P. Hopkins takes victory in eventful South City drive
After the longest track of the season, the OWRL F1 circus headed to one of the trickiest, shortest and slowest one: South City Long.
If first and fourth place runners of round 1, Sascha Riegler and Tommy Ostgaard from Sonicrealms A didn't show up, they got replaced nicely. Indeed, spdo Racing made a remarked return, with 2009 and 2010 champion Adam Wisniewski alongside Matias Pikkarainen.
Results
Standings (pdf)
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The latter two immediately topped the timing sheets: Wisniewski got the fastest time in Q1 in front of team-mate Pikkarainen. The order was inverted in Q2, as Pikkarainen took his first ever OWRL F1 pole, 8 tenths in front of his team-mate, probably while being on very small fuel load. Cattell was coming in 3rd, in front of Naselli, Southword and Hopkins.
Only one spdo car was on the front row at the start, though. Pikkarainen had to leave before the start, leaving Wisniewski alone up front. The Polish driver would keep the lead at the start, while the top 5 would remain unchanged at lap 1. Best mover would be White Tiger Express' Claudia Ciobanu, moving from 12th to 6th. Meanwhile, a pile-up would occur behind, with as main victims the two Redline cars, and ineX Racing's Joe Holmes(replacing Teemu Iivonen for round 2). Redline's Benoit would even retire a few laps later: a real disastrous season start for the Frenchman.
The top 6 would remain unchanged during the first stint: Wisniewski, Cattell, Naselli, Southword, Hopkins, and Ciobanu. Pete Hopkins would be the only mover during the first wave of pitstop, jumping from 5th to 3rd thanks to a longer first stint than his rivals.
The race was a bit difficult to follow up front, with Adam Wisniewski, the only man on 3 stops, trying to beat Simon Cattell on 2. Sadly we would never know if the reigning champion's gamble would have paid off: the Polish retired right after his final stop, for unknown reasons. This seemed to be a golden opportunity for Cattell to take the victory, but Hopkins managed to get back on the ineX driver, cutting the gap to only 2 seconds at 10 laps to go. Unfortunately Cattell then had a left rear puncture, leaving Hopkins all alone up front. It wasn't getting any better for the ineX driver, who speeded in the pitlane while changing his punctured tyre, and dropped to 6th after a stop and go penalty.
He wasn't the only one to suffer from punctures though. Claudia Ciobanu blew both of her rear tires from 5th place earlier, and then timed-out before she managed to reach the pits. A disappointing ending to a strong race.
The race wasn't all over up front, as a last minute drama touched the field: a vast server crash, kicking many people out. Maurizio Naselli won on track, after the leading group was decimated. However, after a short confusion, it was decided to take results from before the crash. This meant that Pete Hopkins would take his first ever OWRL F1, at his 19th attempt. His team-mate Dave Southword comes 2nd(after leapfrogging Naselli at the pits), on front of Maurizio Naselli, taking his second 3rd place in 2 races. Holmes is 4th with a brilliant climb after being caught in the turn 1 pile-up. Oliver Feistkorn takes 5th for Berlin Fun Agency 1, at his league racing debuts. The final points positions are taken by Cattell, Laprevotte, Oravisjärvi, Tkachenko and Jundt.
Hopkins now takes the championship lead aswell, after a second place and a win. Naselli and Riegler follow in 2nd and 3rd, 13 and 18 points behind. At the teams' championship, Sonicrealms B leads with 61 points, 24 points in front of Sonicrealms A, Playerzone Italia and ineX Racing, all grouped in 7 points.
Next round is on Sunday 19th June at Westhill International Reversed, a fast, floawing and rather unforgiving venue.
