10.05.2021
After the thrills of racing alongside the Formula 1 paddock at Algarve International Circuit for the Portuguese Grand Prix, the Euroformula championship heads to France this weekend to race on Circuit Paul Ricard, where it will be joining, for the first time this year, its GT Sport-promoted sister series, the International GT Open and the GT Open Cup Europe.
The track is the first of the season where teams will already have experience of racing the lightweight, halo-shod Dallara 320 around it, and means they will be trying to improve on the pace laid down in 2020 on the 15-turn 5.842 km layout in the hills in the south of France.
CryptoTower Racing Team was the winner of both races at Paul Ricard last year, and heads into this weekend at the top of the points. However it is Motopark that has started the season unbeaten as its driver Cameron Das took all three wins in the Algarve triple-header. It marked the first time Euroformula had incorporated reversed grid races into its format, and also a return of the United States to the top step of the podium.
Das isn’t the only American in the team, as Red Bull junior Jak Crawford joins him and gets to contest every race this weekend after being limited to only Sunday’s encounter at Algarve while he was awaiting his 16th birthday. Audi-backed Hungarian talent Vivien Keszthelyi completes the team’s line-up.
It was CryptoTower that did get the first podium of the season courtesy of Louis Foster, and he finished second twice in Portugal. His team-mates are Nazim Azman, who is Das’s closest rival in the points standings, and Filip Kaminiarz.
Leading the Rookie standings is Van Amersfoort Racing’s Casper Stevenson, who took two rookie classification wins and one overall podium. Drivex’s Enzo Trulli took the other win and also earned an overall podium finish. Stevenson is joined by Rafael Villagomez at VAR, while Trulli is part of an all-Enzo line-up alongside Enzo Scionti at Drivex.
Unlucky not to pick up a couple of podiums at Algarve was Double R Racing, which will be hungry for success at Paul Ricard with Josh Mason and Zdenek Chovanec, who both showed a great potential in the first round.
The weekend will start on Thursday with two hours of private tests, followed by free practice on Friday and Qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday. Race 2 and 3 will be held on Sunday.