CORNES WINS SEASON 3 CHAMPIONSHIP
Nathan Cornes scored his first championship in his rookie year in record breaking fashion with third at Interlagos, but his story is just one of many.
With the 2KF1 cars holding the first two positions, Stephan Bohner was quickly on the front foot, moving into third ahead of Cornes as Utzer fell into sixth place. Slowly Cornes began to put his foot down, moving past Sigoulakis and Bohner and settling into second. Joel Rautavaara on the other hand found himself going nowhere, as an overtake on the Greek driver was balanced by losing a place to Jamie Cocks, the outgoing champ taking no prisoners as he moved up from seventh. Overtaking his teammate Bohner for third, he was four seconds up the road by the time Rautavaara managed to follow him through.
Eventually the leading pair of McNamara and Cornes were reeled in, and by then the writing was on the wall. While Rautavaara would hold the lead through the middle of the race, the changing conditions didn't suit the ART driver, pitting back into second. From there the race was done and a resurgent Cocks ends this chapter of his career on top once more, a fitting end for the Australian.
With that result, Rautavaara's second place was never going to be enough, regardless of Cornes being in third or out of the points. For the Finn, a stellar season resulting in 4 wins, 5 additional podiums and a tie for the most consecutive wins was reward for strong strategy from himself and the Apex team. But the elusive driver title did not appear, instead the team become the first in history to win the Constructors Championship without winning the Drivers Championship.
That honour went to Nathan Cornes, the Razor driver securing the title with third place in the race after being unable to find a safe release in the pit lane ended his chances of grabbing first place. For Cornes, six straight podiums to start the season basically saw the title wrapped up by the French GP. But three straight retirements in Britain, Germany and The Netherlands saw the title once again up for grabs. Two more wins in Austria and Belgium settled the ship and brought home the title.
And just to round out a perfect podium, it was Jamie Cocks who ended up third overall. Weird how that happened.
Ben Utzer drove to fourth place a lap down, with Josh Noack scoring his first points for DTK this season, meaning that every race driver has scored points this season! For Josh, it's his first points since the S1 Spanish Grand Prix, and his best result since his fourth in Malaysia of that season as well.
Donald Brugman ended a very encouraging first season of FFG with sixth, but the result was just short of being able to catch 2KF1 in the standings. Takuma Ishikawa was seventh, a result that was too little and far too late for Razor, who instead settle for second in the constructors standings. Harry Costello too ended a very bright first season with points in eighth while JHR saw both cars across the line in the points again with 9th and 10th as they end their maiden season, Oorjit Mishra edging out Takahiro Yamaguchi.
Jack Laskey was just outdragged for the final point, settling for 11th ahead of James McNamara, Stephan Bohner and teammates Rui Martins and Pablo Diehl in his home race. Vimal Ana and Andy Graham both saw the line, while Manolis Sigoulakis was the final classified finisher in 18th. Rinneaho, Reed, Sharp and Harvey were all non finishers.
With that, the results are finally done, a few little things over the next couple of days before the season will be officially ended and the countdown to Season 4 can officially begin. Thanks everyone for sticking with this, obviously the timing has been rather long, so I'll be doing my best to make sure everyone returns.
RDFIA Press Conference
@Jamie Cocks A perfect way to end your driving career, do you think that there was more to be gained this season?
@Joel So close yet so far, second today wasn't enough, but as a team you are a champion nonetheless. Could more have been done, or was this the best to be expected?
@C0rrUpti0Nz Congratulations on the title, a worthy victor after an amazing season start. Talk us through it.
Press Paddock
@Milos Couldn't score the Drivers title, but the Constructors is still a great effort. Can ART go one step further next season and score the double?
@Matt Bailey One title, but not the other. What went wrong in that regard?
@Decenten 5th place, first points in 6 attempts this season. Good way to end the season?
@T.Yamaguchi @The_Laskinator Such a close finish, give us an idea of what it's like to end like that.
@William Néron You and N-Tech say goodbye to both titles and to Jamie, how are you guys going to bounce back?
And everyone is more than welcome to comment on the race or even my fantastic race report writing times