The third round of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 series went underway last weekend at Pau as teams and drivers lined-up at the fascinating French venue. For AVF by Adrián Vallés, this was the second straight weekend in action after Silverstone and a prelude to another highly-anticipated weekend at Monte Carlo. The fourth round of the season will see the series line-up alongside Formula 1 in the Monaco Principality.
At Pau, where walls and barriers are close to the track and speeds are high, AVF demonstrated once again to have all what it takes to stay at the front end of the charts after the podium scored at Silverstone. Starting from practice, Axel Matus and Henrique Chaves proved highly competitive securing the fourth and sixth fastest laptime respectively. In second practice, with drivers already split in the same groups of qualifying, the Brazilian also got a brilliant second place to confirm his potential.
Rodrigo Pflucker moved up from P15 to P8 while unfortunately Gabriel Saucy concluded his work early. After proving competitive at Silverstone, the Swissman was admitted to hospital for precautionary checks following to a qualifying shunt and was advised not to race. In qualifying, Matus and Chaves stayed in the top-10 in both session while Pflucker was 13th and 11th respectively. On race day, Chaves faced tough luck with two crashes while Matus brought home a 12th and a 14th place. Rodrigo ended up 21st in race 1.
Adrián Vallés
“I’m satisfied with the job done by our guys at Pau. I wish Gabriel a prompt recovery and we hope to see him back on-track next weekend at Monte Carlo. Henrique showcased a great deal of experience in practice and, in the end, crashes can happen when you give your best to recover and fight for the podium. Matus completed both races, getting close to the podium zone, and Rodrigo showed great improvement. I think Monte Carlo will provide us with some satisfactions, although on that track it will be a bit of a lottery: anyway, with two races we should also have more chances”.