For the first time in three seasons SLR Formula 2 returns to France! The last time we raced here we only had to wait a few metres to have multiple car crashes….in fact this was the case for both races. We are now at round five of the season where things are really beginning to take shape in who are going to be our drivers for the hunt for the Formula 2 championship.
One Shot Quali: If he doesn’t invalidate his lap its a pole position and that was the case again for Crispy2001! He would clinch pole by half a tenth from SLR Darnell. In row two was fellow championship contender UKBeastAssassin and sharing the row with him was SLR Corey. SLR Charlie back in eleventh was your best Evo qualifier in a Quali where we saw seven drivers fail to set a time.
The Sprint. On reverse grid pole was Monkey followed by the ART Pairing of SLR Southerner and SLR Bennett. In the first few laps we saw spins from Division and UKBeastAssassin resulting in both falling down the field. Our biggest mover so far was that man again Crispy already making four places up to sixth. Raceroller in third was starting to create a train meaning the top two of Monkey and Southerner having a comfortable gap to fight for the win. Mid race saw a spin from SLR Darnell following contact with Crispy putting him outside the points with UKBeast….so far not a great day for the top guys in the standings. We saw a few DRS trains that made it difficult to overtake and this proved to be the case. In the remaining few laps we saw SLR Allen and SLR Bennett both retire and SLR Southerner take the lead from Monkey with a couple of laps to go but whilst also carrying a track exceeding penalty. The penalty proved costly as after a week of getting his first F2 podium Monkey now claims his first ever F2 win! He just pipped Crispy to the line in second with Raceroller taking third. Southerner dropped to fourth but was still able to finish ahead of Division, SLR Corey, UKBeastAssassin and SLR Dodgy who took the last point and the Evo Sprint win.
The Feature! Half the grid would start on the harder tyre which makes things even more interesting for the race. Away we went again and immediately the softer tyres showing their extra grip with Crispy rapidly stretching his lead after initially losing at the start and Division making his way through the hard running drivers within the top six. After the first few laps the top sixteen were all still relatively close together which is things you love to see. Laps four and five would be when we start to see our soft tyre runners making their stops as for the hard runners their pit window isn’t for another four/five laps. Amongst those laps we saw a great duel between title contenders UKBeast and Raceroller who would swap places for multiple laps with the ART of SLR Southerner lurking behind. The battles wasn’t just there though as looking as far down in thirteenth we had Baggiefan and SLR Xhaka having a scrap for position. Lap twelve there was massive drama! The leader has crashed! Crispy has chucked it into the barriers whilst being hunted down by SLR Darnell to bring out a late safety car! Darnell and UKBeast cant believe their luck! With a late safety car it now meant penalties had a huge part to play. On restart we had a two lap sprint with minimal on track change of position unless you look further backing seeing SLR Dodgy make up a couple of places. Across the line it was another win for SLR Darnell winning by under a second from UKBeastAssassin with Raceroller not far behind again finishing third showing great consistency as ever. SLR Corey finding more speed round by round finished fourth ahead of another brilliant drive from Evo feature winner SLR Dodgy! The dutch duo of Monkey and Division took sixth and seventh where also in eighth SLR Leah brilliantly scored his first ever SLR Formula 2 points! A penalty costing round for Southerner saw him take ninth with SLR Charlie taking tenth. Yet again we saw three Evo drivers taking official Formula 2 points.
The championship was now taking shape as it seemed once again it would be the same four drivers as last season fighting it out for the season 5 F2 title! With eight rounds to go so much more could yet happen….I mean SLR Southerner could throw himself into the mix?! Yeah good one. We will see you next week at Austria where hopefully on the third attempt we don’t have someone straight line turn one in the second race.
Blogs Driver of the Round: II Monkey II
QUALIFYING
1 CRISPY2001 1:40.468
2 SLR DARNELL
3 UKBEASTASSASSIN
4 SLR COREY
5 RACEROLLER22
6 J LEE MENZ
7 ll DIVISION ll
8 SLR BENNETT
9 SLR SOUTHERNER
10 ll MONKEYY ll
11 SLR CHARLIE1
12 SLR DODGY
13 SLR ALLEN
14 SLR MARSH
15 SLR XHAKA
16 BAGGIEFAN 1995
17 SLR LEAH
18 MASONGAMMON05
19 BCFCJOSH1232752
20 -
SPRINT
1 ll MONKEYY ll
2 CRISPY2001 1:42.674
3 RACEROLLER22
4 SLR SOUTHERNER
5 ll DIVISION ll
6 SLR COREY
7 UKBEASTASSASSIN
8 SLR DODGY
9 SLR DARNELL
10 SLR CHARLIE1
11 MASONGAMMON05
12 SLR MARSH
13 SLR LEAH
14 BAGGIEFAN 1995
15 SLR BENNETT
16 SLR ALLEN DNF
17 J LEE MENZ DNF
18 SLR XHAKA DNF
19 BCFCJOSH1232752 DNF
20 -
FEATURE
1 SLR DARNELL 1:41.942
2 UKBEASTASSASSIN
3 RACEROLLER22
4 SLR COREY
5 SLR DODGY
6 ll MONKEYY ll
7 ll DIVISION ll
8 SLR LEAH
9 SLR SOUTHERNER
10 SLR CHARLIE1
11 SLR MARSH
12 BAGGIEFAN 1995
13 SLR BENNETT
14 SLR XHAKA DNF
15 CRISPY2001 DNF
16 MASONGAMMON05 DNF
17 SLR ALLEN DNF
18 J LEE MENZ DNF
19 BCFCJOSH1232752 DNS
20 -
Baggiefan 1995 SLR Marsh vs SLR Xhaka Lap 1 - Feature
Verdict: Warnings + 1LP to SLR Xhaka
Reason: Warning to SLR Xhaka for making an aggression turn over to the right of the track with potentially not knowing that 2 cars are alongside him. 1 LP awarded to SLR Xhaka. Warning to SLR Marsh be more cautious when rejoining the track don’t join at an apex of a corner (turn 2).
SLR Dodgy vs MasonGammon05 Lap 3 - Feature
Verdict: Racing incident
Reason: MasonGammon05 makes a late move which causes the first point of contact as SLR Dodgy is turning in early for the corner. SLR Dodgy then turns out of the corner recognising that another driver is alongside but then turns back into the apex causing the second point of contact. MasonGammon then backs out and switches him back taking the place.
SLR Dodgy vs MasonGammon05 Lap 4 - Feature
Verdict: 5 seconds & 2 LP to MasonGammon05
SLR Dodgy is more than alongside going to the apex. MasonGammon05 turns to the apex of the corner resulting in spinning SLR Dodgy.
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