F1RWRS 2014 - ROUND 1 - TASMAN GP - Adelaide
Weather forecast:
PreQ: Wet
Q1: Humid
Q2: Dry
Race: Dry
PRE-QUALIFYING
Drivers in
bold qualified. In
Italic skip Round 2 PreQ
1. Phillippe Nicolas (MRT) -- 1.20.4462. Ron Mignolet (Acuri) -- 1.21.533 (+1.087)
3. Phoenix McAllister (Phoenix) -- 1.22.282 (+1.836)4. Nathanael Spencer (MRT) -- 1.22.568 (+2.122)5. The Stig (Phoenix) -- 1.23.429 (+2.983)6. Giovanni Roda (Trueba) -- 1.24.112 (+3.666)
7. Saeed Al Faisal (Mecha) -- 1.24.556 (+4.110)
8. James Davies (Mecha) -- 1.24.828 (+4.382)
9. Andrea Acuri (Acuri) -- 1.24.829 (+4.383)10. Hagane Shizuka (Shonan) -- 1.24.947 (+4.501)
11. Alexey Pchelintsev (Mitie) -- 1.25.148 (+4.702)
12. Matthias Valsattis (Mitie) -- 1.25.381 (+4.935)
13. Yu- Hiang Hao (Dofasco) -- 1.25.420 (+4.974)
14. Tomislaw Tajner (Dofasco) -- 1.25.901 (+5.455)
15. Fredo Mestolio (Trueba) -- 1.25.906 (+5.460)
16. Francois Albertini (Shonan) -- 1.26.025 (+5.579)
17. Miko Fakkinen (Tropico) -- 1.27.255 (+6.809)
18. Darren Older Jr (Tropico) -- 1.31.041 (+10.595)
QUALIFYING
Sunshine will have to face Pre-Qualifying in Bathurst instead of MRT as the worst team in Qualifying (Phoenix and Acuri did worse combined times, but they already are in Pre-Qualifying)
RACE
Nicolas managed to pass Spencer at the start, and Mark Dagnall passed Nathan Scott as well. Spencer was able to re-pass Nicolas at the end of the Brabham straight.
Soon both MRT´s gained a few seconds which allowed them to keep the top positions. Zimmer managed to pass Bosevic for 6th in lap 4. In lap 5, everything was going normal but Spencer went too agressive over a kerb and spun, falling to 14th!!
In lap 9, Whitechapel confirmed an excellent beggining by climbing up to 9th. Kay Lon had to pit to fix a problem with the brakes.
Lap 10 situation:
Spencer quickly recovered and by lap 12 he was already 7th, passing Bosevic for 6th in lap 14, but the first error was costing him too much time and, trying to go that extra inch he went wide at turn 1 in lap 15 and had to let pass loads of cars to safely go back into track and falling to 20th!
The three stoppers started to pit on lap 19. Christopherson stopped on lap 21, and when he came out, he did too slowly and Nathan Scott spun at the first corner to avoid crashing with him, but keeping 3rd place.
One lap later, Plaza was the very first man to retire in 2014. Most of the guys went for two, with MRT commiting a childish mistake and making lose Nicolas 4 secs at the stop on lap 29 while the team finished with Spencer. Steele spun and Dagnall came into the pits too, exiting around 11.5 secs behind Nicolas.
On lap 31 Scott spun while approaching the first chicane with the tyres cold after his pitstop and, trying to recover, Whitechapel ran into the back of the DGN and both drivers retired inmediately. Frank Zimmer´s GRM failed a few seconds before the incident, so both GRM´s were out in a few seconds lapse.
Few moments later, Kay Lon lost control of the Sunshine and had to pit for a new Front Wing. On lap 33, while running 5th, Spencer suffered an engine failure and had to retire:
Lap 40:
Next few laps were a bit boring at the front, with an interesting fight back between the 8th and 13th taking place for a chance of snapping one point later. There were not many surprises in the 2nd round of stops, while Phoenix McAllister retired on lap 55 when he had a chance to score. Moll and Mori were next to retire.
Kamaha´s disgrace weren´t complete, as Steele also retired on lap 68 and turned a simple retirement into a bizarre and dangerous incident. He kept his car running after the hairpin at the end of the Brabham straight in the middle of the road instead of parking anywhere. De Bock and Christopherson spun and then Mark Dagnall spun too, hitting Christopherson in the process and retiring the ex-F1 driver from his debut. Dagnall and De Bock were lucky enough to continue!
Lap 70:
That was not all, in the last few laps Watkinson had to pit to fix a problem, as well as Mark Dagnall. Davies and Bosevic also retired, losing a very good chance to score...
All in all, it was a great win for Nicolas, who was never put in danger by Mark Dagnall, and a very entertaining race at the middle of the pack with Katayama making good her three stop strategy although she wasn´t fast at the beggining and Watkinson and De Bock saving points after the incidents they suffered.
On the negative side, Sammy Jones never looked into the fight, and Kay Lon´s race was simply disastrous.
FASTEST LAP: Nathanael Spencer (MRT) -- 1.13.009
ROTR: Nicolas Steele - His dangerous maneouver caused a multiple accident and could have been very dangerous.
STANDINGS - After 1 race -
DRIVERS
1. Phillippe Nicolas - 10 pts
2. Mark Dagnall - 6 pts
3. Daniel Melrose - 4 pts
4. Shinobu Katayama - 3 pts
5. Ashley Watkinson - 2 pts
6. Thomas de Bock - 1 pt
CONSTRUCTORS
1. MRT - 10 pts
2. DGNgineering - 6 pts
3. Jones - 4 pts
4. Sunshine - 3 pts
5. HRT - 2 pts
6. Gillet - 1 pt
Tread lightly in ARWS. Every decision might be your last.