Laurent Londes lands Catalunya win.
Laurent Londes became only the third race winner in this quarter’s summer championship as he controlled the race to take a flag to finish win.
Qualifying
It was always going to be a tough race with track temperatures at 35 degrees and with championship leader Fulvio Fenix sitting out the qualifying session, it was left to Laurent, Hank, Allard and Thomas to fight for pole position.
Hank put in a 1.28.846 with his last run of the session to take provisional pole but Laurent went better and left it very late with his last run to snatch pole from Hank with a time 0.3 seconds faster.
Q1 Championship winner Allard van den Hoeven took third on the grid followed by another Q1 race winner Thomas Kimmich. Paul Fairweather was best of the rest in fifth place with Steve Hayward close behind. Monaco race winner Jason Bagley was having a torrid time trying to get to grips with the car and pulled out, taking no further part in the race.
A few driver tried the medium tyre compound in qualifying but it was the hards that seemed to give the best balance on the slick surface and all driver elected for the hard tyre for the race, with some reporting that a one stop for fuel only, might be the quickest strategy.
Race
With one of the longest runs to the first corner on the calendar, contact and incidents are often a feature of this circuit on the opening lap but it was refreshing to see all the cars navigate the Elf and Renault turns without any dramas. Laurent got a good launch and lead into the Seat curve with the qualy positions being maintained amongst the front of the field. Further back it was a different story when Jorg Evers locked his brakes at the Wurth left-hander and went straight on into the barrier. Jorg couldn't extract the Hass from the gravel and retired before a lap was completed.
A few seconds later Fulvio got alongside Andre under braking for La Caxia but unfortunately Andre locked up on cold brakes and tyres and pushed Fulvio into the gravel trap, leaving Fulvio dead last.
Just up ahead there seemed to be some warping and Thomas speared off to the left on the exit of La Caxia allowing Paul up to fourth position.
At the start of lap 3, Laurent had opened up a 1.8s gap over Hank with Allard 0.4 behind the Ferrari. On lap 4 Andre got a left rear wheel on the kerb as he accelerated out of the Seat Curve and span right in front of Steve’s Hass.
Thomas and Fulvio were making progress and carving through the field but Thomas span out in T2 as Fulvio made his pass. A couple of laps later Thomas span out again on the exit of Seat, as he tried to correct it the car veered violently to the left and heavily into the barrier on the inside of Repsol. Thomas retired to the pits and from the race.
At the start of lap 11 Laurent had opened up a gap of 3.0s to Hank with Allard some 3s back but the top three were setting some good pace.
Paul was the first to pit from fourth place on the 28 minute mark and with a healthy gap of 20 seconds to Han, Paul had new hard tyres fitted and managed to get out with a gap of 3.8 seconds to Han.
Fulvio was gaining on the top four and was getting some serious drive off the last corner and used this speed to pass Paul under braking for T1. Fulvio was to use this move later on Allard and Hank.
With 20 minutes to go the leaders were lapping the back markers and a fast approaching Allard caught out Steve, causing Steve to go rally crossing across the gravel at the Seat curve. Allard took the lead as Laurent and Hank pitted but after everyone had stopped it was Laurent who had a commanding lead and was driving superbly to leave Hank, Allard and the fast incoming Fulvio to battle for the final podium positions.
Despite some heroic defending, Allard got by Hank with 7 minutes to go under braking into T1 and Fulvio did the same move on Hank two laps later.
Laurent finished with a comfortable 6 second gap over Allard who had Fulvio only 0.4s behind as they crossed the line. Hank took fourth with Paul having his best result of the series in fifth spot. Han finished sixth with some pace towards the end followed by Andre and Steve who reported tyre wear on the hards they started with. Jorg and Thomas both retired with technical issues. Fulvio made the fastest lap to take an extra point.
So Laurent’s win takes him up to second in the table, 22 points behind Fulvio with the battle for the third place between Thomas and Hank. Fulvio still needs 30 points from the remaining three races (Austria is a double header) to secure the championship but with Laurent on form and Allard finding some pace it is still all to play for as we head of to the Styrian mountains next week.
Please note that we will soon be having to re- register for the Q3 championship and due to a suitable Hungaroring not being available on OT, we will be replacing it with Okayama and the Pacific GP for Rd1 of the Q3 series.
Podium
1.Laurent Londes
2. Allard van den Hoeven
3. Fulvio Fenix
Championship table (adjusted)
| 1 |
Fulvio Fenix | 88 |
| 2 | Laurent Londes | 66 |
| 3 | Thomas Kimmich | 57 |
| 4 | Hank Belane | 53 |
| 5 | Allard van den Hoeven | 38 |
| 6 | Jason Bagley | 33 |
| 7 | Paul Fairweather | 26 |
| 8 | Richard Barratt | 25 |
| 9 | Steve Hayward | 24 |
| 10 | Han Fazzi | 18 |
| 11 | Jorg Evers | 11 |
| 12 | Rico Prins | 10 |
| 13 | Andre Murel | 6 |
| 14 | Omar Filippini | 4 |
| 15 | Taj Johal | 3 |
| 16 | Casper de Wit | 0 |
| 17 | Paulo Moreno | 0 |
I have restarted the practice server and all good now.
