For the first time in SLR Formula 2 we head to Saudi Arabia where the nature of its very fast never ending twist and turns with the walls ever so close make it an absolute joy for our drivers on the grid today. They are well and truly treated as this round marks the last of the three triple race rounds of the season. This round could see Crispy and DAMS win their retrospective championships should the results go their way.
One shot Quali! SLR Corey took his second F2 pole of the season with a gap of a couple of tenths to reigning champion Raceroller. UKBeastAssassin was third whilst the title contenders Crispy2001 and SLR Darnell where fourth and fifth. In sixth was your best Evo Qualifier in SLR Dodgy.
Sprint Race one! Ads040 was on reverse grid pole with Monkey second. Behind in row two were BcFc Josh and SLR Southerner. Away we went apart from Monkey who seemed to stall on the line to drop a handful of places. Took til sector two for another twist in the title battle as some desperate racing from SLR Darnell resulted in the HWA driver facing the wrong way after contact with Crispy. By lap three Josh had taken the lead and found himself extending the gap putting him in a great position to bounce back from last weeks sprint race. Dodgy found himself in second with behind Ads beginning to fall and Crispy beginning to rise! It gets from bad to worse for SLR Darnell as he crashes and is out! Contact with his reserve teammate has given Crispy a massive step towards the title! The constant close battle for points led to some interesting racing resulting in a few drivers racing with broken front wings. UKBeast, Raceroller and SLR Corey to name a few after getting involved in incidents with each other. With three laps to go Josh has a two and a half second lead! Is he going to do it?! Dodgy and Crispy trying to catch but to no success! BcFc Josh is an SLR Formula 2 race winner and becomes the second ever Evo driver to win an official Formula 2 race! Dodgy claims his first ever F2 podium to make it an Evo one - two and Crispy has to settle for third. SLR Southerner finishes fourth ahead of SLR Corey, Raceroller, Para Quickz and UKBeast who take the rest of the points.
Sprint Race two! For the second sprint J Lee Menz was your pole man alongside SLR Bennett. UKBeast and Para Quickz were behind on the second row. Despite a lot of bumper cars in the first lap there were no casualties. By the end of lap one UKBeast had already taken the lead and began pulling a gap. Lap three we witnessed chaos as contact between SLR Bennett and SLR Corey send both drivers round and the following corner Crispy did also potentially being distracted by it all throwing again another twist in the title battle. SLR Darnell was making great progress from last already finding himself up to ninth after four laps hoping to take advantage of the situation. Winding forward a few laps UKBeast has a three second lead. The battle on track was for fourth. Para, Josh, Southerner and Darnell all fighting for the position. Darnell would take them all in what was looking like a cracking recovery drive. Ahead the podium slots looked all settled with sizeable gaps separating each driver. Raceroller would begin a late charge to close in on Beast but it wasn’t enough as the MP Motorsport driver takes another win with Raceroller settling for second. J Lee Menz is back on the podium once again then we have a gap to fourth where BcFc Josh continued his brilliant form this round to fend off the threat of SLR Southerner taking the Evo sprint win in the process. Darnell would fall to sixth via penalties but still managed to finish ahead of Para Quickz and SLR Corey who take the last points scoring positions.
The Feature! Away we went and immediately Raceroller snatches the lead from pole sitter Corey. OwenHowell is caught up in an incident with a spinning Menz in turn three to make a bad round torrid for the Prema driver. Your front three were your soft starters in Raceroller, Corey and Crispy. Just behind were Darnell and UKBeast clinging on with the medium tyres. The pitstop window was wide open because of the nature of the tyres at this track so we saw drivers pit early and we also saw drivers like Southerner pit with four laps to go. Lap eleven after making his stop for the softer tyres Darnell was able to catch the front runners and pass them all! He made a double overtake from third to first on in what was proving to be another brilliant race for the HWA who knew he had to get everything out of the car for his title chances. He would then continue his form to pull away but he don’t make it easy for himself as he picks up a time penalty with two laps to go! Corey was now your only driver in the top four penalty free. Can Darnell pull the gap enough to seal a crucial win? He doesn’t and by the finest of margins also! 0.070! This sport can be so cruel. SLR Corey takes his first ever SLR F2 win and Darnell has to still take a respectable second place but what could’ve been! UKBeast claims third after Raceroller and championship leader Crispy fall due to penalties. SLR Dodgy was your Evo feature winner in sixth just able to fend off a late storming charge from SLR Southerner. Para Quickz ends this round with an eighth with the last remaining points going to Evo drivers! SLR Marsh scores points again in ninth and Ads this time does score his first F2 points. What a day for our Evo drivers.
Team DAMS would seal their constructors championship so massive congratulations to II Division II and Crispy. The latter claiming his second constructors title and the first to win back to back constructor titles in SLR F2 history. We head into the last round next week in Abu Dhabi with the gap at the top at provisionally twenty three points. Next week we will be crowning a new SLR Formula 2 champion. A fifth different championship winner in five seasons. Who will it be between Crispy and SLR Darnell?! History awaits for one.
Blogs Driver of the Round: BcFc Josh
QUALIFYING
1 SLR COREY 1:38.297
2 RACEROLLER22
3 UKBEASTASSASSIN
4 CRISPY2001
5 SLR DARNELL
6 SLR DODGY
7 SLR SOUTHERNER
8 BCFCJOSH1232752
9 ll MONKEYY ll
10 ADS040
11 MASONGAMMON05
12 J LEE MENZ
13 SLR MARSH
14 OWENHOWELL36
15 SLR BENNETT
16 PARA QUICKZ
17 SLR JAMES96
18 BAGGIEFAN 1995
19 SHUTMEDAL
20 ll DIVISION ll
SPRINT 1
1 BCFCJOSH1232752
2 SLR DODGY
3 CRISPY2001 1:40.407
4 SLR SOUTHERNER
5 SLR COREY
6 RACEROLLER22
7 PARA QUICKZ
8 UKBEASTASSASSIN
9 SLR BENNETT
10 J LEE MENZ
11 SLR MARSH
12 ADS040
13 SLR JAMES96
14 ll MONKEYY ll
15 MASONGAMMON05
16 BAGGIEFAN 1995
17 SHUTMEDAL
18 OWENHOWELL36
19 ll DIVISION ll
20 SLR DARNELL DNF
UKBeastAssassin vs SLR Corey Lap 5 - Sprint 1
Verdict: NFA
UKBeastAssassin car drifts to the left what happens afterwards is down to poor contact system which results in Corey picking up wing damage.
SPRINT 2
1 UKBEASTASSASSIN
2 RACEROLLER22
3 J LEE MENZ
4 BCFCJOSH1232752
5 SLR SOUTHERNER
6 SLR DARNELL 1:39.973
7 PARA QUICKZ
8 SLR COREY
9 ll MONKEYY ll
10 ll DIVISION ll
11 SLR DODGY
12 SLR JAMES96
13 SLR MARSH
14 MASONGAMMON05
15 CRISPY2001
16 BAGGIEFAN 1995
17 OWENHOWELL36
18 SHUTMEDAL DNF
19 ADS040 DNF
20 SLR BENNETT DNF
FEATURE
1 SLR COREY
2 SLR DARNELL 1:40.150
3 UKBEASTASSASSIN
4 RACEROLLER22
5 CRISPY2001
6 SLR DODGY
7 SLR SOUTHERNER
8 PARA QUICKZ
9 SLR MARSH
10 ADS040
11 SHUTMEDAL
12 BAGGIEFAN 1995
13 ll MONKEYY ll
14 SLR BENNETT
15 OWENHOWELL36
16 J LEE MENZ + 10 SECS
17 ll DIVISION ll DNF
18 MASONGAMMON05 DNF
19 BCFCJOSH1232752 DNF
20 SLR JAMES96 DNF
OwenHowell36 vs J Lee Menz Lap 1 - Feature
Verdict: 10 second + 1 LP to J Lee Menz
J Lee Menz through driver error collects OwenHowell36 causing him damage to his front wing.
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