Round three of the SLR Formula 2 season saw us kick things off at Monaco! One of the crown jewels on the Formula 1 calendar and certainly a track that can raise a few eyebrows with certain results despite the lack of overtaking. We went into this round having seeing four different winners in four races. Will that pattern continue?
One shot Quali! For Monaco it was a brand new name on pole and what a place to do it also! Raceroller22 would claim pole by a margin of two tenths just ahead of UKBeastAssassin hoping to build on from his long awaited F2 win last time out in Spain. In third was SLR Cech showing strong qualifying pace once more with Crispy2001 in fourth. SLR Darnell would start off pole for the first time this season to start fifth and joining him on row three was another impressive qualifying showing from Reserve driver MasonGammon05. J Lee Menz would become the highest Evo Class qualifier with an impressive seventh.
The Feature! It was almost as you were towards the top after turn one. Most notable movements early on where the Darnell brothers of SLR Darnell and SLR Southerner both making up a couple of places. With it being Monaco we didn’t really see many moves early on. Only trains and penalties. It was all close at the top between Raceroller22, UKBeastAssassin, Darnell, Cech and Crispy. Already ten seconds behind was J Lee Menz and in between them you had SLR Southerner on a lonely but thankfully relaxing feature drive. The biggest scrap was for that seventh position. J Lee Menz was doing well to fend off from SLR Bennett who was doing all he could to get past but without success. Few laps later SLR Darnell would make contact with the barriers resulting in plenty of damage. The UNI Virtuosi driver would then lose places as a result. Around lap seventeen everyone had made their mandatory stop with Raceroller being the last of them. By doing so the scot would still hold a comfortable lead from UKBeastAssassin by a couple of seconds. Soon after Darnell would find his pace again after a wing change to overtake Cech. Cech would then retire following a crash at the nouvelle chicane with a few laps to spare ending hopes of a great result. Raceroller would take pole, fastest lap, lead every lap and win the race in a fantastic grand slam to fully cement himself as a serious title contender for the F2 championship this season. UKBeastAssassin would take another feature podium in second followed by another podium and a third for Crispy. Darnell would have to settle again for another fourth places feature finish. Then we had a big gap to SLR Southerner in fifth and an even bigger one to sixth. Evo Class driver J Lee Menz would finish sixth in a fantastic performance for the Campos driver which would also claim the Evo Class feature win. He would just pip Bennett and LP Smoke as well as MasonGammon and OwenHowell who had to settle for the remaining points positions.
The Sprint! On reverse grid pole we had LP Smoke sharing the front row with SLR Bennett with J Lee Menz and Southerner behind on row two. Away we went again and it was a case of deja vu as we saw Southerner yet again take Menz going into turn one closely followed this time round with Darnell. Up the hill there was drama as UKBeastAssassin would bounce off a barrier which resulted in a bit of Monaco chaos. During the first few laps SLR Cech was a man on a mission to make up for his feature retirement. Cech had already made up eight places up to ninth within three laps. We soon saw things begin to heat up as Darnell would get the move for second done at the expense of Bennett whilst Menz was working overtime to keep the likes of Crispy and Raceroller behind for fifth. LP Smoke would be leading a ten car train. Lap seven one of the stars of the feature in Menz would retire into the barriers out of the tunnel to free Crispy and Roller. Moments later a mistake from Smoke would give Darnell the lead. Darnell would soon then show his pace and pull away from the pack right to the end. Eyes were now on for who will get second where there was several drivers within a chance of claiming a podium spot. Late on a mistake from Crispy took him out of that running with contact with a barrier sending the car not facing the way it should. Come the finish Darnell would take his first win of the season and become the fifth different winner in six races. We saw another fantastic F2 display by SLR Bennett to take second and his first F2 podium of the season and sharing the podium also was a very surprised Southerner. Following a penalty Smoke would drop to fourth in what was still a very respectful finish for the SLR veteran. Feature race winner Raceroller would have to settle for fifth but with also the F2 championship lead after three rounds. SLR Cech would make an amazing recovery from the back to claim sixth just ahead of a recovering Crispy and also SLR Dodgy who would also claim the Evo Class Sprint w as well as claiming the last official pointing scoring position.
Somehow we saw no safety car during this round at Monaco. Next week we are at Baku where in previous seasons has always been the war arena on the F2 SLR calendar. FRA Ham and FRA Jam would make their return following a week off to hope to have a say in what already looks like a very tasty championship battle. Like UKBeastAssassin the week before SLR Darnell dedicated his first win of the season to the late and great friend Callum McKeon.
Blogs Driver of the round: Raceroller22
Qualifying
1 RACEROLLER22 1:17.828
2 UKBEASTASSASSIN
3 SLR CECH
4 CRISPY2001
5 SLR DARNELL
6 MASONGAMMON05
7 J LEE MENZ
8 SLR SOUTHERNER
9 SLR BENNETT
10 OWENHOWELL36
11 LP SMOKE
12 OG JAMES 96
13 NONRIPELOKI
14 N1GHT RANG3R 95
15 BAGGIEFAN 1995
16 SLR VANDOORNE
17 SLR DODGY
18 SLR XHAKA
19 SLADNCID
20 SLR SEMM
Feature
1 RACEROLLER22 1:18.746
2 UKBEASTASSASSIN
3 CRISPY2001
4 SLR DARNELL
5 SLR SOUTHERNER
6 J LEE MENZ
7 SLR BENNETT
8 LP SMOKE
9 MASONGAMMON95
10 OWENHOWELL36
11 NONRIPELOKI
12 SLR DODGY
13 SLR VANDOORNE
14 BAGGIEFAN 1995
15 OG JAMES 96
16 N1GHT RANG3R 95
17 SLR CECH DNF
18 SLR XHAKA DNF
19 SLR SEMM DNF
20 SLADNCID DNF
Sprint
1 SLR DARNELL
2 SLR BENNETT
3 SLR SOUTHERNER
4 LP SMOKE
5 RACEROLLER22
6 SLR CECH
7 CRISPY2001
8 SLR DODGY
9 UKBEASTASSASSIN 1:19.309
10 Night Ranger
11 OwenHowell36
12 BAGGIEFAN 1995
13 MASONGAMMON05 + 5 SECS
14 SLR XHAKA DNF
15 SLR VANDOORNE DNF
16 OG JAMES 96 DNF
17 NONRIPELOKI DNF
18 J LEE MENZ DNF
19 SLR SEMM DNF
20 SLADNCID DNF
@OwenHowell36 vs @MasonGammon05 - cutting of driver, sprint race The stewards believe that masongammon does cut across Owen leading to wing damage, as a result the stewards will award a penalty.
5 seconds and 2Lp
@SLR Baggie vs @SLR Semm & @SLR Xhaka - Sprint Race, Lap 1 Improper use of ghosting.
3 seconds 1 LP to both drivers
@SLR Baggie vs @N1GHT RANG3R 95 - Sprint Race, lap 15 Improper use of ghosting.
3 seconds and 1 LP In both instances we believe that Baggie losses out because of ghosting being enabled, we have given the least possible penalty however because we appreciate how rare this situation is.
コメント