Devlin DeFrancesco capitalised on a mid-race error from debutant Felipe Drugovich to claim his first EuroFormula Open victory of the season at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with the Canadian leading home a Carlin Motorsport 1-2.
Drugovich had taken pole position earlier in the day for RP Motorsport, who are running this weekend without 2017 series champion Harrison Scott, and the Brazilian held the lead at the start, only to run off track at turn four on the sixth lap to drop down to twelfth, promoting DeFrancesco to the lead.
The safety car was deployed just Drugovich had his moment when Cameron Das and Joey Mawson collided at the end of the start and finish straight, but DeFrancesco judged the restart to perfection, and edged clear of team-mate Ameya Vaidyanathan to claim victory by 1.583 seconds.
Behind the Carlin duo and completing the podium was RP Motorsport’s Alex Karkosik, who made a move on Nikita Troitskiy at the end of the straight on lap eleven, and despite the Russian sticking to the tail of the Polish driver until the chequered flag, the Drivex School racer could not deny Karkosik his second podium finish of the season.
Lorenzo Colombo enjoyed a strong debut race for Campos Racing, with the Italian racer finishing on the tail of the podium battle in fifth, while Drugovich made some late race gains to move back up to sixth, but it could and should have been a much better result for the Brazilian.
Jannes Fittje was seventh for RP Motorsport ahead of Campos Racing’s Matheus Iorio, while Guilherme Samaia and Thiago Vivacqua claimed the final points in ninth and tenth for Carlin and Campos Racing respectively.
As well as Das and Mawson retiring following their high speed clash, a first lap tangle saw the demise of both Ben Hingeley and Tarun Reddy at turn four, ending both of their races in the gravel trap.
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya Race 1 Result
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