After a difficult first part of the race, Floersch finished 8th the second Formula 3 Regional race in Barcelona.
Contested in dry conditions and with the sun starting to set over the Catalan circuit, the second race of the Formula Regional European Championship round in Barcelona saw the green light with David Schumacher starting from pole position, alongside Enzo Fittipaldi in the first Prema Powerteam car.
From the fourth row, Sophia Floersch lost one position after the first corner, as Guzman had a great getaway and sprinted past the young German, who kept 7th place after Lappalainen dropped to P9.
Among the front-runners in Imola, Igor Fraga looked less comfortable in the first Spanish race and took the start from 10th. Anyway, the Brazilian quickly got up to speed and reached Floersch. He attacked the Van Amersfoort driver on the second lap down the main straight, making a move stick around the outside of the first corner to take P7.
As in the morning's race, Floersch slightly struggled for pace in the very initial stages of the race and started to lose almost one second per lap from the front-runners. After some laps in the 1:44s, Konsta Lappalainen closed in and Sophia had to defend from the KIC Motorsport driver.
While Schumacher maintained the lead of the race, Enzo Fittipaldi remained at striking distance but the nature of Circuit de Catalunya made the drivers work extra-hard to attempt overtaking moves. It was then Fraga to revitalize the race, as he executed another pass on Guzman, very similar to the one he had previously completed on Floersch.
The pace-setters Schumacher and Fittipaldi pulled away from the rest of the group as new VAR driver Dan Ticktum found himself holding off the other Prema drivers. Championship leader Vesti attacked Olli Caldwell and passed his team-mate with a decisive pass at turn one. The Dane then immediately chased down Ticktum, who tried to defend by waving on the straights and received a warning from the race direction.
Fraga passed Caldwell with another daring move at La Caixa, before the Brit had to surrender another position to Guzman as he went wide at the first corner and had to take the escape road around the bollard.
With six minutes left on the clock, Vesti forced his way past Ticktum after an exciting wheel-to-wheel battle from turn 2 until turn 4: Fraga was quick to dive on the inside of the former Red Bull driver at turn 5 and stripped his competitor of another position, as his tyres were visibly dropping in performance.
Thanks to some good tyre management, Sophia Floersch's pace emerged again in the second half of the race and she closed a three seconds gap on the group of drivers ahead, but was never at attack distance and had to settle for eighth.
Guzman made a mistake in the long right-hander of turn three which allowed Caldwell to reclaim 6th place.
David Schumacher kept leading from Fittipaldi and took a masterful win under the chequered flag with over 12 seconds of advantage from third-placed Vesti.
Fraga completed an impressive race from 10th on the grid to 4th, while Ticktum rounded out the top-5 in his first Formula Regional weekend.
Floersch ended 8th a disappointing race and will look forward to finish higher tomorrow's third race that will see the German girl starting again from the seventh grid slot.
Sharon Scolari had a trouble-free second race and managed to significantly improve her lap-times compared to the mid-field. So far, she had a very positive weekend in Barcelona despite being her first visit to the Catalan circuit.
Formula Regional European Championship third race will go live on Sunday at 11:30 local time.
Ph credits: ACI Sport