Monday,31st October 18:30 UTC / 19:30 CET / 20:30 EET * Note the UTC time change!
Penultimate round of the 5 round series is up next and this has a potential to be a decider - current standings leader can seal the deal with good performance or turn the championship around with some bad luck. Since there are only 6 potential candidates for the title,rest including new potential signups might be more interested to put themselves either in the winners list or polesitters list of the league rather than scoring points for championship,or help their team or nation to score more points than before.
Series returns to England after the low attended trip to tropical island - Aston awaits with the relativelly simple configuration built for high speeds. This will confuse the drivers when setting up car - is it better to have higher top speed or be better in the few turns and compromise the top speed? Being faster on straights will surely mean being slower in the 1st turn of the track,while most other turns are rather slow. Since this is the 1st season with these cars,the selection is quite open as noone has any experience in actual competition in this track.
Unite breaks Fatal's winning streak in the penultimate round of the V8 Series 2022!
The S1dus ace successfully overcut Fatal, and finished the race first with a solid margin ahead of the championship leader.
3rd place for Thehemuli, back on the podium: 4th place for Texas, while RG's Lorenzo completes the TOP 5.
J.A.Katila can't hold the inside line through turn and hits car on the outside.
PENALTIES:
[WCL] J.A.Katila - receives 30 seconds penalty added to his finish time for avoidable incident on lap 2. Repeated offence might lead to higher penalty.
- - - - - - - - - -
VERL returns to it's origins - England,where Aston awaited racers with it's fastest configuration named National. The league's nominal distance of 200km was completed in less than 55 minutes,averaging 220.8 kilometers per hour,while most drivers were exceeding 320km/h for their top speed. Unlike in previous round,this time there were plenty of position changes as only one driver finished in same position he started,however these changes were limited in closed groups without mixing between.
From the start it looked like business as usual - series leader being fastest in qualifying,running in lead and driving towards yet another race win. Unite however had different plans - he followed the leader within line of sight for the 1st phase of the race,waited until he turned into pitlane and took the lead which he never gave up. On the final lap of the race Unite even set the fastest known laptime with VERL car in the Aston National,securing also the point for fastest lap besides 20 for race win - that was his 2nd VERL win,the other one was scored 2018. Fatal saw his winning streak cut when he realized that Unite rejoined from pits with a solid gap ahead,still scored 18 points for 2nd place finish and pole position. Thehemuli was one of 2 drivers who were able to climb up 2 positions between start and finish (the other one was his only attending teammate) and finished 3rd to score his 2nd podium finish.
With one round left to run,situation in drivers championship is practically decided - with 21 points gap to only left title rival,Fatal just needs to score a single point in season finale at South City to take the title without needing to worry about any possibilities. Either pole position,fastest lap of the race or completed 2/3 of race distance in any position is enough to score that needed one point. Unite's win in this round kept his chances alive,but the effort was too little and too late - only full points set and standings leader's failure to score a single point can still him put on the champion's throne (alternativelly Fatal's non attendance allows him to lose one of the round bonus points). Thehemuli is now 3rd with 13 points gap to 2nd position,so he also might settle for current position. With leader's non attendance,rookie of the year standings has a new leader - LG-mies overtook his teammate and has 2 points advantage before final round,which is too small gap to start calculate possibilities.
In the teams championship the leading 4 teams managed to get even closer together as both leaders scored 18 points,while both chasers - 3 more. Now there are just 5 points between 1st and 4th - Fragmaster still leads by 2 over RGA,followed by S1dus in 3rd with 4 points gap and Zafiralis in 4th with 5 points gap. Again such situation is way too close to calculate possible scenarios as there are way too many possibilities,the only constant value is Fragmaster's advantage in any tiebreak situation due the 3 wins. Since not a single new latvian driver signed up,Finland clinched the nations cup right with the start of round signups lock out (10 minutes before round start) - not that a new signup would matter as finns scored maximum possible 39 points for the 2nd time in season and has now 3 times more points than 2nd placed nation Latvia. Italy is 3rd with 6 points gap to 2nd position.
After wide and fast Aston VERL drivers might get claustrophobic as next round is set in the urban concrete maze at the South City - the longest configuration is 4 kilometers long,meaning 50 laps is the race distance to endure on the way to glory. Even if the intrigue for drivers championship practically is gone,it will still be a great competition for race win and also teams championship.
