Albert Costa in uncompromising form
Albert Costa (Epsilon Euskadi) gets the perfect result this weekend in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 leg in Spa, with two wins, two poles and the two fastest race laps... His flawless performance puts the Spaniard in the lead in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 series, ahead of Antonio Felix da Costa (Motopark Academy), who gets another second place finish today.
Just like yesterday, pole-sitter Albert Costa got off to the best start and was first through the Eau Rouge / Raidillon combination again, ahead of the chasing Kevin Magnussen (Motopark Academy), Adrian Quaife-Hobbs (Motopark Academy) and Antonio Felix da Costa. The three Motopark Academy cars reversed their order into Les Combes, with Adrian Quaife-Hobbs in second, Antonio Felix da Costa in third and Kevin Magnussen fourth. The top five also counted French driver Jean-Éric Vergne (SG Formula).
The second lap saw drama with a coming together in the approach to the Les Combes corner. This put an end to the race ambitions for Luis Derani (Motopark Academy), Carlos Munoz (Epsilon Euskadi) and Nigel Melker (MP Motorsport) and saw the safety car came out ahead of leader Albert Costa.
After the restart, the race order remained unchanged. Albert Costa held his lead ahead of Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, Antonio Felix da Costa and Jean-Éric Vergne. Vergne was holding off team-mate Miki Monras. He tried his luck in Les Combes, his attempt failed and he then found himself under pressure from a group on his tail including Nathanaël Berthon (Epsilon Euskadi), James Calado (Fortec Motorsport), Arthur Pic (SG Formula) and Nico Muller (Jenzer Motorsport).Antonio Felix da Costa was determined not to let Albert Costa fly away from the field so easily. The Portuguese driver overtook Adrian Quaife-Hobbs to move into second and then tried to close the gap on Costa. In response, Costa sent his rivals a telling message by putting in the fastest race lap on lap 7, and then stabilizing his lead at about 1’’5.
The battle for 5th place was still very much on. Jean-Éric Vergne was losing ground and got overhauled by Miki Monras and Nathanaël Berhon one after the other. Clearly having difficulty with his car, the Frenchman was also in the sights of James Calado and Arthur Pic. Calado got the better of Vergne to grab 7th in the closing stages of the race.
Up front, Albert Costa drove to a comfortable win, without really seeming to have been worried. This third win in four races puts the Catalan driver in the lead in the overall standings of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, ahead of Antonio Felix da Costa, who was second today. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, with his third place finish, got onto the podium for the first time this season.
Quote, unquote: Albert Costa: “I started the race well, but I did find myself in a difficult situation after the safety car came out. I managed to keep ahead at the restart. Then, when Antonio got into second, I had to up the pace to stop him coming back at me. He was quick. The weekend’s gone perfectly, we’ve worked hard for this and we need to carry on. There's still plenty of the season left to run!”
Antonio Felix da Costa: “I paid for my poor qualifying today. Starting in 4th, it was difficult to go for the win. It’s a satisfactory result for us. We made up some of the gap today, we’re closer to Albert and I hope we’ll quickly be in a position to get the better of him.”
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs: “I’m happy to be on the podium, but a little disappointed not to have held onto my second place. I haven’t started well this season. This podium puts me back on track. We’re moving in the right direction and I’m hoping to go from strength to strength and get involved in the title race.”
