38 laps through fast corners and challenging chicanes, that was the race last weekend on one of the longest tracks, Aston Grand Touring reversed. The results from the practice sessions hinted at a close race, and the fight for the championship is still wide open with only 4 points distance between FPR | Matze and ^P^ Storm. At the end of the race IRT Andy proved to have the strongest nerves and took a well-deserved victory from pole, but not after falling back out of the top 3 and recovering. The fight for second position was between both championship rivals. In the exciting final stage of the race it was Matze who took the position and extended his lead over Storm with 2 points. With the distances between the top drivers never growing over 5 seconds, the spectators were offered a close and exciting race.
In the first qualifying it was all about driving one clean lap to proceed to the second session for the top 10 drivers. Because of the length of the track, not that many laps could be driven. In his first and final lap, Cyber|Rudy put in a 2:03.63. No other driver could make a lap in that time. With only 0.05 distance, IRT Andy showed that he should not be counted out at this track. With both championship rivals in the top 10 the final line-up for the second qualifying did not show much surprises, except for Cyber|Misko missing out. The one time OWRL Div A champion drove 2:05.38, only bringing him to P13. 1stBFA haelje was unlucky. His time was exactly the same as the driver in P10, but driven later so that he missed out on the top 10 qualifying. The only consolidation for the team was that it was the other driver, 1stBFA dislo, who was on P10 and proceeded to the second qualifying. The full results of Q1 can be found here
Going into Q2, Cyber|Rudy was the favourite for taking pole. But technical problems forced him to retire from the session before he could drive a single lap. Not being able to repair the problems in time, the Cyber team was down to one car for the race, leaving the unlucky Rudy sidelined. This meant that the fight for pole was wide open. IRT Andy stepped up and took the lead from early on in the session. In the end he took pole with a laptime of 2:05.44, just one tenth ahead of spdoFiredUp. ^P^ Storm got the upper hand over his championship rival FPR|Matze by qualifying 3rd. whereas Matze only managed to qualify on the 7th starting position. The statistics for the second qualifying session can be found here.
On to the race! No startcrash in the first corners, but the first incidents happened at the end of the long straight, resulting in a pit stop for SF|Damon and IRT 2slow4u. The other IRT driver, Andy, kept the lead after the start and lead the field for the full first stint, closely followed by spdoFiredup. OMC Jet and spdoKiLl3r both put a lot of pressure on ^P^ Storm and even though he did not let go of his position without a fight, Storm finally had to concede. This gave him his direct opponent Matze on his tail. At the end of lap 10, the first drivers went to the box. The two leaders were among those with the lightest fuel load and were in first. After the different tactics sorted them out by lap 15, the field was back in order. FiredUp overtook Andy in the pit lane and was now leading the race. In between them were KiLl3r and Storm. The top five, finalized by FPR|Matze, was close together. KiLl3r showed that making a mistake in such a close group was fatal for your own race. In lap 18 he failed to keep his car on track in one of the fast corners, got some damage and had to make an extra pitstop. He was able to finish the race, but outside of the points and in P10. His teammate did had a similar fate in this race. Whilst leading, FiredUp was too fast entering pit lane for his second pitstop and the resulting Drive Through penalty brought him out of contention for the podium.
The top three after the last series of pitstops was ^P^ Storm ahead of IRT Andy and FRP|Matze. But Storm could not block the faster IRT driver and lost the lead 8 laps before the end. Andy hold on to his lead and won his first OWRL F1 race, just a few races after IRT entered the championship mid-season. Storm now had Matze on his tail. Matze, not wanting to let Storm close him down in the championship, was determined to get past. And he did so, with only five laps to go. The gap is now 6 points. Just outside the podium finished OMC Jet. spdoFiredUp still drove home a fifth place finish but left wondering what could have been. P6 went to 1stBFA haelje, with the final two point scoring positions going to OWRL F1-debutant NWRT Asman and Cyber|Misko. The final results are posted online here. Also take a look at the championship standings and the replays.
In the first qualifying it was all about driving one clean lap to proceed to the second session for the top 10 drivers. Because of the length of the track, not that many laps could be driven. In his first and final lap, Cyber|Rudy put in a 2:03.63. No other driver could make a lap in that time. With only 0.05 distance, IRT Andy showed that he should not be counted out at this track. With both championship rivals in the top 10 the final line-up for the second qualifying did not show much surprises, except for Cyber|Misko missing out. The one time OWRL Div A champion drove 2:05.38, only bringing him to P13. 1stBFA haelje was unlucky. His time was exactly the same as the driver in P10, but driven later so that he missed out on the top 10 qualifying. The only consolidation for the team was that it was the other driver, 1stBFA dislo, who was on P10 and proceeded to the second qualifying. The full results of Q1 can be found here
Going into Q2, Cyber|Rudy was the favourite for taking pole. But technical problems forced him to retire from the session before he could drive a single lap. Not being able to repair the problems in time, the Cyber team was down to one car for the race, leaving the unlucky Rudy sidelined. This meant that the fight for pole was wide open. IRT Andy stepped up and took the lead from early on in the session. In the end he took pole with a laptime of 2:05.44, just one tenth ahead of spdoFiredUp. ^P^ Storm got the upper hand over his championship rival FPR|Matze by qualifying 3rd. whereas Matze only managed to qualify on the 7th starting position. The statistics for the second qualifying session can be found here.
On to the race! No startcrash in the first corners, but the first incidents happened at the end of the long straight, resulting in a pit stop for SF|Damon and IRT 2slow4u. The other IRT driver, Andy, kept the lead after the start and lead the field for the full first stint, closely followed by spdoFiredup. OMC Jet and spdoKiLl3r both put a lot of pressure on ^P^ Storm and even though he did not let go of his position without a fight, Storm finally had to concede. This gave him his direct opponent Matze on his tail. At the end of lap 10, the first drivers went to the box. The two leaders were among those with the lightest fuel load and were in first. After the different tactics sorted them out by lap 15, the field was back in order. FiredUp overtook Andy in the pit lane and was now leading the race. In between them were KiLl3r and Storm. The top five, finalized by FPR|Matze, was close together. KiLl3r showed that making a mistake in such a close group was fatal for your own race. In lap 18 he failed to keep his car on track in one of the fast corners, got some damage and had to make an extra pitstop. He was able to finish the race, but outside of the points and in P10. His teammate did had a similar fate in this race. Whilst leading, FiredUp was too fast entering pit lane for his second pitstop and the resulting Drive Through penalty brought him out of contention for the podium.
The top three after the last series of pitstops was ^P^ Storm ahead of IRT Andy and FRP|Matze. But Storm could not block the faster IRT driver and lost the lead 8 laps before the end. Andy hold on to his lead and won his first OWRL F1 race, just a few races after IRT entered the championship mid-season. Storm now had Matze on his tail. Matze, not wanting to let Storm close him down in the championship, was determined to get past. And he did so, with only five laps to go. The gap is now 6 points. Just outside the podium finished OMC Jet. spdoFiredUp still drove home a fifth place finish but left wondering what could have been. P6 went to 1stBFA haelje, with the final two point scoring positions going to OWRL F1-debutant NWRT Asman and Cyber|Misko. The final results are posted online here. Also take a look at the championship standings and the replays.