After an encouraging end to her rookie season in Eurocup-3, Victoria Blokhina returned to the series and secured a top-20 finish in the Eurocup-3 Winter Series opener at Jerez.
Victoria Blokhina secured a top-20 finish in the Eurocup-3 Winter Series opener at Jerez. Competing for leading squad Drivex, Blokhina improved throughout the weekend, showing particular consistency in her race pace.
Her best result of the event came in race one where she finished in 20th position, before Victoria secured two 21st place finishes to complete the weekend. Blokhina’s starts were especially strong as she gained four positions during the opening lap of each of the first two races.
Blokhina returned to the Eurocup-3 series after a superb end to her rookie campaign in 2024. Competing for Spanish team Drivex, Blokhina raced competitively in the season finale at Circuit de Barcelona while challenging for top-10 results. Victoria’s race one finish of 12th was a career best finish in the main championship, even more impressive considering the grid featured a season-high number of entries.
Aiming to carry this momentum into 2025, Blokhina re-signed with Drivex for the full Eurocup-3 campaign, while also joining up with the team for the Eurocup-3 Winter Series. Jerez hosted the season opener and Victoria already had experience of the Spanish circuit having raced there less than 6 months ago. Blokhina achieved a best result of 20th in race two of the main Eurocup-3 series and was now looking to use this knowledge to challenge further up the grid.
The race weekend began on Friday with two test sessions for the drivers to improve their lap times. Completing 28 laps in session one, Blokhina’s fastest lap was a 1:38.915 and placed her 21st fastest out of a competitive 25 car grid. In the second session, the Drivex racer finished inside the top-20 and was looking to improve further in the first of two qualifying sessions.
Qualifying brought further challenges with a damp and treacherous track at Jerez. Blokhina was caught out by the conditions and a spin from the Drivex racer saw her bring out a red flag. As a result, she was unable to take part in the final minutes of the session where the track was at its driest. Therefore, Victoria’s quickest time placed her in 24th position with a quick turnaround to the opening race of the weekend.
Conditions were fully dry for race one of the weekend at Jerez. From 24th on the grid, Blokhina made an excellent start and used her experience to gain four positions on lap one to claim a spot inside the top-20. Running directly behind teammate Preston Lambert, it was an encouraging start for Victoria. Although she then lost out to Cristian Cantu, Blokhina ran directly behind the GRS Team machine as she improved her times.
During the middle portion of the race, Blokhina ran four consecutive personal best times to continue challenging for a top-20 position. It was a quiet second half of the race for the Drivex racer who moved back into 20th position on lap 13 following a technical issue for Jesse Carrasquedo. Blokhina was required to defend from Emil Hellberg in the closing stages, however she completed a consistent race in 20th position.
The second race of the weekend was a sprint contest over 20 minutes and the Drivex racer was targeting progress from 24th on the grid. It was another excellent start from Blokhina who initially gained six positions off the line, before completing lap one in 20th position. On lap two, Victoria fell behind Cristian Cantu before setting a series of extremely consistent lap times.
From lap three through to lap 10, Blokhina lapped within one and a half tenths of her fastest time. As a result, she remained directly behind Cantu and was looking to force a mistake from the GRS Team racer. As Cantu overtook Linus Hellberg in the closing stages of the race, Blokhina attempted to make inroads on the Allay Racing machine, however she just ran out of time in the short 20-minute race. Taking the checkered flag in 21st position, Victoria banked more valuable experienced at Jerez.
The second qualifying session of the weekend took place on Sunday morning with Blokhina aiming to maintain her consistent form. After an early red flag for Linus Hellberg, the Eurocup-3 drivers all found significant time improvements in the second half of the session. Victoria’s fastest time of a 1:38.595 was the quickest lap of her whole weekend and placed her 19th on the grid.
Following a post-qualifying penalty assessed to Lorenzo Castillo, Blokhina started the final race of the weekend from 18th position. After a good initial launch, it was a tough opening lap for Victoria who fell to 21st at the end of the first lap while faster cars made their way ahead. On lap two, Blokhina and Cristian Cantu made contact and as a result, she fell to 22nd position.
Fortunately, there was no damage and Blokhina remained less than ten seconds behind Alceu Feldmann. Victoria was determined to make up for lost time and she quickly set her fastest race lap of the entire event, while significantly cutting the gap to Feldmann. On lap four, Blokhina was faster than the next eight drivers ahead and her progress was then aided by a safety car. Lenny Ried and Adam Hideg had made contact and their cars required recovery, with Victoria now back inside the top-20.
When the race resumed, Blokhina made a superb restart and quickly overtook Feldmann, while also passing both Nikola Tsolov and Luciano Morano. Now in 17th position, the Drivex racer was running directly behind Emil Hellberg and was keen to move ahead of the Allay Racing machine.
As Hellberg held up Blokhina, this brought Morano back into the fight and he overtook Blokhina on lap 13. In the closing stages of the race, Victoria was protecting her position from Cantu and the Mexican racer overtook Blokhina on the final lap. Following a post-race penalty, Blokhina dropped to 21st in the overall classification.
Despite just missing out on a second top-20 finish of the weekend, it was an encouraging first race meeting of 2025. Victoria showed improved race pace in the final contest on Sunday, while her consistency in the sprint race was exemplary.
Her race starts were particularly impressive and she will be looking to take this encouragement into the next round of the Eurocup-3 Winter Series which takes place at Portimao on the weekend of 22nd/23rd February.
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