Sophia Floersch ends Barcelona third race with a 5th place that concludes a challenging weekend for the German driver. Sharon Scolari retires after an overall positive round.
The third race of the Catalan race weekend for Formula Regional European Championship went underway with US Racing David Schumacher taking the start from pole once again and with German star Sophia Floersch lining up in seventh position with a new set of tyres.
When the lights went out, Schumacher led the field ahead of racing returnee Dan Ticktum, who jumped Fittipaldi's Prema. Floersch passed Guzman and completed the first lap in 6th, not far away from Vesti in P5. The lady from Munich had the chance to briefly chase the Championship leader but then switched to a defensive approach from Raul Guzman and the fast Matteo Nannini.
Igor Fraga continued his difficult weekend and dropped to 11th, while Sharon Scolari's race came to an abrupt end on the second lap, when the Swiss driver hit the wall at La Caixa following a gearbox issue when downshifting. Sharon has had a very positive weekend until that point, with a P8 in race 1 and some promising pace in the second Saturday's race.
"After a weekend full of improvements, in race 3 the gearbox problem came up again, which led me to an accident, fortunately not serious, just contusion at the ankle and right hand, preventing me from finishing the race." - commented Sharon via her social feeds. "Unfortunately my small family team, without carrying out tests, has so far failed to find the solution, but we will continue ti work hard on it".
Nannini started an impressive recovery up through the field and moved past Guzman, with KIC Motorsport' driver Lappalainen also closing in on the Mexican.
On the 6th lap, Ticktum had his best chance to attempt a move for the lead at turn one, but Schumacher held on.
Sophia Floersch had a slow exit from the last corner, which allowed Nannini to get into the slipstream and attack the German girl: he found a way past the Van Amersfoort #99 entry around the outside of turn one after some wheel-to-wheel action down the main straight and forced Floersch on to the runoff area, but she managed to keep 7th place away from Guzman.
The race direction inflicted a drive through penalty to Alexandre Bardinon for a jump start and a 25 seconds penalty to Matteo Nannini for a starting position infringement.
Series dominator Frederik Vesti never looked comfortable as usual and spent the vast majority of the third race in P5 as the worst-placed Prema car. With less than 10 minutes left on the clock, the race of the Danish driver went from bad to worst as he spun at the final chicane and dropped to the back of the field.
After a rather uneventful second half of the race, David Schumacher crossed the finish line and completed a faultless performance, taking his second win of the weekendand third of the season, ahead of Dan Ticktum and Enzo Fittipaldi. Nannini ended up P9 after his penalty was applied, in front of Vesti in 10th, thus promoting Floersch.
Sophia took home a solid P5 in an overall challenging weekend pace-wise, as she lost the 6th place in championship standings from Raul Guzman. She now sits in 7th with 124 points, 8 points behind the Mexican.
The next round of the Formula Regional European Championship will take place once again in Italy, on the famous Mugello circuit in two weeks time.
Ph credits: ACI Sport