Saudi Arabia
Division 1
The story of this season so far has been one of the very quick drivers vs the consistent performers, which also has resulted in a different race winner in each round so far. One of the other stories has been with four time championship runner up Nellboy starting from last position each race. Sometimes deliberately, but also due to mistakes. This Wednesday a new chapter to that story was written, but with a completely different outcome. Nellboy, the oldest driver on the Division 1 grid, was simply superior in Quali, taking pole position with a stunning 1:27.034. Given how close this grid has been all season a gap of nearly three tenths to p2 and already over a second to p8 gives an indication of how good Nell’s lap was. In second place, Maridako, who once again showed he has tremendous one lap pace, but is still lacking comparable race results. Klepy and Evan took second row, ahead of Brandon and last week’s winner Athanasiou.
When the red lights went out Nell was able to keep the lead, but Evan probably had the best start moving up from fourth to second place. Two cars were in early trouble, Wazza and Nell’s team mate Hammers. They lost quite some time, but were still able to continue their race. Biggest loser (position wise) of the opening laps was Maridako, who after just two laps dropped down from second to eight place. The one lap wonder driver from Greece clearly has work to do on his race pace. Another Greek driver that was unfortunate was Athanasiou. Last week he was simply the best driver, but this race didn’t last very long for him. He hit a wall on lap 5 and his race was immediately over. Up front Nellboy was building a big lead over Evan, who was comfortably in second, with Brandon, BeniBunno and Xavi fighting for the other podium spot.
Nell’s eight second lead vanished in lap 8 when his team mate got involved in an incident and had to retire. Relliott and Kavolis went side by side through a corner and the latter lost the car, spun and took the car behind him (Hammers) with him, who simply could not avoid the Mercedes and had to retire.
With the safety car out on track Nell pitted right away and opted for the hard tyres, trying to go to the end of the race, while most cars right behind him. Were on the medium tyres. A faster tyre, but probably a challenge to keep them alive for another 16 laps. Noteworthy is that Lil Mikey managed to get two Drive Through penalties for speeding under yellow. A very “Quacky” moment of the Ferrari driver. To make it even worse for the team, his life long team mate Wazza retired on the first lap after the restart.
The rest of the race was cruise control mode for Nellboy, who despite the harder compound tyre still managed to build a lead over Evan, who ended up in a battle for second place with BeniBunno who even managed to pass him. Behind them Xavi, Brandon and the Alfa Romeo brothers, who once again scored good points as a team which keeps them in the lead of the constructors championship. A second win of the season for Nell brings him into a familiar spot, second in the championship.
The standings
Division 2
The drivers in the second division of DTR F1 were all shocked when just before the race they learned that Paqman was unable to race this Thursday. The last few races Greek Ace Paqman seemed to be on a different level pace wise and his absence gave everyone else the belief that maybe they had a chance. The other usual front runners are championship leader Hammers, Bobspun, Brother Adam and HummerGP. They all got surprised in Qualifying by Hammers’ team mate Bogarovski who thanks to some good team work managed to set the fastest lap of all, just ahead of Bobspun.
The start went fairly safe, but it didn’t take very long for before Berzerk crashed out on lap 3. Dubble was involved, but survived and pitted for repairs and fresh tyres. When the yellow flags ended they soon could be waved again, as Brother Adam crashed out a lap later. At the restart Hammers was able to het ahead of Bobspun and take second place, making it a one-two for McLaren. Once again a situation that didn’t last very long as Ralph crashed on lap 8 and caused a safety car situation. Nearly all drivers used this opportunity to make their pit stop. Due to a double stack Hammers lost a few positions, but even more interesting is that two drivers stayed out; Dubble and Pavlossidor had pitted earlier in the race and decided to take grid position over fresh tyres. The last Dubble got in this position was a few races ago in Australia where he lead the field under the SC and got hit by the car behind and even had to retire. A deja vu appeared for dubble as Pavlossidor did hit dubble, but luckily for him only the car behind had damage. When the SC came in Pav went into the pit lane to repair the car, moving Bogarovski up to second. With Dubble being in a position he’s never been in before, he defended like his life depended on it and did everything he could to stay in the lead. He managed to do so for near two laps and while battling with Bogarovski that other drivers benefited were able overtake both of them. HummerGP, Hammers, Bobspun and Manlikedonkey all managed to get ahead of both. In lap 15 Hammers managed to take the lead of the race with a turn 1 move on HummerGP. Near all drivers decided not to pit anymore, apart from Manlikedonkey. The Austrian driver lost a few positions as a result, but the fight for the top finishes was decided already. Hammers took his second win of the season, while Bobspun and HummerGP completed the podium ahead of Bogarovski and Skipper.
Due to Paqman and Brother Adam not scoring any points Hammers now leads with quite a margin in the championship, just like his McLaren team in Constructors.
Next week round 6 at Portimao, Portugal.
See you there!
