Young Australian driver Aiva Anagnostiadis had a productive weekend in the Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship at Portimao, where she took steps forward as she battled in the midfield, securing three solid finishes.
Cram Motorsport driver Aiva Anagnostiadis enjoyed a productive weekend in the Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship at Portimao.
The young Australian driver benefited from visiting a circuit for a second time and put this knowledge to good use by gaining 25 places throughout the event. Battling competitively in the midfield, Aiva secured a best finish of 25th in the sprint race.
Following her debut in the Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship at Jerez, Anagnostiadis visited a circuit which she had experience of in the form of Portimao. After competing in the Formula Winter Series season-opener at the circuit earlier this month, the Cram Motorsport driver was looking to use this experience to make further progress. Anagnostiadis scored a top-20 finish on her European single seater debut and was looking to replicate this form and improve on her best result of 23rd from Jerez.
The event began with two extended test sessions on Friday with Anagnostiadis making good progress throughout the day. Aiva’s recent experience of Portimao enabled her to lap just over two seconds away from the quickest time overall in session one, a significant improvement from her times from the Formula Winter Series event. After ending the first session in 33rd position, Anagnostiadis completed a session-high 50 laps in session two, to end the day as the 35th fastest driver.
The first qualifying session of the event was held on Saturday morning in damp conditions. Early on in the session, Anagnostiadis stopped out on track after contact from Niklas Schaufler and this led to a red flag, however the Cram Motorsport driver was able to rejoin. Anagnostiadis remained on the wet tyres and made good progress to set the 34th fastest time. However, due to a number of the leading drivers fitting the slicks and improving late in the session, Aiva’s quickest lap fell just outside the requisite qualifying time.
Anagnostiadis lined up from 34th on the grid for the opening race at Portimao. Aiva made an excellent start and with some smart driving, she avoided a series of opening lap incidents. At the end of lap one, Anagnostiadis had gained a phenomenal 11 positions to run in 23rd place as the safety car was deployed. Her position improved further when Santino Panetta pitted, with the race resuming on lap six.
It was a challenging restart for the Cram Motorsport driver who received damage and had to pit for a new front wing. As Anagnostiadis rejoined the circuit, a second safety car was deployed and this allowed the young Australian driver to catch the tail of the field. Aiva was now running in 31st place and her position improved further following an incident between Schaufler and Santiago Baztarrica on the restart lap.
Less than ten minutes now remained in the race with Anagnostiadis looking to move forward from 29th. Following a spin for Lorenzo Campos, she was up to 28th and beginning to apply pressure to the drivers immediately ahead. On lap 12, contact between Jean Paul Karras and Vivek Kanthan led to the race finishing behind the safety car with Aiva classified in 26th position to complete a productive opening race at Portimao.
Race two was the shorter, sprint race which was held over a duration of twenty-minutes. Anagnostiadis lined up from 34th on the grid and made a superb start, gaining seven positions on lap one. The Cram Motorsport driver ran in 27th position as the safety car was deployed for a first lap incident, before gaining a further position after Nathan Tye entered the pits.
When the racing resumed, Anagnostiadis dropped three places to 29th before doing well to initially defend from Emma Felbermayr. On lap six, Felbermayr found a way through before Anagnostiadis received contact from Nacho Tuñon at turn five which spun the Cram Motorsport driver. Despite this setback, a second safety car period allowed Aiva to catch the field and restart from 29th position.
The racing in the midfield was intense and on lap ten, Anagnostiadis set a top-15 lap time as she aimed to finish the race positively. On the final lap, she overtook both Philippe Amand Karras and Christian Garduño to finish in 27th, before being promoted to 26th after a time penalty was applied to Matus Ryba. A post-race penalty for Wiktor Dobrzanski then elevated Aiva to 25th as she secured her second top-25 result in the Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship.
Sunday’s on-track action began with a second qualifying session to set the grid for the final race of the weekend. It was an encouraging session for Anagnostiadis who showed particularly competitive speed in the final sector. Her fastest time of a 1:47.329 placed her 35th and therefore she was looking to make similar progress to that of Saturday’s first two races.
Starting 35th for the final race of the weekend, the Cram Motorsport driver made another clean start while gaining two positions on lap one. Anagnostiadis was showing improved confidence in the early stages and by lap three she was into 32nd. After passing teammate Aleksandar Bogunovic on lap four, Aiva was running extremely competitive times as she caught the group of drivers ahead.
Despite losing out to Christian Garduño on lap seven, Anagnostiadis tucked in behind the Sainteloc Racing driver as the pair looked to make progress. In the middle portion of the race, pit stops for Emma Felbermayr, Matus Ryba and Noah Monteiro elevated the Cram Motorsport driver to 29th as she targeted another top-25 finish.
Jean Paul Karras was now the driver directly ahead and Anagnostiadis was applying significant pressure to the Greek racer. A personal best time on lap 13 saw the gap between Karras and Anagnostiadis shrink to less than two tenths of a second.
Finishing less than a second behind Karras on the road, Anagnostiadis ended the final race of the weekend in 28th position before being promoted to 27th following a track limits penalty for Aurelia Nobels.
Anagnostiadis took significant steps forward at Portimao as she battled confidently in the midfield while securing three solid finishes. Her race pace was particularly encouraging as the Cram Motorsport driver negotiated a number of incidents in the opening two races to make good progress from her grid positions.
The next round of the Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship takes place at Circuito de Navarra on the weekend of 8th/9th March.
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