OYU ON TOP AS JAPANESE ROOKIE TAKES TWO
It was not only the absence of dominant Marino Sato, competing in Formula 2 at Monza, that gave Silverstone’s Euroformula Open round a fresh look. There were four debutants; three with Sato’s Team Motopark. And one, Sato’s fellow Japanese racer Toshiki Oyu, straight from Japanese Formula 3 and new to Europe, sensationally dominated both races from pole.
In race one Honda junior Oyu built a three-second lead in no time, and won by 4.5s. And his second race was as imperious, again leading all the way to win by 6s.
“A perfect weekend, very, very happy,” Oyu said. “When I first came to Silverstone I never thought I could get P1. I had good pace constantly throughout the weekend.” He even noted room for improvement. “Actually I suffered a little bit [with the] handling of the machine yesterday but today we were able to improve it,” he added.
Motopark boss Timo Rumpfkeil described Oyu’s weekend as “very impressive”. “He had very little preparation, and [his] first time
[was] here at Silverstone which is one of the most difficult tracks in this car,” Rumpfkeil continued. “I expected him to be on the podium; I didn’t expect him to dominate.”
Oyu’s closest rival was another new, though not entirely new, face at Motopark. Enaam Ahmed followed
Oyu from Japanese F3 to return to the championship he competed in part-time in 2016, being asked “two or three days” beforehand to fill in for Sato. “I thought ‘OK, why not?’” Ahmed said.
Ahmed was next best to Oyu in the opener, despite making a set-up ‘wrong turn’ in qualifying then starting race one on old tyres compared with Oyu’s new set. With two new sets of tyres saved for Sunday, Ahmed was confident of going one better in race two, but struggled throughout the day with mysterious snap oversteer. He salvaged another second place on the penultimate lap amid a multi-car squabble.
Lukas Dunner, second in the table, could not make points hay in Sato’s absence. He’d made an overnight engine change then struggled for set-up in first qualifying, and started 10th. Then his first race lasted only seconds, as he was squeezed onto a sausage kerb at Becketts, launching him into Manuel Maldonado and out. He remained bewildered by his lack of pace the following day, and could only manage ninth in race two.
The International GT Open also had a double winner in Albert Costa and Giacomo Altoe. They led home an Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini Huracan 1-2 in the opener, heading a tight multi-car battle despite two lengthy safety car periods. Their team-mate duo Norbert Siedler and Mikael Grenier did a long first stint but Grenier emerged from the pitstop just behind Costa, and they stayed in that order.
And Costa/altoe made it a double win the next day. Their longer pitstop handicap time dropped Altoe just behind Andres Saravia, paired with Fran Rueda in a Teo Martin Motorsport Mclaren 720S, after the stops. Saravia got home first but had a one-second penalty for the pitstop being marginally too short, due to an apparent GPS problem. This elevated Costa/altoe to victory.
“Now in Barcelona [the next round] we are going to struggle a bit with the handicap,” Costa said, “but this is what we have to do to win the championship is win as much races as we can, and now we are in a good position.”
Costa and Altoe entered the meeting tied at the head of the points table with Martin Kodric and Henrique Chaves, and left with a 17-point advantage. Kodric and Chaves had a frustrating time in their Teo Martin Mclaren, finishing fourth in race one after moving behind the third-placed Miguel Ramos/ Fabrizio Crestani SPS Mercedes during the second stint to avoid a success penalty for race two. Kodric tried to perform a similar move in race two but Siedler behind also slowed to avoid third place. Then Kodric was hit and spun by Ramos on the last lap, leaving him sixth.
Edoardo Liberati and Hans-peter Koller won both GT Cup Open races in their Vincenzo Sospiri Racing Lamborghini Huracan, meaning
Koller takes the championship lead. Completing a perfect set of double winners, Gael Castelli dominated both Alpine Europa Cup encounters.