The second SEAT León Eurocup meeting finished with a new list of winners and a new venue. If the first meeting held at Monza put Weber and Rossi on the podium, Ricardo Bravo took the win against all odds this weekend, seconded by Tim Coronel. The Dutch driver and Hungary’s Gabor Weber were the two most consistent in the points tally of both races and overall, and the Zolder results now put Weber in the general lead ahead of Michael Rossi.
During yesterday’s first race, Tim Coronel and Michael Rossi, who were at the front of the grid after the official training session, quickly outdistanced the other drivers and it looked like they were sentenced to win. Halfway through the race however, both drivers’ tyres bore the brunt of their initial sprint and they were overtaken in a surprise move by Ricardo Bravo, who took the lead in the seventh lap after coming from sixteenth position on the grid, thanks to his choice of dry tyres, and by Lourenco Veiga and Gabor Weber, who managed to deal with the track’s variable conditions. Rossi didn’t make it onto the podium and Coronel finished eighth.
The result ended up benefiting Coronel. The inverted grid positions for the second race held today put him in pole position ahead of Eoin Murray and Gabor Weber. Coronel fell back on his experience and led the race until the end, only trailed by Alexei Dudukalo at the beginning. Dudukalo made a magnificent start from the second grid line and was Coronel’s only rival for four laps. He made a bad braking decision in the fifth lap and left the race wide open for Coronel while Murray settled into second place until the end, and Weber, who took off in sixth position, slipped into third place after an incident by Hatvani. Rossi experienced electrical problems and had to bow out in the fifth lap.
The Zolder results prove that the Eurocup drivers’ skills are evenly matched, after four races with four four different winners, nine different drivers on the podium and races without any clear outcome. The next fast-paced SEAT León Eurocup race is scheduled for 17 and 18 July at Brands Hatch.
Standings
1st race: 1. Ricardo Bravo, 23.48.148. 2. Lourenco Veiga + 0.566. 3. Gabor Weber + 0.971. 4. Michael Rossi + 1.05.586. 5. Alexey Dudukalo + 1.06.656. 6. Balint Hatvani + 1.09.023. 7. Eoin Murray + 1.09.850. 8. Tim Coronel + 1.09.868. 9. Marcos de Diego + 1.15.783. 10. Diego Puyo + 1.16.149.
2nd race: 1. Tim Coronel, 22.43.594. 2. Eoin Murray + 2.155. 3. Gabor Weber + 4.228. 4. Ricardo Bravo + 8.243. 5. Marcos de Diego + 8.732. 6. Lourenco Veiga + 10.261. 7. Pepe Oriola + 11.054. 8. Oleg Petrikov + 12.984. 9. Felix da Costa + 13.822. 10. Francisco Carvalho + 14.743.
Eurocup general standings: 1.Gabor Weber, 22 points. 2.Michael Rossi, 21. 3.Ricardo Bravo, 16. 4.Eoin Murray, 15. 5.Lourenco Veiga, 14.
