Home Z - Archive seriesFormula Renault Eurocup Gustav Malja pips rivals to top Friday Eurocup running at Nurburgring

Gustav Malja pips rivals to top Friday Eurocup running at Nurburgring

by Peter Allen
Gustav Malja

Photo: Jean Michel Le Meur/DPPI

Gustav Malja came out on top in an incredibly close end to Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 running at the Nurburgring on Friday, with the quickest five drivers separated by a mere 0.021 seconds around the near-two-minute lap.

The Swedish driver, a race winner at the German circuit in ADAC Formel Masters, set a time of 1m57.359s. That put him 0.015s ahead of fellow Scandinavian Dennis Olsen, who had earlier set the pace in the first session.

Steijn Schothorst, Levin Amweg and championship leader Nyck de Vries were then all within six thousandths of a second of Olsen’s time.

Andrea Pizzitola was 0.055s off the pace in fifth, ahead of Matt Parry, Bruno Bonifacio, Kevin Jorg and Anthoine Hubert.

After the day’s running was delayed by fog during the morning, Olsen’s first-session benchmark was 0.193s slower than the time that Malja would manage later on.

The Norwegian – who currently sits third in the standings – was 0.279s clear of the opposition, led by de Vries. Jorg was third, while fourth was Brazilian Victor Franzoni, who is making his return to European competition this weekend with the China BRT by JCS team. He held top spot at one stage during the second session, before falling back to 11th.

Nick Cassidy was fifth in the morning ahead of Malja and Pizzitola. Lotus F1 juniors Callan O’Keeffe and Alex Albon were eighth and ninth, with Bonifacio tenth.

Session results
Pos Driver Team Session 1 Session 2
1 Gustav Malja Josef Kaufmann Racing 1:58.110 1:57.359
2 Dennis Olsen Prema Powerteam 1:57.552 1:57.374
3 Steijn Schothorst Manor MP Motorsport 1:58.465 1:57.376
4 Levin Amweg ART Junior Team 1:58.689 1:57.377
5 Nyck De Vries Koiranen GP 1:57.831 1:57.380
6 Andrea Pizzitola Manor MP Motorsport 1:58.138 1:57.414
7 Matt Parry Fortec Motorsports 1:58.451 1:57.499
8 Bruno Bonifacio Prema Powerteam 1:58.380 1:57.510
9 Kevin Jorg Josef Kaufmann Racing 1:57.950 1:57.527
10 Anthoine Hubert Tech 1 Racing 1:58.424 1:57.588
11 Victor Franzoni China BRT by JCS 1:58.000 1:57.678
12 Callan O’Keeffe ART Junior Team 1:58.176 1:57.729
13 Martin Rump Fortec Motorsports 1:58.580 1:57.799
14 Aurelien Panis ART Junior Team 1:58.517 1:57.825
15 Egor Orudzhev Tech 1 Racing 1:58.952 1:57.892
16 Raoul Owens Mark Burdett Motorsport 1:59.329 1:57.915
17 Jack Aitken Fortec Motorsports 1:58.504 1:58.036
18 Ryan Tveter Josef Kaufmann Racing 1:58.669 1:58.040
19 Nick Cassidy Koiranen GP 1:58.079 1:58.424
20 Simon Gachet ARTA Engineering 1:58.836 1:58.183
21 Gregor Ramsay KTR 1:59.415 1:58.209
22 Robin Hansson Fragus BR Motorsport 1:59.481 1:58.230
23 Alexander Albon KTR 1:58.256 1:58.770
24 Ignazio D’Agosto Koiranen GP 1:58.666 1:59.321
25 Charles Leclerc Fortec Motorsports 1:58.723 1:59.434
26 Louis Deletraz Josef Kaufmann Racing No time 1:58.726
27 Josef Zaruba China BRT by JCS 2:01.018 1:58.727
28 Hans Villemi Prema Powerteam 1:59.038 1:58.733
29 Julio Moreno Manor MP Motorsport 2:00.007 1:58.771
30 James Allen ARTA Engineering 1:59.599 1:58.856
31 Vasily Romanov Tech 1 Racing 1:59.549 1:59.032