It’s done: Tymek Kucharczyk managed to conquer a well-deserved maiden win in the Euroformula Open. The 17-year-old Pole of BVM Racing took no prisoners this morning at Spa-Francorchamps, in another lively and incident-rich Race 2, in which he had to battle hard at the beginning and win a fierce duel with Ed Pearson (Nielsen Racing) in the closing lap. “It was tough, but we had the pace and could maximize the speed at the end”, stated the Pole.
For Pearson, second is a great result after a very difficult start of a weekend that has turned into a damage-limiting exercise. Fernando Barrichello (Motopark) took a great third with a fantastic last-lap move that allowed him to leave championship leader Yevan David and BVM’s Vlad Ryabov behind him.
THE RACE - There is some drizzle at the moment of the start, with Shin and Stack in first row in the reversed grid and Pearson and Kucharczyk in second, while Brajnik is not starting this race. Shin and Stack keep their positions at the launch, but David, from row 3, is already second at Combes and challenging the leader. Pearson is fourth ahead of Kucharczyk after passing Green, while there is a contact between the Mexican drivers at Combes, with Garfias spinning and de la Torre having to stop in turn 4 in the following lap.
In lap 3, David takes the lead from Shin with Kucharczyk now third, while Pearson and Stack, who had gone wide at Blanchimont in lap 2, are fighting for fourth. The American passes the Brit at the Bus stop in lap 3 but soon after is off-track at Fagnes, hitting the wall and prompting the safety car.
There is drama at the restart, as Shin misses the braking point at La Source, hitting David, while Kucharczyk takes the lead and initiates a superb duel with Pearson, which steals the lead at the Bus stop but is re-passed by the Pole at Kemmel. There won’t be more dueling in the closing lap as Kucharczyk keeps a slight but sufficient advantage, but battle is fierce for third, with Barrichello managing to pass Ryabov at Combes and David using the opportunity to take fourth from the Russian.
