F1RWRS 2014 - ROUND 13/16 - NORTH SEA GP - Zandvoort
Weather report:
PreQ: Dry
Q1: Light Rain
Q2: Light Rain
Race: Dry
PRE-QUALIFYING (in
bold drivers going into main qualifying)
1. Frank Zimmer (GRM) -- 1.24.744
2. Phoenix McAllister (Phoenix) -- 1.25.108 (+0.364)
3. The Stig (Phoenix) -- 1.25.298 (+0.554)4. James Davies (Mecha) -- 1.25.984 (+1.240)
5. David Koczo (Trueba) -- 1.25.985 (+1.241)
6. Gary Cameron (Prospec) -- 1.26.227 (+1.483)
7. Poppy Whitechapel (GRM) -- 1.26.427 (+1.683)8. Tomislaw Tajner (Dofasco) -- 1.26.506 (+1.762)
9. Jean Luc Schiller (Prospec) -- 1.26.512 (+1.768)10. David Neuberg (Mitie) -- 1.26.883 (+2.139)
11. Gio Van Dycke (Shonan) -- 1.26.918 (+2.174)
12. Matthias Valsattis (Mitie) -- 1.27.399 (+2.655)
13. Steven Mackintosh (Mecha) -- 1.27.432 (+2.688)
14. Francois Albertini (Shonan) -- 1.27.963 (+3.219)
15. Darren Older Jr (Trueba) -- 1.28.081 (+3.337)
16. Miko Fakkinen (Tropico) -- 1.28.283 (+3.539)
17. Sebastian Groves (Dofasco) -- 1.28.320 (+3.576)
18. Leonhard Van Gottorp (Tropico) -- 1.29.410 (+4.666)
** Phoenix will skip Pre-Qualifying at Round 14.
QUALIFYING
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** Acuri will Pre-Qualify at Round 14
RACE
3 races to go and we´re almost back to square one, basically because although there´s one dominating team around (MRT), the unreliability they and their main rivals DGN have suffered all along the year makes it really unpredictable who´ll win the championship, becuase we thought after Cyprus, with just another Dagnall win, that the championship was settled, but another race on and conditions went all to favour Phillippe Nicolas and here we are again. It´s going to be three very tense races, next one being at Macau. Anything can happen.
The race for the win, with Spencer and Dagnall retiring within seconds, was already decided at Lap 6, not even when Nicolas destroyed his front wing in an off-track excursion his win was in danger, even if he slipped back to 3rd, but, behind him, we witnessed great battles all along the grid, with loads of overtaking, drivers coming from or slipping to the back. Specially good was to see Barii Mori have one of those rare weekends everything worked in his favour to battle Thomas de Bock, in the end the Gillet driver retired in a dreadful race for the Belgian team, but it was entertaining watching both drivers interchange positions with Douglas Mann. Kudos as well to Kay Lon, who seems definitely back on track with another podium finish which will help him save his dented reputation. Good race for Jones as well and both Arrowtech drivers, although they were definitely favoured by Jesus Plaza and Dean O´Lauchlan retirements near the end. The case of the mexican is specially sad as he seems to be fond of this track and points would have been important to ARC regarding entering the Top 10 in constructors. Last year he retired in last lap while leading and this year was in the quest for points.
On the negative side there´s loads of drivers who seemed to compete for being the slowest teammate, Ben Fleet, Aurelien Moll, Shinobu Katayama, Daniel Melrose, Nicolas Steele and Pippa Mann did everything to go completely unnoticed. Ben Fleet squeezed from 5th on grid, to a distant 7th in the end after having been passed by both Phoenix. Moll fought in the middle of the pack until his Gillet gave up. Shinobu Katayama did a fantastic start only to drop positions as fast as she gained them. Daniel Melrose´s weekend was specially bad as seen by Jone´s pace and couldn´t get on grip with his car all weekend, only finishing in front of Frank Zimmer as the GRM driver had to pit with a problem early in the race and for that he earns the ROTR award. Our wonderful 6 is completed by Nicolas Steele, who seemed to drive a completely different car to that of Barii Mori, and Pippa Mann, who did the most anonymous race of the weekend.
PICS OF THE RACE
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Dagnall passing Nicolas
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Spencer and Dagnall on the way out
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Mori passing De Bock
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Lon on fight
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Mann retiring
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Nicolas on final lap
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RESULTS
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CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS --After 13 Races--
Drivers
1. Mark Dagnall - 48 pts
2. Phillippe Nicolas - 40 pts
3. Nicolas Steele - 26 pts
4. Shinobu Katayama - 24 pts
=. Thomas de Bock - 24 pts
6. Daniel Melrose - 23 pts
7. Aurelien Moll - 21 pts
=. Sammy Jones - 21 pts
9. Nathanael Spencer - 20 pts
10. Douglas Mann - 15 pts
11. Barii Mori - 13 pts
12. Kay Lon - 10 pts
13. Ron Mignolet - 9 pts
=. Mirko Bosevic - 9 pts
15. Frank Zimmer - 8 pts
16. Ben Fleet - 7 pts
17. Pippa Mann - 5 pts
18. Rhys Davies - 4 pts
19. The Stig - 3 pts
=. Daniel Martins - 3 pts
21. Ashley Watkinson - 2 pts
22. Jesus Plaza - 1 pt
=. Jean-Luc Schiller - 1 pt
CONSTRUCTORS
1. MRT - 60 pts
2. DGNgineering - 55 pts
3. Gillet - 45 pts
4. Jones - 44 pts
5. Kamaha - 39 pts
6. Sunshine - 34 pts
7. Foxdale - 20 pts
8. Arrowtech - 12 pts
9. Acuri - 9 pts
10. GRM - 8 pts
11. HRT - 6 pts
12. Phoenix - 3 pts
13. ARC - 1 pt
=. Prospec - 1 pt
Tread lightly in ARWS. Every decision might be your last.