Martins untouchable in Spain
The pendulum of the title battle swung firmly towards Victor Martins and away from Caio Collet during the latest double-header at Barcelona.
Martins qualified his ART Grand Prix car on pole for Saturday’s wet race, with the R-ace GP machine of Renault F1 Junior Collet alongside. But a poor start from the Brazilian allowed the Frenchman to ease away to victory by 17 seconds.
As Collet dropped to an initial 10th, Franco Colapinto ran in second place.
But Collet did a great job of moving up the order. Once he took MP Motorsport racer Colapinto for second, he stabilised the gap to the dominant Martins.
A mistake a few laps home dropped Colapinto to sixth, and it was Ugo de Wilde who completed the podium in his Arden International car from Gregoire Saucy, Hadrien David and Colapinto.
Martins took another pole and win on Sunday in the dry. This time Colapinto lined up alongside him on the front row, but Collet grabbed second at the start.
Martins once again pulled out a comfortable cushion, only for a late safety car for an incident that put de Wilde out to erode his advantage. But still Collet couldn’t get anywhere near him on the one-lap dash to the flag.
Colapinto this time kept it on the island for third, with JD Motorsport racer David Vidales claiming fourth. Dutchman Kas Haverkort, the Spanish F4 series leader, completed a fine Renault Eurocup debut to take fifth in an MP car.