Round eleven of the SLR Formula 2 season took us to Singapore where personally for many weeks I have been dreading it being a long night......and it was! For more reasons than one. Nevertheless lets gets started!
One shot Quali! In a heavy rain one shot Quali we saw HamJam take Pole by over a second! Teammate and championship rival JamHam would take second who was also a second ahead of the next qualifier in SLR Semm who looked very handy in the wet. Joining him on the second row was F2 debutant Schumacher20 who looked to impress who qualified ahead of SLR Mckeon and SLR Darnell who would line up on row three.
The Feature! In what would be the only dry session of the round revs were up and away went went! Ham would keep the lead going into turn one however teammate JamHam would drop to third via Semm after suffering pulling away from the grid starting on the harder tyre. Turn four we saw our first bit of drama where contact between JamHam and Mckeon caused a domino affect which multiple drivers ended up with damaged front wings....one of those being Schumacher20. After three laps Ham already released the pin by pulling out a three second gap from Semm who was managing to keep the other ART driver behind. Two laps later we saw Jam finally get the move done however the gap had now extended to eight seconds! Semm now had to deal with keeping the likes of UKBeastAssassin, SLR Darnell and Raceroller behind. Wind forward after all the pitstops Bennett would be our biggest winner on the alternate strategy coming out in seventh just behind SLR Southerner. JamHam who also used the same strategy would come out a couple of seconds behind UKBeastAssassin in third who would then a lap later take the place off. The battle for fourth between Darnell and Raceroller concluded as the DAMS driver spun on traction fortunate not to suffer any major damage. The scot was now in a different battle in the face of Bennett and Southerner. Come the finish we saw HamJam take the win by almost sixteen seconds! JamHam would complete yet another ART one-two and indeed the constructors championship with three and a half rounds to go! In third would be UKBeastAssasin who takes the final podium spot. Darnell would take fourth. Bennett would finish fifth in what was a very impressive drive from the MP driver. Behind taking up the remaining points places would be Raceroller, Southerner, Semm, SLR Scopezz who would score his first points since round two and OwenHowell would take tenth for his first point of the season. On lap nine of the feature we saw season two Champion ZyDRAD retire in the pits and indeed Formula 2 following work commitments. We bid farewell to our Champion and cant thank him enough for what he has done on and off the track. He will be missed.
The Sprint! In heavy wet conditions it was Semm on reverse grid pole hoping to find the same form in the same conditions in one shot Quali. Joining him on the second row was Southerner who would start ahead of Raceroller and Bennett on row two. Away we went in a very wet sprint. Semm would remain in the lead going into turn one followed by Raceroller who got the jump on Southerner off the line. Once again turn four we saw an incident. This time being the Arden of J Lee Menz who was sent round. Lap four the intense battle we saw between the top three was reduced to the top two as contact at the end of the back straight between Southerner and Raceroller sent the Carlin driver spinning dropping down to ninth and out of contention for the win. Could Semm hold on for the win? Lap seven we saw a first where ART teammates JamHam and HamJam would make contact where you could say it was fortunate that there wasn’t a bad outcome. They are human after all! Last lap and Raceroller is all over Semm but could he make the move? He does going round the last corner but Semm still just pips it by 0.043 despite both drivers making contact across the line to pick up his first ever Formula 2 win on his 50th Formula 2 race! Another cracking drive for the MP Motorsport driver. JamHam would take the final podium spot. Southerner would recover from his spin to finish fourth ahead of UKBeastAssassin and SLR Mckeon who would finish sixth despite starting all the way back in sixteenth. HamJam would drop from fourth to seventh through penalties and taking the final points spot would be Darnell.
That concludes the Formula 2 round at Singapore! Up next to round off the last of our seven back to back races its Russia where its safe to say most drivers will have more fun driving round. We see you there where the saga continues.
OFFICIAL WARNING TO RACEROLLER22 FOR REACHING 6LP
-SLR Southerner
Qualifying
1 HAMJAM2002 2:08.459
2 XX JAMHAM XX
3 SLR SEMM
4 SCHUMACHER20
5 SLR MCKEON
6 SLR DARNELL
7 UKBEASTASSASSIN
8 RACEROLLER22
9 BENNETT628
10 ETSUKO6595
11 OWENHOWELL36
12 J LEE MENZ
13 SLR SCOPEZZ
14 BAGGIEFAN 116 SLR SOUTHERNER
17 N1GHT RANG3R 95
18 SLR RANGA
19 ZYDRAD
Feature
1 HAMJAM2002
2 XX JAMHAM XX 1:51.502
3 UKBEASTASSASSIN
4 SLR DARNELL
5 BENNETT628
6 RACEROLLER22
7 SLR SOUTHERNER
8 SLR SEMM
9 SLR SCOPEZZ
10 OWENHOWELL36
11 J LEE MENZ
12 ETSUKO6595
13 SLR RANGA
14 N1GHT RANG3R 95
15 BAGGIEFAN1995
16 SLR MCKEON DNF
17 ZYDRAD DNF
18 SLR TEDDY DNF
19 SCHUMACHER20 DNF
Sprint
1 SLR SEMM
2 XX JAMHAM XX
3 SLR SOUTHERNER
4 RACEROLLER22 2:10.331
5 HAMJAM2002
6 UKBEASTASSASSIN
7 SLR MCKEON
8 SLR DARNELL
9 J LEE MENZ
10 ETSUKO6595
11 BAGGIEFAN 1995
12 BENNETT628
13 N1GHT RANG3R 95
14 OWENHOWELL36
15 SLR RANGA DNF QUALI BAN
16 SLR TEDDY DNF
17 SCHUMACHER20 DNF
18 SLR SCOPEZZ DNF
Ham - 5 second penalty removal (Sprint Lap 1) and 5 second penalty removal (Sprint lap 12)
Outcome: Both 5 second penalties to stand
Reason: Unfortunately safety car penalties are the only penalties in this league which can be removed. Penalties like these which Ham experienced cannot be removed.
SLR Southerner Vs Raceroller22 - spinning another car (sprint lap 4)
Outcome: 10 seconds + 2LP for roller
Reason: Raceroller slightly outbrakes himself and therefore hits the back of Southerner and spins him out. We have however took the dreadful conditions into account and slightly reduced the penalty.
SLR ranga - Readying up on grid early
Outcome: Qualifying ban and 5LP
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