Monday,17th October
17:30 UTC / 19:30 CET / 20:30 EET
The only trip outside England marks the middle of the season - this also marks the point of championship where decision will fall who will still be in the hunt for drivers championship and who will just race for single round pride and help team or nation to gather points for collective effort. Currently series has a distinctive leader,who can increase his lead to raise chance of securing title before season finale,but even in simulator this is a technical sport - technologies have still the margin of error with influencing consequences,so nothing has been decided yet!
The Caribbean island has it's own unique track - Fern Bay differs from all other LFS environments with it's specifics and therefor has it's own challenges. The Gold configuration is 3.5 kilometers long and it's required to circle the track 57 times to complete VERL nominal race distance of 200 kilometers. The first attempt did not succeed and due low attendance the race distance was halved as per ruling,so this might be the 1st ever actual Caribbean 200. The configuration includes plenty of challenging sections,requiring both precise handling and throttle control - faster turns are quite dependant of aerodynamic help,so rather high downforce setups are expected from drivers.
Another great performance by Fatal tonight at the V8 Racing League 2022!
Third win in a row, lapping almost everybody on the field, except for Rony,great P2 for RG! Unite completes today's podium in P3, after some masculine fighting with RG's Lorenzo in P4. ZFRL Motimoukari completes the Top 5!
As report says - Unite simply cuts over grass patch in order to pass,which is clear illegal passing situation.
PENALTIES:
S1DUS*uNite - receives 10 seconds penalty added to his finish time for illegal pass on lap 15. Repeated offence will lead to higher penalty.
S1DUS*uNite - receives a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct after the race finish (deliberate crashing). Repeated offence will lead to actual penalty.
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Seems like even in virtual world teams are having trouble to ship their cars to Caribbean as once again the Jamaican round had a significant attendance drop. At least there were 9 drivers ready to tackle the challenge and we had the first actual Caribbean 200 as the first try 2 years ago technically was Caribbean 100 due shortened distance. Fern Bay as usually brought a difficult task to complete the race distance with the tricky VERL car,barely anyone finished without mistakes.
Once again Fatal did not have real competition - he was the fastest through whole raceday,setting 1.7 seconds faster laptime in qualifying than closest rival,while he never saw anyone from behind except for lapping. Another full set of round points in his account also in 3rd round of the season. Rony was the best of the rest in this race,barely escaping lapping just before own final lap - 2nd place for the other front row starter. Unite was actually the only one to break out of order - everyone else finished in same order as they qualified. He started 7th and advanced 4 positions during the race (one not legally,luckily for him without actual consequences for now) to finish on 3rd position,but already one lap down.
The situation after the middle round now shows all the cans and cant's - theoretically only 6 drivers are now eligible for drivers champion title,practically even less,as Fatal leads standings by 24 points over Unite,meaning he needs no not let to outscore him in next round to grant the title already before final round,assuming both closest followers won't outscore leader by more than 7 points. These are Rony and Thehemuli,who both are tied in points,where the latvian is ahead due better highest qualifying position. In the 2-men battle for rookie of the year award Motimoukari broke away from his rival by 4 points,increasing his lead to 6 points.
Teams championship is the venue for biggest intrigue this season - Fragmaster took over the lead and has a new rival in form of RGA,which is just 2 points behind,defending champions S1dus now are demoted from lead to 3rd position with 7 points gap,closelly followed by team which fielded 1/3 of the 3rd round's field - Zafiralis. Nations cup however is practically sealed - in theory only Latvia can pass Finland,but also only if a second driver from the nation signs up,if that does not happen,Finland is announced as award winners even before the 4th round starts. In the battle for 2nd position Latvia leads Italy by 8 points.
4th round is the fastest round of the season - the Aston National configuration consists of 3 long straights,connected to various 180° or similar degree turns,each of them in different tightness,while the final chicane will try to trick racers with weight transfer through it. If there is still no competition,then we can assume also drivers championship will be wrapped up before season finale and hope for at least interesting battle for teams championship.
