After a long five week break SLR Formula 2 is back! With three rounds to go mathematically the title could still be won by five different drivers. Raceroller22 would be your championship leader with a 46 point gap to Crispy2001. Just behind him was UKBeastAssassin and SLR Darnell. The fifth driver was a very distant SLR Southerner where if the ART driver would fail to get a first ever Pole position then it would be down to four. The constructors today could be sealed by the UNI Virtuosi pairing of Crispy and Darnell if they were to score at least 25 points. Meanwhile the Evo Class Championship battle between Campos drivers SLR Dodgy and J Lee Menz looks set to go to the wire as they have been neck and neck almost through the whole season. Gap is 5 points.
One Shot Quali! It was a first ever F2 pole position for Charouz driver UKBeastAssassin who resumed his blistering form from the previous round at Russia. The rest of the top four in qualifying was filled by the top four in the standings but the order being Crispy, Raceroller and Darnell. SLR Dodgy was the highest Evo qualifier starting in seventh. Only four drivers could now win the F2 title!
The Feature! Away we went and for the front four it remained the same going through the first set of corners. Darnells fourth position became under threat from II Division II but the Hitech driver suffered a blow following contact with UNI driver going through sector two almost sending him into the wall. The front four began to stretch all separated by a second to each other with Midzy and Cech looming behind. Evo battle was close with Evo title rivals Menz and Dodgy finding themselves dancing all race with each other with a few appearances from other drivers….early on it was SLR Bennett. We soon began to see track exceeding penalties which for a track like Mexico plays a massive part. Lap six we saw contact between F2 title rivals Crispy and Raceroller both getting away without damage but the heat was on! Up front Beast had built a 2.5 second lead. As we approached the pit stop phase Raceroller would in the end take the place from Crispy. The undercut proved to be very affective as most of the drivers found out. Raceroller had managed to close the gap completely to race leader UKBeastAssassin to put the pressure on. For the remainder of the race the top four would be separated by just two seconds but it was the man in fifth Midzy who was looking very good maintaining his great pace without a single penalty. Penalties did play a crucial role as Crispy would be the man to come out on top to win the feature which also secured the Season 4 Constructors Championship! Midzy achieved his first ever SLR F2 podium in second with UKBeast taking the last podium spot. Championship leader Raceroller finished fourth just ahead of Darnell. SLR Cech was a bit further back in sixth with Division in a race of his own in seventh. J Lee Menz finished eighth to also claim a crucial Feature Evo Class win ahead of Mason Gammon and SLR Dodgy.
The Sprint! J Lee Menz starts on reverse grid pole sharing the front row with Division. Back in row two was Cech and Darnell. Away we went and there was plenty of drama at the start! Going into turn one we had five cars side by side, SLR Marsh had a brake failure to completely straight line the first turn but amazingly was able to avoid everyone. Into the second turn we saw contact where Menz was cruelly spun round after being sandwiched by UKBeastAssassin and SLR Darnell. We saw a VSC because of all that happened which also included PrimusGamings first sprint race ending within a minute. Once we resumed it was Darnell, Beast and Cech at the front. For the next few laps the top two would swap places once or twice and Cech would fall back. Further back this time the other Campos driver SLR Dodgy is now facing the wrong way but fortunately without damage after contact with Crispy to provide another twist in the Evo title battle. The safety car makes an appearance after OwenHowell and SLR Xhaka both crash and retire at the same time on different parts of the track. Some drivers took advantage of this to put on the softer tyres used in qualifying hoping the extra grip will catapult them up the order. After the restart all the elbows were out and we saw lots of banging wheels most notably from the battle between Cech and Bennett which unfortunately resulted in the Carlin driver receiving damage ending hopes of a strong finish. Coming out of the last corner we also later saw Menz lose traction to yet again throw another twist in the Evo Class title battle. Back up the front Beast remained in the lead but was carrying a penalty which would prove costly. Darnell would make it a double UNI win to take the sprint ahead of Raceroller. Midzy would make it a double podium scoring round to finish off an impressive showing from the Mckeon championship leader. Beast despite crossing the line first had to settle for fourth ahead of feature winner Crispy and SLR Bennett. Division would take seventh with the last points scoring position going to SLR Southerner whose pace seemed very distant. In ninth SLR Dodgy managed to recover to take the Sprint Evo win.
Thats one Championship sealed. Once the driver drawer was done it seemed very predictable of who will conquer but the UNI pairing of Crispy and Darnell didn’t crack under the pressure, worked well as a team and got the job done to become Champions within SLR Formula 2. SLR Dodgy would stretch his lead in the battle for the Evo Class Championship with Racerollers lead also slightly decreasing in the main Championship however still had a very healthy lead of about 41 points. Both titles could be decided by this time next week when we head to Brazil!
Blogs Driver of the Round: Midzy15
Qualifying
1 UKBEASTASSASSIN 1:23:380
2 CRISPY2001
3 RACEROLLER22
4 SLR DARNELL
5 ll DIVISION ll
6 MIDZY15
7 SLR DODGY
8 SLR CECH
9 SLR XHAKA
10 J LEE MENZ
11 SLR BENNETT
12 SLR MARSH
13 OG JAMES 96
14 BAGGIEFAN 1995
15 N1GHT RANG3R 95
16 OWENHOWELL36
17 MASONGAMMON05
18 SLR SOUTHERNER
Feature
1 CRISPY2001
2 MIDZY15
3 UKBEASTASSASSIN
4 RACEROLLER22 1:24.573
5 SLR DARNELL
6 SLR CECH
7 ll DIVISION ll
8 J LEE MENZ
9 MASONGAMMON05
10 SLR DODGY
11 SLR BENNETT
12 SLR SOUTHERNER
13 OWENHOWELL36
14 OG JAMES 96
15 SLR XHAKA
16 SLR MARSH
17 PRIMUSGAMING
18 N1GHT RANG3R 95
19 BAGGIEFAN 1995
20 -
Sprint
1 SLR DARNELL 1:25.035
2 RACEROLLER22
3 MIDZY15
4 UKBEASTASSASSIN
5 CRISPY2001
6 SLR BENNETT
7 ll DIVISION ll
8 SLR SOUTHERNER
9 SLR DODGY
10 OG JAMES 96
11 MASONGAMMON05
12 J LEE MENZ
13 BAGGIEFAN 1995
14 N1GHT RANG3R 95
15 SLR CECH DNF
16 OWENHOWELL36 DNF
17 SLR XHAKA DNF
18 SLR MARSH DNF
19 PRIMUSGAMING DNF
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