Career best weekend for Victoria Blokhina in Eurocup-3

Victoria Blokhina concluded her rookie Eurocup-3 season with a career-best weekend at Circuit de Barcelona, finishing 12th in race one and consistently showcasing improved pace and racecraft among the rookie drivers.

Photo credits: EuroCup-3

Victoria Blokhina closed out her rookie campaign in the Eurocup-3 Series with an excellent weekend at Circuit de Barcelona. The Drivex racer enjoyed a breakthrough event where she reached new heights including a career best result of 12th overall in race one.

Blokhina was consistently inside the top-10 in both testing and practice sessions, before a competitive first qualifying session saw her set the 17th quickest time. A fantastic race one saw the young driver charge through the field to finish in 12th position, narrowly missing out on a podium finish in the rookie class. Victoria also made progress in race two where she displayed superb late-race speed to take the checkered flag in 16th position, seventh among the rookie drivers.

Blokhina has enjoyed a season of progress in her rookie Eurocup-3 campaign. The young driver has taken considerable steps forward as she stepped up to a higher level of competition.

Her race pace has been a particular highlight as Victoria has moved herself closer to the midfield runners over the course of the campaign, regularly challenging those inside the top-15. Prior to the season finale, her best result in the main championship came at both Portimao and Motorland Aragon where the Drivex racer finished in 16th.

In preparation for the race weekend at Circuit de Barcelona, Blokhina participated in a two-day test session for Eurocup-3 drivers three weeks prior to the event. Victoria made significant progress throughout testing as the Drivex racer set the eighth fastest overall time, second among the rookie drivers and was less than half a second away from the quickest lap set by championship challenger Christian Ho.

Blokhina gained confidence from these two days of additional running and looked to carry forward the speed into the race weekend. Friday morning saw a further test session take place with Victoria once again replicating this pace. Blokhina set the sixth fastest time, second among the rookies and was now less than two tenths of a second away from pacesetter Ho.

Saturday’s running began with a single free practice session with the track partially damp in the initial stages. As the track dried for the final runs of the session, Blokhina again impressed with her best time of a 1:37.642 placing her ninth overall, once again second fastest of the rookie drivers.

The first qualifying session at Circuit de Barcelona followed shortly after with Blokhina looking to extract maximum performance from the new tyres. Her initial lap times were good, before her rivals improved significantly during the middle portion of the session. A strong final lap saw Victoria set the 17th fastest time overall, sixth among the rookie drivers.

Blokhina lined up on the ninth row of the grid for race one and made a brilliant start, immediately gaining three positions through the opening turns. At the end of the first lap, Victoria was up one further place to 13th and immediately contending for a top-10 position. The Drivex racer was also briefly into a podium position within the rookie class before German driver Valentin Kluss moved ahead on lap two.

Georgy Zhuravskiy was the driver ahead and Blokhina was looking to pass the MP Motorsport racer to reclaim a spot on the rookie podium. Directly behind Victoria, Noah Lisle and Everett Stack were battling for position and on lap four, the latter moved ahead.

Nonetheless, a small gap behind remained and therefore Victoria could focus forward. On lap five, she set a personal best time which was faster than the next three drivers ahead and this gave her further confidence of achieving a personal best result.

By lap nine, Stack’s strong race pace saw him close in and pass Blokhina to drop the Drivex racer to 15th position overall, fifth in the rookie class. Despite this minor setback, Victoria was still pulling away from the group of drivers behind while continuing to enjoy her best result in the Eurocup-3 series to date.

On lap 12, Daniel Nogales was forced into the pits after a fight with the drivers immediately ahead of Blokhina and this promoted her to 14th overall. The close battles on the fringes of the top-10 then saw Stack go off the circuit at turn four and rejoin behind Victoria, elevating Blokhina to 13th overall, fourth in the rookie class.

A strong end to the race saw her hold this position to the checkered flag, later promoted to 12th overall following a penalty for Mari Boya. This was an exceptional drive from Blokhina who secured her best result in the series and came within just one position of scoring a championship point with guest driver and teammate Nikita Bedrin finishing ahead.

Photo credits: EuroCup-3

Blokhina was targeting another strong starting position in Sunday morning’s second qualifying session. Her Eurocup-3 rivals found significant improvements from the previous day and although Victoria was also able to improve by almost a quarter of a second, her fastest time placed her in 19th position, eighth among the rookie drivers.

Starting the season finale from 19th on the grid, Blokhina made another excellent start as she once again made up positions off the line. The Drivex racer enjoyed a good battle with the Sainteloc Racing machine of Diego De La Torre in the opening lap with Blokhina settling into 18th position.

On lap two, a move from teammate Gaspard Le Gallais dropped Blokhina to 19th position, however she remained close to the Swiss driver in an attempt to reclaim the position.

In the early stages of the race, Victoria was showing consistent pace and utilising the slipstream to remain in contention with the drivers ahead. Palou Motorsport driver Everett Stack then closed in, before the American racer overtook Blokhina on lap seven. Two laps later, Victoria set a personal best time as she continued to fight for positions within the midfield. After Stack retired with a technical issue on lap 11, Blokhina had a sizeable gap ahead and began closing in on her Drivex teammates.

Lapping consistently quicker than the drivers ahead, Blokhina was making inroads on Le Gallais before Victoria completed a nice overtaking manoeuvre for 18th position. With just two laps remaining, Blokhina’s pace was strong and with a penalty assessed to the Campos Racing machine of Noah Lisle ahead, there was still opportunities to move forward.

Victoria was the ninth fastest driver on track during the final two laps and although she took the checkered flag in 18th position, she was classified ahead of Lisle by less than a second, together with a disqualified Owen Tangavelou to claim a hard-fought 16th place result.

Blokhina ended her career-best weekend on a high at Circuit de Barcelona as she enjoyed her most successful weekend in the Eurocup-3 series to date. From the opening session of the event, Victoria was consistently among the fastest rookie drivers and she carried forward this speed to the pair of races.

Narrowly missing out on her first points scoring finish in race one, Blokhina’s 12th place finish represented a significant step forward in performance. Her late-race speed to close out the campaign was rewarded with a 16th place result and Victoria will be aiming to continue her progress into the 2025 season.