomas Strauven, 33:48.655	Ean Eyckmans, +0.313s	Christopher Feghali, +0.537s
Sprint (11 laps)	Thomas Strauven, 22:58.939	Vivek Kanthan, +3.708s	Noah Monteiro, +4.617s
Qualifying 2	Thomas Strauven, 1:44.492	Vivek Kanthan, +0.026s	Jan Przyrowski, +0.078s
Race 2 (19 laps)	Jan Przyrowski, 33:24.255	Thomas Strauven, +5.589s	Vivek Kanthan, +15.590s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Thomas Strauven, 98	Griffin Core by Campos, 183	Vivek Kanthan, 67
P2	Jan Przyrowski, 93	Campos Racing, 77	Ean Eyckmans, 34
P3	Vivek Kanthan, 67	MP Motorsport, 64	Christopher Feghali, 31
P4	René Lammers, 50	Drivex, 52	Noah Monteiro, 30
P5	Nathan Tye, 46	Rodin Motorsport, 46	Niklas Schaufler, 10
P6	Ean Eyckmans, 34	KCL by MP Motorsport, 44	Miguel Costa, 10
P7	Christopher Feghali, 31	TC Racing, 14	Sacha van ’t Pad Bosch, 0
P8	Noah Monteiro, 30	Tecnicar by Amtog, 4	Santino Panetta, 0
P9	Filippo Fiorentino, 21	Monlau Motorsport, 0	Emma Felbermayr, 0
P10	Alfio Spina, 14	ART Grand Prix, 0	Philippe Armand Karras, 0

Report by Seb Tirado

Read the previous round’s report here.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency