Rui Andrade and Franco Colapinto completed a strong debut at Spa-Francorchamps, with both young drivers making their first appearance in the Ardennes. Despite the challenging nature of Spa-Francorchamps, which hosted the Round 4 of the Pan-European Formula 3 Open, Andrade and Colapinto quickly adapted to the circuit.
On Friday, both drivers racing under the Drivex banner faced two valuable free practice sessions consisting of 30 minutes each. At the end of the day, Colapinto had clocked a lap time of 2:14.829 with his Piedrafita-powered Dallara F317 and his teammate Andrade posted a rather similar time with a lap of 2:15.100. For Andrade it was also his first taste of the new HWA engine but the Angolan driver almost immediately set competitive lap times.
On Saturday, Andrade qualified 18th on the starting grid with a lap time of 2:12.986 with Colapinto taking the 19th spot with his personal best effort of 2:13.444. It was a remarkable effort for Colapinto as his qualifying time was almost equaled last year’s pole positon time with Piedrafita-built engines. In the afternoon, Race 1 took place in tricky conditions with intermittent rain. Colapinto showed his talent once again and overtook four cars to finish in 15th place fighting with several rivals powered by more competitive Spiess and HWA engines. Andrade took the checkered flag in 17th place.
On Sunday, Andrade qualified slightly quicker than Colapinto with a lap time of 2:12.726 to start from row 8 with Colapinto lining up 17th on the grid with his time of 2:12.922. The fourth round came to an end with Race 2 in the afternoon. After a safety-car period, Colapintobrought a 14th place home and finished as first of the newcomers at event. Andrade finished right behind in 15th place.