Third round this weekend for the Ultimate Cup Series competitors, who after the first two rounds of Estoril in Portugal at the end of March and Dijon-Prenois, are again travelling abroad and Eastern Europe this time and to distant Slovakia…
Competitors from two of the disciplines will therefore discover the Slovakia Ring, a magnificent circuit that is located just 50 kilometres from the capital, Bratislava.
A superb track that hosted the World Championship of Motorcycle Endurance two weeks ago and has a total length of 5,922 km.
ULTIMATE-CUP-2019-ESTORIL- The three single-seaters of the first three of the second race
NO RACE ON SUNDAY
For this third round, and as there are only two series, the single-seaters and LMP3 protos, the format of this Slovak round of the Ultimate Cup Series has therefore been slightly modified.
The free practice of the Protos LMP3, as well as the first of the three Formula Renault single-seater races, is taking place this Friday, the qualifying tests, the last two Formula Renault races and the 4 Hours of the Protos race, are taking place on Saturday.
ULTIMATE CUP 2019 ESTORIL Single-seater Brice MORABITO and Amaury BONDUEL Photo Hughes LAROCHE
In the single-seater category, 16 Formula Renault cars are entered, all Tatuus. For the victories in all three races, Amaury Bonduel, the current leader with a total of… five wins 240 points, ahead of his teammate in the LAMO team, Sacha Lehmann who has 192 points and the third, Brice Morabito of the Scuderia TS Corse, with 187 points.
In the LMP3 protos and due to the distant trip, several teams missed out on this Slovakia Ring round. And it should also be noted that only the Ferrari 488 GT3 of the Jean Paul Pagny Visiom Team, winner in Dijon, will therefore run in GT with the LMP3.
As initially planned, the Ligier JS P3 of the Frederic Sausset SRT41 Team will not be in Slovakia.
Not even the N°72 Norma M30 TFT N°72, from the Sarthois Robin family, who recently won the second of seven races of the 2019 season in Dijon!
The reason?
Their father, Didier Robin, explained that his sons, brothers Arnold and Maxime Robin, who also compete in the Ligier Cup, were already competing last winter in the third race of this Cup, in Spa-Francorchamps, after their victory at Le Mans, they currently rank second in the provisional ranking behind their boss and team driver “Zosh”, Jean-René Defournoux !
But good news to complete the set of LMP3, two new Norma will be on the track!
The Norma M30 N°2 of the Czech Team, the Janik Motorsport and the Norma M30 N°36 of the Italian Scuderia Bi & Bi.
So, there will be fourteen LMP3 at the start, seven Ligier and seven Norma, perfect equality !
ULTIMATE CUP SERIES AUTO 2019 – DIJON NORMA DB Autosport of LIONEL and ANTOINE ROBERT and HUGO CARINI – Photo Hugues LROCHE
For victory, after the races of Estoril and Dijon, in the absence of the Robin brothers, we can set as favourites, the Norma of the Dijon DB Autosport team of Daniel Bassora, the N°21 of Antoine and Lionel Robert, supported by Hugo Carini.
Finally, the Ligier JS P3 of the Austrian Wimmer Werk Motorsport Team, the N°26, in tandem with Vincent Capillaire and Matthias Kaiser, the leading team in the Championship.
François LEROUX
Photos : Hugues LAROCHE – Maurice CAMUS et Daniel DELIEN
