2010 F1RWRS Chinese Grand Prix

The 2010 F1RWRS Chinese Grand Prix was the fourth race of the 2010 F1RWRS season held at Shanghai. Dave Simpson won the race, becoming the first man to win multiple F1RWRS races.

Race Report

Coming to Shanghai, Gary Cameron held the championship lead with a four-point gap to Ashley Watkinson. However, qualifying set up the situation for Watkinson to retake the chapionship lead, qualifying seventh, while Cameron had a disastrous session. The championship leader would start from 18th place. Meanwhile, Nathanael Spencer, who was seventh in the championship at that point, took the pole.

Spencer led from the start, with Daniel Melrose jumping to second ahead of Luca Pacchiarini, although the Italian quickly took the lead with Melrose second, but the Australian quickly experienced problems and dropped to fifth place, Dan BH moving up to third with Watkinson already up to fourth place.

Quickly, the order within the top ten began shifting, with BH now challenging Pacchiarini for the lead, with Melrose quickly joining the fight and taking the lead while BH dropped back. Pacchiarini then retook the lead only to be passed by Spencer, who would bravely defend his lead for a few laps, with Melrose third and Douglas Mann up to fourth place. In the meantime, backmarkers started to pit, probably hoping for a good result in the end.

Pacchiarini then took the lead from Spencer and immediately started pulling out a gap, while Mann took third position from Melrose. Gary Cameron, meanwhile, was making his way up the field. Spencer then retook the lead, Pacchiarini and Mann quickly dropping backwards. James Davies was now best placed for the win, as he was now in tenth position and best of the early pitters.

Watkinson, who had been second for a short while, quickly dropped to fourth place, David Koczo taking third behind Pacchiarini. Davies, meanwhile, was already fifth, with Cameron up to tenth. On lap 15, Davies takes the lead and immediately begins to pull away, Spencer now second with Koczo third, Phoenix McAllister up to fourth and Pacchiarini down to fifth place.

Spencer then began losing speed, leaving Koczo and Dave Simpson to fight for second place. Cameron was already well into the top 10, but hadn't yet pitted. Simpson quickly left Koczo and began chasing down Davies, whose tyres were beginning to wear. Gary Cameron, who was fourth at that point, finally pits on lap 18.

The pit stops then entered the second phase, and we saw an anonymous Hagane Shizuka move into the top ten, but quickly drop to last place, behind Thomas De Bock. After the stops cycled out, James Davies still led the race from Dave Simpson ahead of BH, Frank Zimmer, Darren Older Jr, Nathanael Spencer, Simon Redman, Watkinson, McAllister and Douglas Mann. Championship leader Gary Cameron was down to last after his stop.

Almost immediately, Davies begins to find more pace, while Cameron passes Shizuka for 18th and Older, Jr. starts to struggle on worn tyres, getting passed by Spencer, while Davies starts to get closer to lapping the top ten.

On lap 28, the turning point of the race occurred, as race leader James Davies' right-rear tyre explodes on the run down to the hairpin, and the incident costs him three places to Simpson, BH and Zimmer, showing the risks of an early pit stop. Older, Jr., whose tyres were just one lap younger, is told to pit from sixth position in order to avoid a similar accident and drops to last, 3 laps behind Simpson.

The incident cost Davies the win and Dave Simpson took the race win, becoming the first driver to win multiple F1RWRS Grands Prix. Dan BH took second place, confirming his win at Oschersleben was no fluke, while Frank Zimmer took third place. In the battle for the championship, Gary Cameron didn't do himself any favours, finishing 15th, although he took the fastest lap of the race. This drops him to third in the championship, with Ashley Watkinson second and Frank Zimmer in the lead, helped by his three high-scoring races, although he is yet to win a race. Dan BH's good race elevates him to an equal fourth place in the championship alongside Dave Simpson, whose two wins were his only points scores.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	14	Nathanael Spencer	Prospec	1:19.20	+-.--
2	20	Luca Pacchiarini	Pacchia-Coswojuddhartlambo	1:19.34	+0.14
3	12	Daniel Melrose	JLD-Porsche	1:19.45	+0.25
4	13	Dave Simpson	JLD-Porsche	1:19.50	+0.30
5	16	Dan BH	Bangelia-Alfa Romeo	1:19.74	+0.54
6	5	Frank Zimmer	Rosenforth-Jaguar	1:19.90	+0.70
7	18	Ashley Watkinson	CR-Ford	1:19.93	+0.73
8	10	Simon Redman	Kahama-Ford	1:20.19	+0.89
9	17	James Davies	Bangelia-Alfa Romeo	1:20.35	+1.15
10	2	Douglas Mann	West Cliff-Chevrolet	1:20.35	+1.15
11	3	Sammy Jones	West Cliff-Chevrolet	1:20.49	+1.29
12	6	Adam Lewis	KQ-Hyundai	1:20.77	+1.57
13	8	Phoenix McAllister	Calinetic-Ford	1:20.80	+1.60
14	7	Hagane Shizuka	KQ-Hyundai	1:20.91	+1.71
15	19	Darren Older Jr	CR-Ford	1:21.13	+1.93
16	4	Thomas De Bock	Rosenforth-Jaguar	1:21.28	+2.08
17	15	David Koczo	Prospec	1:21.48	+2.28
18	9	Gary Cameron	Calinetic-Ford	1:21.52	+2.32
19	11	Kay Lon	Kahama-Ford	1:21.68	+2.48

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	13	Dave Simpson	JLD-Porsche	30	43:43.28	4	10
2	16	Dan BH	Bangelia-Alfa Romeo	30	+18.32	5	9
3	5	Frank Zimmer	Rosenforth-Jaguar	30	+1:13.26	6	8
4	17	James Davies	Bangelia-Alfa Romeo	30	+1:24.37	9	7
5	14	Nathanael Spencer	Prospec	30	+1:34.56	1	6
6	18	Ashley Watkinson	CR-Ford	29	+1 lap	7	5
7	10	Simon Redman	Kahama-Ford	29	+1 lap	8	4
8	8	Phoenix McAllister	Calinetic-Ford	29	+1 lap	13	3
9	12	Daniel Melrose	JLD-Porsche	29	+1 lap	3	2
10	15	David Koczo	Prospec	29	+1 lap	17	1
11	20	Luca Pacchiarini	Pacchia-Coswojuddhartlambo	29	+1 lap	2
12	2	Douglas Mann	West Cliff-Chevrolet	29	+1 lap	10
13	3	Sammy Jones	West Cliff-Chevrolet	29	+1 lap	11
14	11	Kay Lon	Kahama-Ford	28	+2 laps	19
15	9	Gary Cameron	Calinetic-Ford	28	+2 laps	18
16	6	Adam Lewis	KQ-Hyundai	28	+2 laps	12
17	4	Thomas De Bock	Rosenforth-Jaguar	28	+2 laps	16
18	7	Hagane Shizuka	KQ-Hyundai	28	+2 laps	14
19	19	Darren Older Jr	CR-Ford	27	+3 laps	15

• Fastest Lap: Gary Cameron: 1:19.45

Standings after the race

• Bold text indicates who still has a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Frank Zimmer	24
2	Ashley Watkinson	22
3	Gary Cameron	21
4=	Dave Simpson	20
4=	Dan BH	20

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Prospec	33
2	Calinetic-Ford	32
3	Bangelia-Alfa Romeo	31
4	Rosenforth-Jaguar	28
5	CR-Ford	25

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

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