A new dawn. A new season. A new era! SLR Formula 2 is back and is back for its fourth season. With more champions, new and returning drivers joining the series which now includes a new Evo Class the ingredients for this new season is absolutely mouth watering! With that said lets get started!
One Shot Quali! SLR F2 saw a new name on pole position and only the seventh driver to do so. SLR Darnell finally achieved his maiden pole after only just missing out on several occasions. What a lap it was also! Almost half a second quicker than anyone else. The closest to him would be teammate Crispy who makes his F2 debut to set up a UNI Virtuosi one two. On the second row is UKBeastAssassin in third followed by SLR Southerner. Reigning champion FRA Ham would start his race with no line in 5th. The Feature! Revs were up and away we went for the first time in SLR this season! Already some drama in the first few corners as debutant SLR Dodgy would miss his braking point colliding into the side of Southerners ART. At the front UKBeastAssassin would take the lead following a mistake from pole sitter Darnell on traction coming out of turn one. The front three of Beast, Darnell and Crispy would start to pull away from the rest of the pack potentially showing glimpses of what to expect for the season. Lap seven once the starting medium runners had made their stop we saw a change at the front where it seemed Crispy had made the jump on both drivers in front of him however like his teammate on the first lap a loss of traction would lose Crispy two positions undoing all his hard work. Darnell takes the lead. Lap 9 we started to see a proper battle at the front for two consecutive laps in sector one Beast and crispy would fight it out for second with the sole Charouz driver succeeding in defence but how long for? Whilst the two were battling FRA Ham would be catching up on the pair waiting for his chance. Meanwhile further back season one champion FRA Jam and Van Doorne would be enjoying a great battle for a net sixth swapping places. Back at the front Darnell had created a three second lead which wouldn’t be enough for victory as the race leader was carrying a five second penalty following a pit lane speeding infringement. Despite increasing the gap it wasn’t to be as despite crossing the line first Darnell would completely fall out of the podium positions. On his F2 debut Crispy would win just pipping UKBeastAssassin! UKBeastAssassin would score Charouz first F2 podium since the late SLR McKeon. FRA Ham would find great late race pace to secure the last podium slot breaking the heart of Darnell. Raceroller would come home fifth ahead of Jam, Van Doorne and Bennett. In ninth was NonRipeLoki who would also win the first race of the Evo Class and taking the last points scoring position was J Lee Menz who made the alternative strategy work.
The Sprint! Bennett would start in reverse grid pole from fellow Division one driver Van Doorne. Row two we had FRA Jam and Raceroller. Away we went again and two drivers this time missed their braking point going into turn one which resulted in multiple contact with drivers…..two being UKBeastAssassin and once again Southerner. In sector two there was even more contact. A collision between Van Doorne and Jam would result in the Prema driver veering off into the path of Darnell who would end up facing the wrong way which also cruelly resulted in teammate Crispy crashing into him resulting in BOTH drivers retiring! Quite the contrast between the races for the UNI pair. For the first time this season we saw the safety car. Lap four we were off again where it wasn’t Hams greatest of restarts as was under pressure from Loki. The Carlin driver would look to the outside in turn one but all went down the drain following a driver hitting him from behind resulting in damage. Lap 4 it was mental absolutely everywhere i don’t know where to start. Bennett at the front is making his car as wide as a bus keeping behind Van Doorne and Ham…..until the last corner where a mistake from the MP driver made it easy going for Van Doorne. Lap 8 soon after Ham would pass Bennett for second he would also take first from Van Doorne which would set up a tasty last few laps. Come the finish it was a case of no line no problem for reigning F2 champion Ham as the Dams driver would withstand the pressure from Van Doorne to take yet another win. Third would be Southerner from SLR Dodgy who would win the Evo Class Sprint. Bennett had to settle for fifth after cruelly losing connection whilst comfortably in third. It would’ve been a deserved podium for the Season five Division two champion. Beast would finish sixth ahead of Raceroller who recovered from a spin with Semm provisionally finishing eighth.
Thats the curtain opener for the new SLR season for you. A bit rusty from some of our drivers but I’m sure now things are now underway that will soon iron out…….i hope. Next
Next up for Formula 2 is Spain in a couple of weeks time for when once again revs are up!
Blogs driver of the round: SLR Van Doorne
Qualifying
1 SLR DARNELL 1:37.768
2 CRISPY2001
3 UKBEASTASSASSIN
4 SLR SOUTHERNER
5 FRA HAM19
6 RACEROLLER22
7 FRA JAM40
8 MASONGAMMON05
9 SLR DODGY
10 SLR BENNETT
11 SLR XHAKA
12 NONRIPELOKI
13 J LEE MENZ
14 SLR HYPERZ
15 LP SMOKE
16 N1GHT RANG3R 95
17 SLR ALLEN
18 SLR VANDOORNE
19 SLR SEMM
20 BAGGIEFAN 1995
Feature
1 CRISPY2001
2 UKBEASTASSASSIN
3 FRA HAM19 1:39.913
4 SLR DARNELL
5 RACEROLLER22
6 FRA JAM40
7 SLR VANDOORNE
8 SLR BENNETT
9 NONRIPELOKI
10 J LEE MENZ
11 N1GHT RANG3R 95
12 SLR HYPERZ
13 SLR ALLEN
14 SLR SOUTHERNER
15 LP SMOKE
16 SLR DODGY 5 SECS
17 SLR XHAKA
18 BAGGIEFAN 1995
19 SLR SEMM
20 MASONGAMMON05
SLR Southerner vs SLR Dodgy Lap 1
Outcome: 5 sec 2LP SLR Dodgy
Reason: The stewards believe that SLR Dodgy brakes late, braking as late as possible ( we believe he would make the corner but would have run wide) the move on the inside is not on with the gap shrinking as SLR Southerner turns to meet the apex, he then proceeds to use SLR Southerner to slow.
Sprint
1 FRA HAM19
2 SLR VANDOORNE 1:39.926
3 SLR SOUTHERNER
4 SLR DODGY
5 SLR BENNETT
6 UKBEASTASSASSIN
7 RACEROLLER22
8 SLR SEMM
9 NONRIPELOKI
10 LP SMOKE
11 SLR XHAKA
12 SLR ALLEN
13 MASONGAMMON05 10 SECS
14 SLR HYPERZ
15 J LEE MENZ
16 FRA JAM40
17 BAGGIEFAN 1995 DNF
18 N1GHT RANG3R 95 DNF
19 CRISPY2001 DNF
20 SLR DARNELL DNF
UKBeastAssassin vs SLR Hyperz Lap 1
Outcome: No action
Reason: From the given footage, the stewards see SLR Hyperz missing his braking point resulting in hitting both Crispy2001 and UKBeastAssassin. However from the evidence provided to the stewards, the stewards cant make up if anything happened to the drivers involved. Therefor no penalty will be given.
SLR Southerner vs SLR Semm Lap 1
Outcome: Racing incident
Reason: After the stewards received both drivers POVs. There can only be one simple conclusion and that is that SLR Semm didn't do anything wrong, he broke on time and made the corner. Therefor this incident will go down as a racing incident.
SLR Southerner vs MasonGammon Lap 5
Outcome: 10 sec 3LP MasonGammon
Reason: Going into turns 9-10 MasonGammon hits SLR Southerner on the rear resulting into SLR Southerner gaining lots of speed. And therefor nearly colliding with many other drivers. This is a really dangerous maneuver from MasonGammon, which could have been much worse than it is now.
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