F2 is back ladies, gents and Boeing 747s, we arrive in Portugal for Round 3 of season 8 where after a week out in Jeddah BRT Griffiths returns to poor position by over a second to SLR Ham and SLR Corey rounding out the top 3 in the Rodin Carlin.
The sprint race saw some of the worst conditions we’ve probably ever seen in SLR F2 so a pure race of attrition around the Algarve International Circuit. It was SLR Allen in the virtuosi on reverse grid pole with SquashyCheese stepping into the Rodin Carlin this evening on the front row. Lights were out (not like we could see them) and everyone was trundling away from the line. A poor start for Allen would see him drop down the order with SquashyCheese taking the lead but not for long with the ever improved F1ABQW3RTYYY sliding his way into the lead. SLR Southerner who impressed last season in wet conditions was impressing yet again today by gaining the lead of the race slicing his way past F1ABQW3RTYYY’s MP. Some drivers opted to pit in the race due to high tyre wear but a lot of the front runners gambled with staying out, which would prove to be the right call? Championship leader BRT Griffiths was up to 3rd by the 5th lap (nothing new there) and was closing in on the top 2 with rapid pace, and not long after would be into the lead passing Southerner and F1ABQW3RTYYY and looking for another F2 grand slam. It would definitely look like it would be on as Griffiths would win the sprint race with the experienced man of SLR Southerner finishing 2nd adding to his impressive tally of podiums and F1ABQW3RTYYY picking up the final podium spot claiming his first F2 podium and its a sprint race to remember for MP as SLR Medal comes home 4th.
The feature race would return to dry conditions and a mix of strategies throughout the grid to spice it up later on in the race. A great getaway from Griffiths but Ham was not going to let him get away that quickly as he opted to go for the soft tyres hoping for an early advantage. With Ham pitting a lot earlier due to being on the softs Griffiths had no pressure from behind for now but SLR Corey and SLR Medal would give us some great entertainment for P2 (it didn’t quite end up like it did in Jeddah, Sorry Medal x) but SLR Corey would hold off the MP of Medal all the way to the pitstop with Corey picking up a speeding penalty which would drop him down the order. But a SC due to debris saw the rest of the field pit and the gap Griffiths had and was constantly growing was now down to nothing and had to do it all over again. We would get back underway with 3 laps to go and Griffiths would put a huge gap on SLR Medal straight away out of DRS risk with SLR Mash looking for back to back Feature race podiums up in 3rd. But Griffiths would complete yet another grand slam ny winning the feature race with one of the ever growing stars of the season SLR Medal finishing 2nd and SLR Mash making it back to back feature race podiums and showing that the Evo drivers have what it takes to fight up against the very best in this division.
Griffiths would extend his lead in the championship to 12 points to SLR Medal with the constructors championship also heating up with Campos retaking the lead of VAR but only by 2 points. A great weekend for Marsh and F1ABQW3RTYY with 2 of our evo drivers picking up podiums with 2 very impressive drives.
Next time out we head to the Circuit De Barcelona, Catalunya where it can always bring up a surprise result or an SLR Darnell masterclass
Until then, take care everyone and see you all in Spain.
Blogs driver of the round – SLR Marsh: Last round in Saudi Arabia was one to remember for Marsh picking up a feature race podium and clearly gave him some extra momentum and determination into this weekend. Qualifying P8 and brining it home 6th in the sprint and 3rd in the feature SLR Marsh is showing that the EVO class drivers have the potential to fight with the very best this division has to offer.
Qualifying result:
1 BRT Griffiths 1:26.545
2 SLR Ham19
3 SLR Corey
4 SLR Medal2533
5 UKBeastAssassin
6 F1ABQW3RTYYY
7 SLR Southerner
8 SLR Mash
9 SquashyCheese62
10 SLR Allen
11 SLR Bennett3810
12 SLR Jam40
13 HuskySaturn1943
14 SLR James96
15 EchoPW94
16 OwenHowell36
17 Coupe a Benz
18 Para Quickz
19 BaggieFan1995
Sprint Race Result:
Fastest Lap: 1:42.548 - BRT Griffiths
1 BRT Griffiths 1:42.548
2 SLR Southerner
3 F1ABQW3RTYYY
4 SLR Medal2533
5 UKBeastAssassin
6 SLR Mash
7 SLR Bennett3810
8 Para Quickz
9 BaggieFan1995
10 SLR James96
11 SLR Corey
12 SLR Ham19
13 SLR Jam40
14 SLR Allen
15 SquashyCheese62
16 Coupe a Benz
17 EchoPW94
18 HuskySaturn1943
19 OwenHowell36
Feature Race Result:
Fastest Lap: 1:28.089 - BRT Griffiths
1 BRT Griffiths 1:28.089
2 SLR Medal2533
3 SLR Mash
4 SLR Southerner
5 UKBeastAssassin
6 SLR Ham19
7 SLR Corey
8 SLR Allen
9 F1ABQW3RTYYY
10 OwenHowell36
11 SquashyCheese62
12 Coupe a Benz
13 SLR James96
14 BaggieFan1995
15 HuskySaturn1943
16 Para Quickz
17 SLR Jam40
18 SLR Bennett3810 DNF
19 EchoPW94 DNF 2LP
Echo v HuskySaturn
Lap 16 - Feature Race
Opinion - NFA for the incident, 2LP to Echo for the unsafe rejoin
The contact is caused by what initially happened at T2 where Echo has lunged it down the inside and knocking Husky off line. Because of this Husky comes into the corner at a completely different line to Echo and the lines just intersected on the exit of the next corner.
Warning to Echo for lunge/divebomb. 2 LP for unsafe rejoin straight to the racing line after the incident. Reiterating that even with ghosting off you still have to take care of the way you rejoin to the track.
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