Thai racing ace Sandy Kraokaew Stuvik read the legendary Monza Circuit in Italy best of his rivals in the EuroFormula Open championship last weekend, to secure a dominant pole position for the first of the two races for the 7th round of the 2014 championship.
Lining up for the first race in front of RP Motorsport’s Andres Saravia from Uruguay in second and championship challenger Alex Palou from Spain in third, the start of the race soon became dramatic, in true Monza style, as Stuvik dropped a position in the drag race towards the first chicane, while contact between Japan’s Yu Kanamaru and Palou saw the Spaniard’s car flipped high up in the air and into retirement already on the opening lap.
Stuvik waves to fans on his victory lap at the Monza race circuit in Italy, Sunday, Sept. 28.
Stuvik however managed to overtake Saravia on the second lap and instantly started pushing hard to open a gap and break the slipstream tow. After 4 laps the Thai racer had opened up a 3 second lead and as he was no longer under threat from slipstream overtaking along Monza’s long straights, he could focus on producing perfect laps and pulled out a 12 second lead by the checkered flag.
The brilliant win was Stuvik’s 9th victory from 13 races of the season and generated enough of a points margin for the Italian RP Motorsport Team to claim the 2014 team championship with 3 races still remaining of the season.
Thai racer Sandy Stuvik celebrates in the pit lane after securing the 2014 EuroFormula Open championship title.
For Sunday morning’s second race Stuvik repeated his qualifying feat from the day before, superbly taking pole position with a time of 1:47:278, well over half a second faster that second placed Christopher Hoher from Austria and Italy’s Kevin Giovesi in third position.
The second race saw the Thai racer make a good start and garner enough space to prevent an overtaking move on him into Monza first chicane and after that point he pushed hard to open up a lead and break the slipstream. As in the first race, after 4 laps Stuvik had opened a 2 second gap, enough to break the famous Monza draft and could slowly ease away from the pursuing Formula 3 cars.
Although Stuvik would have a solitary race alone at the front, behind him there was plenty of action, as earlier championship rival Palou was again involved in contacts with other cars and would finish without any points. Stuvik’s RP Motorsport teammate Artur Janosz from Poland had a race long fight with Italian Kevin Giovesi, but would in the end secure 2nd place, in front of Austria’s Hoher.
With his second victory at Monza, Stuvik’s 6th race win in a row, he easily secured the 2014 EuroFormula Championship title, even with one round in Barcelona left on the calendar.
Stuvik now carries 293 points, with Janosz in second place on 216 points and Palou on 197, as the championship moves to Barcelona for the final round during on 1st to 2nd November, 2014.
Sandy Stuvik races for the Royal Automobile Association of Thailand and is sponsored by The Pizza Company, Singha Corporation and Dacon Inspection Services and Sports Authority of Thailand.
