Italian Alessio Rovera took a first EuroFormula Open victory at the Circuito de Jerez after taking advantage of the weather to climb from thirteenth on the grid for DAV Racing.
At the start, half the track was wet and half dry, and some drivers gambled on wet tyres and others on dries, but before too long it was clear the slick dry weather tyres were the ones to be on, and those on wets began to slip back.
Pole sitter Yarin Stern was slow away in his Team West-Tec F3 machine, and third placed Yu Kanamaru spun his Emilio de Villota Motorsport machine at the first corner in a crazy start.
This allowed Vitor Baptista take the lead for RP Motorsport, although it was short lived when Tanart Sathienthirakul took over at the front in the second of the West-Tec cars, just before the safety car was deployed with Jose Manuel Vilalta’s Emilio de Villota Motorsport machine stuck in a gravel trap.
The safety car saw the drivers who started on wet tyres jump into the pits to switch to slicks, and saw Sathienthirakul remain in the lead from Rovera and Diego Menchaca of Campos Racing.
Once the safety car left the circuit, Rovera made his move, and took Sathienthirakul around the outside of Expo ’92, and gradually pulled away from the Thai driver. Towards the end, Sathienthirakul came under attack from Vitor Baptista, and lost second with just a few laps remaining.
Kanamaru climbed back up to fourth following his opening lap spin, making a number of overtaking manoeuvres in the process, with William Barbosa fifth for BVM Racing and Konstantin Tereschenko finishing sixth for Campos Racing.
Damiano Fioravanti was seventh for RP Motorsport ahead of Mencheca, while debutants Ahmad Al Ghanem (Campos Racing) and Michael Dorrbecker (Emilio de Villota Motorsport) claimed the final points on offer.
Jerez Race 1 Result
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