REED SHOCKS PADDOCK FOR WIN
Aaron Reed captured a maiden FFG win at Hockenheim, stunning the series as he won by over 20 seconds, while also providing a first win for RD Racing at their home Grand Prix. While a thoroughly strong drive in gloomy conditions, missing 5 of the 6 cars from the top three teams clearly contributed, while the sixth was run into the ground on a thirty lap final stint. Some would probably argue this why FFG isn't run on paper...
Regardless, Reed was able to come out on top of a battle with Rui Martins, James McNamara and Joel Rautavaara. Pitting from third place, Reed was able to overtake McNamara thanks to his pit stop, and while Martins rejoined ahead, his eventual mistake in the Arena section led to his demise, and with McNamara and Rautavaara squabbling in the background, set upon leaving them for dust. On a day when mistake free runs were well worth twice the driver's salary, McNamara was able to keep his 2KF1 pointing the right way and took an amazing second place for a severely underpowered car. Rautavaara gave a good fight, but while he enjoys the power provided by the Apex-Playlife, there is no denying that his Pirelli's had been well and truly cooked with next to no tread depth left on his wet tyres.
Oorjit Mishra also enjoyed a clean race, moving up to fourth, while Jack Laskey flew under the radar for a second straight fifth place finish. Just five seconds down the road was his compatriot Rob Sharp, the Falcon driver scoring his first points of the season with a well earned 6th place. Harry Costello backed up his teammate's result with 7th for RD, with Donald Brugman in 8th, Manolis Sigoulakis in 9th and Daniel Harvey in 10th, only as the Greek driver overtook him on the 45th and final entry into the Arena. Rui Martins was left with little to work with after his spin off, ending up 11th as teammate Pablo Diehl was another struggler on a very long second stint in 12th. Ben Utzer was the only other finisher in 13th, one lap down after mistakes cost him any realistic chance early on.
Behind, the Hockenheimring claimed most of it's victims through car failures, and also seemed to hit both cars with the same problems, in particular, both N-Tech's succumbed to transmission issues, while both BMW engines in the Razor cars expired, Cornes' in fact just as he exited the pits from his first stop. But they weren't the only ones, Kederer and Graham had gearbox failures too, Rinneaho's Mercedes engine gave up, Takahiro Yamaguchi had a water leak that sidelined him and Vimal Ana was the only accident related retirement as he went off at the entry to the Arena.
Next round is from Zandvoort for our first Dutch Grand Prix.
Marketplace closes 10am Thursday AEDT.
And some extra housekeeping, check the first post guys, if your budget is in yellow with a number added to it, it means you have some bonus skill or horsepower that you haven't used from the test session. Seeing it's been two and a half weeks, I think it's fair to do it now.
RDFIA Press Conference
@Azabadaza You did it on a rainy afternoon in Hockenheim, how does it feel to have cracked through for a win?
@James McNamara An amazing result for you today, were you expecting to have this sort of pace?
@Joel You're now clear in second for the championship, are you happy with today?
Press Paddock
@XenForo Amazingly you guys scored a victory, are you happy that it was here?
@Matt Bailey @William Néron @nathan Cornes
@Takuma Ishikawa @Jamie Cocks @Smartbean What has gone wrong for you guys today? The top two teams and no one finished?
@kedy89 Is that 2 then?
@Rob Sharp You've finally reached points again, happy to have found them?
@Manolis Sigoulakis @Millsy24 A last lap dive came off, did either of you expect that to happen?