The Singaporean secured second place in the first race while the German climbed to third place in the second race. Lisle achieved his best result of the season with a fifth place, while Shin, after a massive crash on Saturday, scored points on Sunday
Campos Racing added two more podium finishes to their list in the current Eurocup-3 season, with the fifth round of the season held this past weekend in Zandvoort. Singaporean Christian Ho secured second place in Saturday's race, while it was the turn of German driver Valentin Kluss to finish third on Sunday. Noah Lisle completed his best performance to date in the category with a fifth place, while Michael Shin managed to recover from a significant crash in the first race to finish ninth. Jesse Carrasquedo Jr., who debuted on the podium this year in Le Castellet, had a challenging weekend and couldn't replicate his recent results.
After Friday morning's free practice sessios, it was time for a wet Q1 that afternoon, in which Campos Racing's best driver was South Korean Shin, securing third place on the grid with a time of 1m44.598s. However, Shin later received a five-place grid penalty for not noticing yellow flags. Along with Shin, Swiss driver Dario Cabanela was also penalized, allowing Ho to inherit the second place, with Shin ultimately starting eighth ahead of Lisle. Further back, Mexican Carrasquedo Jr. set a lap of 1m44.694s to share the eighth row of the grid with Kluss, who posted a lap of 1m45.562s. On Saturday morning, the drivers returned to the track for the second qualifying session. In this session, Kluss emerged as the best of the Campos Racing cars, qualifying fourth with a time of 1m44.470s, while Ho secured fifth place with his lap of 1m44.556s. Shin set the seventh-fastest time with a lap of 1m44.663s, while Lisle also made it into the top ten with the ninth-fastest time of 1m44.852s. Carrasquedo Jr. could not improve beyond a lap of 1m45.698s, leaving him 18th on the grid.
In the first race that afternoon, Ho maintained second place at the start behind Javier Sagrera. Further back, Shin was running in seventh place ahead of Lisle in the early stages. However, on the third lap, while Shin was attempting to overtake Alexander Abkhazava, both cars made contact and crashed violently into the barriers. The race was immediately red-flagged. After 45 minutes, with the drivers unharmed but shocked and the barriers repaired, the race resumed behind the safety car. Ho continuously pressured Sagrera, staying just three-tenths behind his rival. Further back, Lisle had already moved into the top five. With some rain droplets in the final stages, another incident brought out the safety car again with three minutes to go, and the race ended behind it, with Ho finishing second and Lisle third. Kluss climbed to 12th place, with Carrasquedo Jr. right behind.
On Sunday, in the second race, Kluss gained a position at the start by overtaking Owen Tangavelou, while Shin, Ho, and Lisle occupied positions five to seven. Kluss' objective was to prevent Tangavelou from overtaking him, and the German driver successfully kept his rival at bay. Among the Campos Racing drivers, Lisle lost ground due to an incident while Ho had overtaken his teammate Shin. After 19 laps, Kluss crossed the finish line in third place. Ho rounded off the top five, and Shin was seventh, though a ten-second penalty dropped him to ninth. Lisle finished 18th, and Carrasquedo Jr. came in 23rd.
After the first five rounds, with three remaining, all to be held in Spain, Ho holds second place in the overall driver standings with 144 points and is also the top rookie. Kluss is fifth with 91 points and second among rookies. Meanwhile, Shin and Lisle are ninth and eleventh, respectively. In the team standings, Campos Racing solidifies its second position with 268 points.
The championship now takes a two-week break before the final sprint of July at Motorland Aragón.
Photos: FotoCar13
