Round two of the SLR Formula 2 season takes us to sunny Spain! Well this round wasn’t quite all sunny to say the least. All the drivers were eager to get back into these beauties after a week off last week. One Shot Quail! After claiming his first ever F2 Pole last time out in Bahrain it was a case of London buses for SLR Darnell as he made it two in a row. Gap much closer this time round. FRA Ham would just miss out to start second and Raceroller would start third all separated by less than 0.075. Crispy would complete row two with SLR Southerner and SLR Dodgy behind in row three. The latter being the highest placed Evo Class Qualifier. The Feature! Away we went for this round anyway at a sunny Spain. Not many changes at all at the front only really at the back where we already saw incidents involving multiple drivers. OG James and Semm were involved to name a few. We saw a great start from UKBeastAssassin who made his way up eleven places within the first lap to already make up for a poor qualifying. Another driver to look at who made a great start on the alternate strategy was SLR Cech. Took until lap three to really see our first bit of drama where we saw FRA Jam spin on the outside left kerb going round the quick right hander in sector two straight into the wall to end his race very early. Back at the front it remained unchanged. Beasts progress was halted because of the presence of SLR Van Doorne. However Beast would get the job done a few laps before the pit stop phase. Lap eight all the runners who started on the softs had made their stop. Overcut seemed more effective as the overall gap between the top seven had closed up. Ham would initially make the jump on Raceroller through the pit stop phase however going into turn one Raceroller would get the place back. Cech would be leading yet to pit on his hard tyres. A lap later we saw SLR Darnell drop from first to fourth following a trip to the gravel after losing traction……another win lost? Six laps and another close shave from retirement from Darnell later we saw race leader Cech finally make his stop onto a fresh set of softs. Raceroller for the remaining laps would withstand all the pressure from Ham behind to take his first ever F2 Feature win. Ham would come home second to claim his fiftieth F2 podium and Crispy for third. The mistake was costly again for Darnell who had to swallow a fourth ahead of brother Southerner who withstood a late charge from UKBeastAssassin. Van Doorne, MasonGammon, Cech and Bennett would collect the rest of the points with Cech in the process taking fastest lap and the points to go with it. SLR Dodgy would finish eleventh to win the feature race of the Evo Class. The Sprint! For the sprint we lined up with MasonGammon on pole sharing the front row with SLR Van Doorne with UKBeastAssassin and SLR Southerner behind on row two. Away we went once again at this time a very soaked Spain. No drama of sorts at turn one but a few corners later we saw what seemed a collision between the Prema pairing of Jam and OwenHowell putting to bed any chance of a good race for the two. Jam would then retire soon after being thankful to get away from this round. We saw another spinner seconds later where contact between Mason and Darnell sends the Sprint pole sitter round to drop like a stone. On the first lap we saw Van Doorne already clearing off seeming to really like the wet conditions until later on a mistake leading to off-roading on the gravel to close the gap right up and even loses place resulting in F2 veteran UKBeast to take the lead. During this we saw Crispy, Darnell and Ham make up places at the expense of Southerner who seemed to struggle very early on. Lap 6 we had two races going on. We had the top eight all separated by a second within each other and we had the Baggie train all fighting for twelfth. The mistake earlier from Van Doorne would prove costly as it dropped him from first to fourth…..like Darnell the race before. For the remaining few laps you could throw a blanket over the top four they were so close. Can Beast keep his bottle? The answer was yes! On the eighty fourth attempt UKBeastAssassin finally becomes an SLR Formula 2 winner!!! Limbs! The UNI pairing of Crispy and Darnell would complete the podium with the latter finally claiming his first podium of the season. Southerner and Raceroller would jump two places to fourth and fifth following time pens for Ham and Van Doorne who had to settle for sixth and seventh. SLR Cech would claim the last points scoring position in what seemed a very lonely race. J Lee Menz would finish ninth to win the Evo Class sprint race. Four races and four different winners with still some big names to claim a win this season. We predicted a close and competitive season and the early signs are good! Up next is Monaco where god for bid I hope its kind to us pad players. Blogs driver of the round: UKBeastAssassin
1 SLR Darnell
2 FRA HAM19
3 RACEROLLER22
4 CRISPY2001
5 SLR SOUTHERNER
6 SLR DODGY
7 OWENHOWELL36
8 SLR VANDOORNE
9 FRA JAM40
10 J LEE MENZ
11 OG JAMES 96
12 SLR SEMM
13 BAGGIEFAN 1995
14 N1GHT RANG3R 95
15 SLR BENNETT
16 SLR COLDEN
17 SLR RUSSELL
18 UKBEASTASSASSIN
19 MASONGAMMON05
20 SLR CECH
Feature
1 RACEROLLER22
2 FRA HAM19
3 CRISPY2001
4 SLR DARNELL
5 SLR SOUTHERNER
6 UKBEASTASSASSIN
7 SLR VANDOORNE
8 MASONGAMMON05
9 SLR CECH 1:28.054
10 SLR BENNETT
11 SLR DODGY
12 BAGGIEFAN 1995
13 SLR SEMM
14 OWENHOWELL36
15 OG JAMES 96
16 N1GHT RANG3R 95
17 J LEE MENZ
18 SLR COLDEN DNF
19 FRA JAM40 DNF
20 SLR RUSSELL DSQ
NIGHT RANGER vs SLR Semm
Outcome: No further action
Reason: Whilst semm did lose control of his car leading to crash it is not an offense that can be penalised and therefor its no further action
Sprint
1 UKBEASTASSASSIN
2 CRISPY2001
3 SLR DARNELL
4 SLR SOUTHERNER
5 RACEROLLER22
6 FRA HAM19 1:40.211
7 SLR VANDOORNE
8 SLR CECH
9 J LEE MENZ
10 SLR DODGY
11 SLR BENNETT
12 MASONGAMMON05
13 BAGGIEFAN 1995
14 SLR COLDEN
15 OG JAMES 96
16 N1GHT RANG3R 95
17 OWENHOWELL36
18 FRA JAM40 DNF
19 SLR SEMM DNF
20 SLR RUSSELL DSQ
OG James vs NIGTH RANGER vs SLR Bennett
Outcome: Racing Incident
Reason: We believe that this is a racing incident and is for the most part unlucky, with the space closing on original, he has to place his car in a vunreble position (half o the grass)- With original going off track to try and pass after a great start his rejoining is what led to the incident - neither of the two battling nor original could have known each others presence.
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