Clivio Durand wins and Daniel Moreno nearly clinches the championship. However, Williams declined to finish off Tom Douglas and the championship will go down to the final race of the season. The Constructors Championship has been decided in favor of Williams.
Positives:Clivio Durand: Talk about reviving one's career! Clivio was incredible around the A1-Ring and showed more speed in this race than in his entire season at Tyrrell. The only problem is that he blocked Daniel Moreno's hopes of winning the championship before the final round in Japan. Williams' decision to leave Durand out was not such a daft decision after Douglas' problems. In the post-race media scrum, Frank Williams, Herrmann Mann and Prince Walik all agreed that Durand deserved a victory for his stellar efforts over the season. It is strange that they employed team orders in Italy (that were eventually ignored) but decided against it when an even better situation arose in Austria. Ferrari had no compunctions when Kazuhiko Takagi pulled off the track after a "transmission problem" to let Douglas score some valuable points. Williams' decision was very noble but they might come to regret it if Douglas somehow wins the championship.
Daniel Moreno: To give context this train of thought, Daniel Moreno was in second place while Tom Douglas was making his mad charge back to the points. Even if Douglas failed to score, Moreno still needed to win the race to ensure a championship victory. His teammate, Clivio Durand, was right in front of him! If Durand moved over, Williams would still win the Constructors' title and Moreno would clinch the Drivers' title. The odds are still overwhelmingly in his (Moreno's) favor but... Well, F1 is "if" spelt backwards.
Damon Cannon: What?! Damon Cannon has clinched at least a top-six finish in the Drivers' Championship! In a Jordan! McLaren have now fallen one point behind Jordan for third in the Constructors'! How is this happening? It could have been worse for McLaren had Leonhard von Gottorp's car made it to the end. All credit to Cannon, of course, he has been one of the best drivers of the second half.
John Zimmer: For all the disappointment that Benetton has gone through this year, they still have an outside shot at third in the Constructors' Championship! Zimmer and Spokes have kept Benetton in contention despite having a clearly inferior chassis. Good on them. John Zimmer was the fastest driver in the field during the last third of the race, making up for a poor first stint (although he did lead two laps due to pit strategy).
Tom Douglas: Douglas dropps to fifth at the start. Soon, he makes his way back up to third but on Lap 7, Douglas sustains an electrical problem. Clivio Durand and Daniel Moreno are leading a Williams 1-2. As Douglas heads into the pits to fix the problem, he realizes that his championship challenge is all but over. Then, some screwy things happened. Firstly, Tom Douglas drove like a madman and he closed himself to within range of the points, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process. He passed Spokes and McAllister and was running in sixth before John Zimmer flew by in the Benetton. Kazuhiko Takagi was running in fourth for Ferrari. Ferrari pressed the strategic self-destruct button on Takagi's car and he retired with a transmission problem (oh, and there was really something wrong with the car Kaz, don't go and try to sue the team for race fixing). Now Douglas was up to sixth. Williams refused to let Moreno past to win the race, apparently leaving Douglas with an eight-point gap to make up in Japan. Then Leonhard von Gottorp's Jordan started spewing oil on the last lap of the race while the Jordan was in fourth, promoting Douglas to fifth! Thus, Douglas needs to win the race and have Moreno finish lower than fifth in Japan and Douglas could win the championship! This situation seemed totally out of reach on Lap 7, so I suppose the race was a positive for Douglas, although you'd think that he had the pace to overhaul the Williamses and win without the electrical problem. At least we have a final race title decider after three years of penultimate-race title deciders.
Yuuri Jougaseki, Johan Gustafsson and Frédéric-Maxime Voeckler: Firstly, Frédéric-Maxime Voeckler is too long to fit in GP2, so I got rid of an "e". Secondly, all three debutants drove fairly well. They all were engaged in a protracted battle in the opening stages with Gio van Dycke and Poppy Whitechapel that got very tense during the race. Then Megumi came up and took out Whitechapel, which ruined the fun. Gustafsson and Jougaseki both suffered from mechanical problems but Voeckler finished the race.
Negatives:James Davies: Can't blame the transmissions for this one. Davies spun off early in the race and had to fight his way back up the field. He was unable to make it to the points (unlike Douglas) and he crashed out with seven laps to go.
Rory McAllister: McAllister got lapped by Durand with three laps to go, lazily conceding defeat after a mediocre race. Of course, if McAllister stayed ahead, he would have scored a point thanks to von Gottorp's oil leak. Alas, it was not to be.
Andrew SpokesReiko Megumi: In the number-one car for the first time this season, Megumi was set up to succeed and score some points for Ligier. Instead, she spun off in the early stages of the race and collided with Poppy Whitechapel while trying to make her way back through the field later on. Reiko certainly chose a bad time to revert to her old ways and she only managed to finish eleventh, which would have been one spot ahead of Masta Valsattis if the electrics in Masta's car had kept running. In a relatively dull race with very few boneheaded moments,
Reiko Megumi earned her first
Reject of the Race of the year.
Notes:Poppy Whitechapel retired with a puncture four laps from the finish. Ben Fleet survived his car's bi-weekly attempt to force him out of the race by pitting for a new right front wheel on Lap 56.
Leaders:
Clivio Durand: 1-31
John Zimmer: 32-33
Clivio Durand: 34-
Penalties:
+1 to Reiko Megumi for causing an avoidable collision with Poppy Whitechapel
Drivers' Championship
1. Daniel Moreno - 65
2. Tom Douglas - 58
3. Pieter Kickert - 44
4. Damon Cannon - 34
5. Kazuhiko Takagi - 28
6. James Davies - 26
7. Andrew Spokes - 24
8. Rory McAllister - 19
9. Pablo da Silva - 18
=10 Masta Valsattis - 17
=10 John Zimmer - 17
12. Leonhard von Gottorp - 12
13. Clivio Durand - 10
14. Niko Nurminen - 6
15. Bernhard Pech - 4
16. James Allen - 3
=17 Stephano Baroncelli - 1
=17 Jorg Scrattenheim - 1
=17 Miko Fakkinen - 1
Constructors' Championship
1. Williams-Renault - 119
2. Ferrari - 86
3. Jordan-Peugeot - 46
4. McLaren-Mercedes - 45
5. Benetton-Renault - 41
6. Sauber-Petronas - 22
7. Ligier Mugen-Honda - 17
8. DAMS-Peugeot - 9
9. Arrows-Yamaha - 2
10. Minardi-Hart - 1
Penalty Standings
1. Robert Anderson - 14 (ban applied)
2 Jorg Scrattenheim - 6
=2 Samael Meerwick - 4
=2 John Zimmer - 4
=4 Poppy Whitechapel - 5
=4 Leonhard von Gottorp - 3
=4 Andrew Spokes - 3
=4 Siergiej Rozvadoskij - 3
=4 Martin McFry - 3
=4 Gio van Dycke - 3
=4 Tom Douglas - 3
=4 Bernhard Pech - 3
=4 Anton Kaliniczenko - 3
=13 Lawrence Tucker - 2
=13 Pieter Kickert - 2
=13 Massimiliano Patrese - 2
=13 Reiko Megumi - 2
=13 Rory McAllister - 2
=13 Pablo da SIlva - 2
=19 Niko Nurminen - 1
=19 Miko Fakkinen - 1
=19 James Allen - 1
=19 Jan van der Maeyede - 1
If that doesn't qualify him for REECCS I don't know what will! 
(See Tukki Shukinen at F1RDS for instance - his not-so-Finnish given name led him called Tuomas Shukinen instead 
(Unless Wizzie objects...)
At least he's in the right team. Anyway, I must fight so I won't lose. 
)
And why I made Anderson blame Rollock is that because I choose to develop a storyline where Rollock betrays Anderson. 
