Edward kickstarts 2025 season with Portimao win
- Oliver Wickens
- 59 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Edward Pearson made a fine start to his 2025 season in the Euroformula Open series with victory on the opening weekend of the campaign at the Portimao circuit in the Algarve.
The young Briton went into the season opener on the back of a solid winter testing programme, which had included setting the second quickest time during a three-day long official test at the Catalunya circuit.
That test was particularly important for Edward ahead of his first full season in the series, with Euroformula Open having switched to an all-new car for the 2025 campaign, and with his new team - Nielsen Racing - preparing to embark on its maiden season of single-seater competition having raced with huge success in sportscars over the past decade.
A solid performance during free practice in Portugal saw Edward post the fourth quickest time, and he went one better when qualifying came around to head the second row of the grid as the fastest of the three Nielsen Racing drivers.
The opening race started in challenging fashion when Edward was forced to avoid polesitter Tymek Kucharczyk when he stalled on the line. Edward would then be run wide during the opening lap, which dropped him back down to fifth spot.
Fine moves on Diego de la Torre and Jose Garfias allowed Edward to move back into the podium places, at which point he was some five seconds behind leader Michael Shin.
Undeterred, Edward got his head down and having overhauled Yevan David for second place, set off after Shin at the front. Chasing down the leader, Edward forced his rival into an error that allowed him to sweep ahead into the lead with three laps to go - scoring the first win of the new Euroformula Open era to lay down an early marker in the title race.
Starting from sixth in the reverse grid second race, Edward was able to fight his way through to third spot to secure another podium finish but his hopes of further silverware in race three were hit when he stalled at the start and failed to get away off the line.
That left Edward well behind his rivals, with his pace from that point showing what might have been as he matched lap time of the leaders once he got his car underway.
The deployment of the safety car when De La Torre suffered an issue with the fire extinguisher on his car allowed Edward to close onto the back of the pack but he would be unable to benefit when an issue for Fernando Barrichello on the restart saw the action halted.
It meant Edward had to settle for seventh place in the race, which leaves him sitting in third place in the standings ahead of round two of the campaign at Spa in mid-May.
“Overall it’s been a good start to the 2025 season with a win and a podium finish, which I don’t think was expected when you consider that Nielsen Racing is a new team to single-seaters,” he said.
“It was always going to be a challenge against more established single-seater teams but we’ve shown great pace in the car all weekend and to pick up the first win of the campaign was a fantastic way to start - especially after losing ground on lap one.
“It’s a shame that there was a bit of a slip up in the final race as without that, there is a chance we could have come away from this weekend leading the championship. We’ll just have to try and put that right when we get to Spa next time out!”
