Only one week after the meeting held at Circuito de Jerez, EuroCup-3 was back in action this weekend. Round 6 of the new championship took place at Circuito do Estoril, in Portugal. There, GRS had a weekend where, despite not replicating the results obtained in Jerez, left a positive feeling within the team.
Daniel Mavlyutov, who made his debut on the series in Zandvoort back in July, returned for this round. Turkish driver was joined Emmo Fittipaldi Jr., who came into the team for his first EuroCup-3 outing and had a good weekend despite the lack of prep time.
The Brazilian driver was competitive during Friday’s testing sessions and Saturday morning’s Free Practice. On behalf of Mavlyutov, he kept making progress and improving lap after lap. A tricky Qualifying session jeopardised our chances to score points in Race 1. Both drivers, however, did a good race as Emmo was P14 with Daniel in P15.
Qualifying 2 was held on Sunday. Our luck did not improve there as our drivers would have to start the final race from the back of the grid. Both drivers did notorious comebacks on the race. Mavlyutov finished 15th while Fittipaldi, after being involved in several on-track fights and succeed in most of them, fell just short of scoring, he was 11th at the flag.
We end our Portuguese meeting satisfied with the job done. Despite not scoring points, we have been able to maintain a constant progression in a weekend where we had another debutant on our line-up. Both drivers and team staff acquired important mileage and experience to face the final stages of the championship.
EuroCup-3 will return in October 14-15. Circuit Ricardo Tormo, in Valencia, will host the penultimate round of the season. This will be the GRS’ home race, so we will face it with a moral boost which will undoubtedly help the team to perform at its best.
