F1RWRS 2014 - ROUND 8 - BRITISH GP - BRANDS HATCH
Weather report:
PreQ - Rain
Q1 - Light Rain
Q2 - Dry
Race - Light Rain
PRE-QUALIFYING (Drivers in
bold go into Qualifying)
1. Phoenix McAllister (Phoenix) -- 1.17.405
2. Ron Mignolet (Acuri) -- 1.18.028 (+0.623)3. James Davies (Mecha) -- 1.18.983 (+1.578)
4. David Koczo (Trueba) -- 1.19.036 (+1.631)
5. Gary Cameron (Prospec) -- 1.19.117 (+1.712)
6. Sebastian Groves (Dofasco) -- 1.19.470 (+2.065)7. Matthias Valsattis (Mitie) -- 1.19.593 (+2.188)
8. Tomislaw Tajner (Dofasco) -- 1.19.837 (+2.432)9. Andrea Acuri (Acuri) -- 1.20.164 (+2.759)10. David Neuberg (Mitie) -- 1.20.203 (+2.798)
11. The Stig (Phoenix) -- 1.20.294 (+2.889)12. Francois Albertini (Shonan) -- 1.20.888 (+3.483)
13. Jean Luc Schiller (Prospec) -- 1.20.926 (+3.521)
14. Dave Simpson (Trueba) -- 1.20.932 (+3.527)
15. Saeed Al Faisal (Mecha) -- 1.20.936 (+3.531)
16. Gio Van Dycke (Shonan) -- 1.22.392 (+4.987)
17. Miko Fakkinen (Tropico) -- 1.23.153 (+5.749)
18. Darren Older Jr (Tropico) -- 1.25.981 (+8.576)
* Phoenix will skip Pre-Qualifying at Round 9
QUALIFYING
* ARC will have to Pre-Qualify at Round 9
STARTING GRID
RACE
So, mid season has passed and we´re living the contrary situation as last year: We have no clear candidates for the title despite two teams being clearly ahead of the rest, and everything thanks to the extreme unreliability they´re suffering or stupid accidents like the one Spencer suffered in Bathurst or the one by Dagnall in Monaco. The thing is the championship is now wide open.
Despite the rainfall, the plot in Brands Hatch was similar to the last few races: A MRT driver starts dominating, then retires and gives the lead to Dagnall, who proceeds to smash the competition until his car stops or suffers an stupid accident, this time being the first. Then, the best of the rest comes out and takes the win against all odds. This time this fortunate man was Thomas de Bock. Perhaps not so fortunate because both Gillet drivers were extremely fast all weekend, but there were two determinant factors contributing to his win: The first one is that Nicolas Steele retired mid-race. The Kamaha driver proved very determined to get the first win for the team, specially with his agressive move over Ben Fleet, but couldn´t get to the end. Same can be said of Barii Mori, having started last, the Japanese drove amazingly until his car stopped: He was already heading for a podium place then. The other factor contributing to De Bock´s win was Ron Mignolet´s Acuri suffering a brakes problem a few laps to the end. While the Sanmarinese mechanics managed to fix it and Mignolet finished an amazing 3rd, the fact it Mignolet was faster than De Bock and only a little bit of power prevented him to pass De Bock. Whether he´d managed to finally get the win or not, his problem robbed us the spectators of the climax of the battle between both.
The other underdog having a fantastic weekend was The Stig: specially motivated by having his Top Gear mates watching him; he qualified with ease for the first time this season and drove a very solid race which put him in a final 4th. Very much needed points for Phoenix and a shot of morale for the Red Bull sponsored outfit. We can also mark as positive the performance of Mirko Bosevic; having spun in the first lap at Druids, he recovered and patiently moved through the field to pass Sammy Jones in the final moments for the last point.
On a not-so-possitive side, we got an incredibly dull race pace from Nathanael Spencer: He qualified a distant 11th, could only get in the hunt for points because of the retirements ahead, and was embarrasingly passed by drivers in cars clearly slower than his. I bet he doesn´t like rainy conditions as much as we do. Another to have had a bad weekend is Jack Christopherson. He had an ultimatum by Pippa Mann to score points by the end of this race and failed to even come close of it at his home race. A bad way to end his stint at the team, compared to the efforts of Douglas Mann. We end the review with Daniel Martins, who scored the only retirement because of an accident (Sebastian Groves and Daniel Melrose both suffered accidents from mechanical issues, so we won´t count them) and with ARC; although Jesus Plaza started the race in 10th position and looking for points, his car only lasted one and a half lap on track. That, paired with the failure Fredo Mestolio suffered at qualifying on Saturday (preventing him to making to the grid) makes for a well deserved Reject of the race award.
Bosevic spins
Martins accident
Steele moving for 2nd
RESULTS
Fastest lap: Mark Dagnall (DGNgineering) -- 1.14.226
ROTR: ARC - Dismal weekend, one DNQ and packed too early on sunday afternoon.
DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP (After Round 8)
1. Mark Dagnall - 28 pts
2. Thomas de Bock - 23 pts
3. Nathanael Spencer - 20 pts
4. Shinobu Katayama - 15 pts
=. Daniel Melrose - 15 pts
=. Douglas Mann - 15 pts
7. Nicolas Steele - 14 pts
=. Aurelien Moll - 14 pts
9. Sammy Jones - 12 pts
10. Phillippe Nicolas - 10 pts
11. Frank Zimmer - 8 pts
=. Mirko Bosevic - 8 pts
13. Ron Mignolet - 7 pts
14. Barii Mori - 6 pts
15. Rhys Davies - 4 pts
16. The Stig - 3 pts
17. Ashley Watkinson - 2 pts
18. Jesus Plaza - 1 pt
=. Daniel Martins - 1 pt
=. Ben Fleet - 1 pt
CONSTRUCTORS
1. Gillet - 37 pts
2. MRT - 30 pts
3. DGNgineering - 29 pts
4. Jones - 27 pts
5. Kamaha - 20 pts
6. Sunshine - 15 pts
=. Foxdale - 15 pts
8. Arrowtech - 9 pts
9. GRM - 8 pts
10. Acuri - 7 pts
11. HRT - 6 pts
12. Phoenix - 3 pts
13. ARC - 1 pt
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