We arrive in Shanghai China for round 10 of the season where we are closing in on the end of the SLR F2 season. Qualifying saw BRT Griffiths snatch pole position by 3 tenths to championship leader SLR Corey.
The sprint would get underway with UKBeastAssassin on reverse grid pole, but SLR Southerner didn’t wait long to make his way into the lead. A huge pile up on the opening lap would see 5 or even 6 cars facing the wrong way. A great opening lap for BRT Griffiths, making his way up to 3rd after the first lap. Griffiths didn’t take long though, another lap later he would fly past UKBeastAssassin and SLR Southerner to take the lead already!!! The Carlin vs Virtousi for the constructors championship battle would continue again into this weekend. Corey vs Benster after both colliding last week, this week Corey slides his way past Benster and then teammate Semm would be straight onto the back of Benster, they would collide but thankfully Semm would only lose out 1 position to EVVO. The two championship protagonists of Corey and Ham would go wheel to wheel again with Corey eventually get the move done on the back straight and up into 4th place for the Virtuosi driver. The two Carlins would swap around with Benster moving up to 5th place past teammate Ham with Benster looking the quicker of the Carlins this weekend hoping to take some points off Virtousi. Into the closing stages of the race Corey with DRS would go down the inside of SLR Southerner and make his way up into 2nd place. BRT Griffiths would cross the line to absolutely destroy the field in the sprint race, going from 10th to 1st and getting fastest lap in the process. But the battle for the rest of the podium was still on, but Corey would hold on for 2nd place, Southerner with a excellent effort to hold off Benster would take the last podium place with Benster having to settle for 4th.
Finally, the long-awaited feature race is upon us, BRT Griffiths on pole, SLR Corey alongside. The dream opening lap for the pole sitter, 1.5 second lead over SLR Corey who was doing all his best to hold off the Carlin of Benster (get the popcorn ready ladies and gents). Great opening few laps for the reining EVO champ SLR Charlie up to 8th place from 13th. A spin for Semm after contact would see the virtuosi round and how critical could this be for the constructors championship. Speaking of the constructors championship the real battle for the race victory (Griffiths was leading by 5 seconds after 5 laps….) Corey vs Benster is probably going to be the most used words in this report, both drivers going side by side where a Dallara F2 car probably shouldn’t be going side by side, but we did it anyway. An early pitstop for SLR Corey on lap 8 would see the championship leader try and use the undercut to stay ahead of Benster. A nightmare feature race for 2nd place man in the championship SLR Ham would retire in the pits. Corey’s undercut would see him 4 seconds ahead of Benster now but with Benster on 3 lap younger tyres, we could see an unreal end to the feature race (definitely not foreshowing anything here….) BRT Griffiths would cross the line to complete a dominant weekend in China. 39 points available and all 39 points go to BRT Griffiths. Now, after France I didn’t expect this to happen again, but this is SLR F2 so the craziest of things happen. Final lap and Benster would be all over the back of Corey for 2nd going into turn 4 Benster would overtake Corey round the outside, but the long back straight Corey was not going to give this one up, side by side towards the final corner, slight contact between the two but just line Corey and Griffiths at Le Castellet, Corey and Benster would be side by side towards the line with Benster taking the victory and just like in France its 0.006 the gap. An unbelievable ending to a stunning race here in Shanghai.
3 round to go now in the championship, SLR Corey could win the title next time out in Austin if he outscored SLR Ham by 9 points, but we’ve seen before how quickly a championship can begin to fade away in the closing races. Virtuosi close the gap to Carlin to 22 points after this weekend another titanic battle which could go right down to the wire.
Blogs driver of the round: BRT Griffiths – Griffiths right from when he left the garage to begin one shot qualifying showed absolutely no signs of being off the pace this weekend. Taking pole position, climbing through to win the sprint and showing his dominance in the feature and picking up both FL in the process. A F2 grand slam for the MP Motorsport driver
Until next time, have a good one folks.
As you were, CM x
Qualifying:
1 BRT Griffiths 1.41.556
2 SLR Corey
3 Benster2413
4 F1ABQW3RTYY
5 SemmF1
6 SLR EVVO
7 SLR Ham19
8 SLR Medal2533
9 SLR Southerner
10 UKBeastAssassin
11 J Lee Menz
12 Para Quickz
13 SLR CHARLIE1
14 SLR Allen
15 SLR Bennett3810
16 dRaSt1k bLazE
17 SLR Dodgy
18 WTurn3r
19 SLR Mash
20 OwenHowell36
21 SLR Ranga
POLE BRT Griffiths 1.41.556
Sprint Race:
1 BRT Griffiths 1.43.977
2 SLR Corey
3 SLR Southerner
4 SLR Ham19
5 UKBeastAssassin
6 Benster2413 10s + 2LP
7 SLR Medal2533
8 Para Quickz
9 SLR Allen
10 SLR Mash
11 F1ABQW3RTYY
12 SLR CHARLIE1
13 SLR Dodgy
14 J Lee Menz
15 dRaSt1k bLazE
16 OwenHowell36
17 SLR EVVO
18 SemmF1
19 WTurn3r 5s + 1LP
20 SLR Ranga DNF
21 SLR Bennett3810 DNF
Fastest Lap: BRT Griffiths 1.43.977
OwenHowell36 v WTurn3r
Lap 3 - Sprint
Verdict: 5 second and 1 LP to WTurn3r
Rejoin is fine. WTurn3r loses the rear and OwenHowell is unfortunately an innocent bystander.
Pt2. At the hairpin Turner hits Owen into a half spin.
SemmF1 vs Benster2413
Lap 5 - Sprint
Verdict: 5 second and 1 LP to Benster2413
Benster had pushed to pass semm resulting him in losing a further 2 positions.
UKBeastAssassin vs Benster2413
Lap 8 - Sprint
Verdict: 5 second and 1 LP to Benster2413
Benster2413 hits into the rear of UKBeastAssassin causing him to spin round.
Feature Race:
1 BRT Griffiths 1.42.724
2 Benster2413
3 SLR Corey
4 F1ABQW3RTYY
5 SLR Southerner
6 SLR Medal2533 5s + 1LP
7 SemmF1
8 UKBeastAssassin
9 SLR CHARLIE1
10 Para Quickz
11 OwenHowell36
12 WTurn3r
13 SLR Dodgy
14 SLR EVVO
15 SLR Allen
16 dRaSt1k bLazE
17 SLR Mash
18 SLR Ham19 DNF
19 J Lee Menz DNF
20 SLR Ranga DNF
21 SLR Ranga DNF
Fastest Lap: BRT Griffiths 1.42.724
SLR Southerner SLR Ham19 vs SLR Medal2533
Lap 1 - Feature
Verdict: 5 and 1 LP to SLR Medal2533
SLR Medal2533 goes for an optimistic move resulting in doing so SLR Southerner has to take avoiding action and spinning SLR Ham19
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