F1RWRS 2014 - ROUND 14/16 - MACAU GP
Weather Report:
PreQ: Wet
Q1: Light Rain
Q2: Dry
Race: Wet
PRE-QUALIFYING (in
bold drivers going into main qualifying)
1. Ron Mignolet (Acuri) -- 2.06.461
2. Poppy Whitechapel (GRM) -- 2.07.905 (+1.444)3. David Koczo (Trueba Alitalia) -- 2.09.017 (+2.556)
4. David Neuberg (Mitie) -- 2.09.055 (+2.594)5. Andrea Acuri (Acuri) -- 2.09.476 (+3.015)
6. Frank Zimmer (GRM) -- 2.10.175 (+3.714)7. Sebastian Groves (Dofasco) -- 2.10.581 (+4.100)
8. Jean Luc Schiller (Prospec) -- 2.11.264 (+4.803)
9. James Davies (Mecha) -- 2.11.529 (+5.068)
10. Matthias Valsattis (Mitie) -- 2.11.566 (+5.105)11. Tomislaw Tajner (Dofasco) -- 2.11.839 (+5.378)
12. Francois Albertini (Shonan) -- 2.12.415 (+5.954)
13. Steven Mackintosh (Mecha) -- 2.12.532 (+6.071)
14. Darren Older Jr (Trueba Alitalia) -- 2.13.966 (+7.505)
15. Miko Fakkinen (Tropico) -- 2.14.502 (+8.041)
16. Du Lei (Prospec) -- 2.15.475 (+9.014)
17. Gio Van Dycke (Shonan) -- 2.17.546 (+11.085)
18. Leonhard Von Gottorp (Tropico) -- 2.17.626 (+11.165)
QUALIFYING
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RACE
Right now, every team in the midfield must be asking for rain every race from now on. Not that everyone left Macau with their pockets full of points, but the sensation is chances are way higher if water is present. If not, ask Shinobu Katayama who, after a very irregular season, managed a perfect weekend to claim a very much welcome win, a win which will help her achieve the 3rd place in the drivers championship. It was a great demo of how to adapt to the circumstances (changing weather during qualifying and a good ammount of rain before and during the first half of the race). Her battle for the win with Nicolas Steele was a hot one and it lastes almost until the end when the Kamaha gave up. meaning Steele is now a little bit behind and needs two very strong results to claim the bronze medal. Meanwhile, the championship battle is still very much undecided; Phillippe Nicolas never drove like he was about to win, although he managed to lead for a while, and then a problem meant he fell way behind Katayama and Steele for the last part of the race; Mark Dagnall had more of a tough weekend after a terrible qualifying but, on race day he seemed like a totally different driver. It´s obvious the DGN driver improves on race day, but this time his performance was like night and day; after spinning and pitting early in the race he managed to storm back to 3rd, a very impressive feat having in count he had to cut over one minute his gap to Ben Fleet! The DGN has also proved it´s more reliable in this last stint of the season and it could prove crucial in the two races left. Our kudos as well to Pippa Mann, who managed a decent race to the points making this a very well celebrated GP in the female part of the paddock.
On the negative side we saw both Gillets binning it very early in the race, Kay Lon being too slow in race day to round the result for Sunshine or Jesus Plaza having to retire when on points hunting once again, but Sammy Jones had to listen on the radio how he´ll have to face an expensive repair bill for Melrose´s car before spinning at the last corner on its own and then blaming Mestolio when the italian had nowhere to go to avoid the CJR-103 is enough to claim ROTR.
Now, the next race in Shanghai at least promises to leave us all at the border of a heart attack to see who claims the championship. Anything can happen. Stay tuned.
RESULTS
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PICS
Mori crashing
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Start
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1st lap crash
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Steele leading for a while
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DGN´s running togethere, and for once in the same lap towards the end of the race
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Bosevic crashing
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Steele nearly binned it here
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CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Drivers
1. Mark Dagnall - 52 pts
2. Phillippe Nicolas - 46 pts
3. Shinobu Katayama - 34 pts
4. Nicolas Steele - 26 pts
5. 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. Ron Mignolet - 11 pts
13. Kay Lon - 10 pts
=. Ben Fleet - 10 pts
15. Mirko Bosevic - 9 pts
16. Frank Zimmer - 8 pts
17. Pippa Mann - 6 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 - 66 pts
2. DGNgineering - 62 pts
3. Gillet - 45 pts
4. Jones - 44 pts
=. Sunshine - 44 pts
6. Kamaha - 39 pts
7. Foxdale - 21 pts
8. Arrowtech - 12 pts
9. Acuri - 11 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.