Ed Jones crowned as new F3 Open champion
10.11.2013
Despite Stuvik (RP Motorsport) finished second and Jones (Team West-Tec) could not improve his 5th place, UAE´s driver has taken 2013 title. Cougnaud (RP Motorsport) finished in style winning and new victory for Gonda in Copa
Finally Ed Jones and Team West-Tec have won the European F3 Open in 2013 at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Despite Jones missed the opening round at Paul Ricard, the UAE´s driver has completed a season without remarkable mistakes and was crowned as new European F3 Open champion joining other champions in the roll of honour like Niccolò Schirò, Alex Fontana, Marco Barba or Bruno Méndez.
In the morning, things were looking quite simple for Jones, as he took today´s pole position once again. Anyway pressure was not far away, taking into account his main rival Sandy Stuvik (RP Motorsport) was second on the grid. Jones´ start was superb, pulling away quickly. Right behind Alexandre Cougnaud (RP Motorsport) showing his real skills at the start, overtook his teammate Stuvik for second. Jones, setting a couple of fastest laps, seemed too fast for anyone else on track, despite Cougnaud began to equal his pace before long. Even Santiago Urrutia (RP Motorsport) was putting pressure on Stuvik. But, with eight laps to go, Cougnaud caught Jones, passing him a few seconds after. By then Jones was struggling with tires and five laps later the favorite was overtaken by Stuvik, Urrutia and Nelson Mason (Team West-Tec). Cougnaud was victorious after seventeen laps, and Stuvik was second but it was not good enough due to Jones was fifth behind Urrutia and Mason, third and fourth respectively. In this situation honors went to Middle East.
Aside from title drama, Alex Toril (RP Motorsport) was sixth. The Spanish driver was battling with Urrutia and Mason for a while, but he was not able to keep his effort until the end. Tatiana Calderón (Emilio de Villota Motorsport) scored more points today at her comeback finishing seventh, ahead of BVM duo Mario Marasca and Vicky Piria. Hector Hurst (Team West-Tec), Damiano Fioravanti (Corbetta Competizini) and Nicholas Pohler (DAV Racing) also had performances to be mentioned at the very last event.
Then in Copa, Richard Gonda (Drivex) left no option after taking title yesterday. His pole position time was unbeatable for usual closest rivals Cameron Twynham (Team West-Tec) and Tommaso Menchini (Corbetta Competizioni) and in race nobody could challenge him for victory. Second place was for Menchini, who passed Twynham by the halfway point, and third for Briton pilot. Igor Urien (Emilio de Villota Motorsport) finished 4th both in race and overall, beating his Korean teammate Che One Lim. Debutant Christopher Hoeher came 5th on Sunday, an excellent result for this Austrian youngster.
Former Spanish Formula 3 racer María de Villota was honored before the race start by a large number of participants.
