2010 F1RWRS Saxon Grand Prix

The 2010 F1RWRS Saxon Grand Prix was the third race of the 2010 F1RWRS season held at Oschersleben, in Germany. Dan BH won the race.

Race Report

Ashley Watkinson led the championship coming to Oschersleben for the Saxon Grand Prix, the third straight race held in Germany. However, his pace had been dropping, and he was only one point ahead of the more consistent Gary Cameron.

In qualifying, Frank Zimmer took his second pole position of the season, while Cameron struck a vicious blow to Watkinson, qualifying in fifth to Ashley's thirteenth. Dave Simpson, the winner of the Luxembourg Grand Prix, was also a threat for the championship, qualifying in second place.

Luca Pacchiarini had the worst start, dropping from third to fifth, while Zimmer ran wide at the chicane and let Simpson through into the lead. However, he quickly lost it at the first corner, letting a charging Pacchiarini into the lead, with Zimmer in third. Meanwhile, Dan BH was surprisingly quick in the Club Bangelia, now up in sixth position, while Watkinson was already in eleventh place.

The race quickly settled into a lull, with Pacchiarini, the sole privateer on the grid, pulling away into the lead, while the top 5 remained relatively stable until BH pitted from 4th position on lap 6, leaving Simon Redman in his place. Meanwhile, championship leader Watkinson and three-time Formula 1 champion Daniel Melrose were dropping back. Worst off, however, was Sammy Jones, who ended up last and a fair way behind after his pit stop.

Towards lap 10, the front-runners' tyres were beginning to wear, with Simpson dropping to fifth and Zimmer losing pace. Pacchiarini seemed to stay unaffected, lapping Jones, who was still in the pits. Melrose then decided to launch a major attack, moving up to sixth place, while the Pacchia was beginning to lose speed, and dropped to third behind the fairly anonymous Simon Redman and David Koczo.

Almost immediately, Koczo took the race lead, while Pacchiarini was now worse off than Simpson, who repassed him as well as Melrose, who dropped to seventh after a small mistake. At the back, Sammy Jones had found more speed in the car, and promptly unlapped himself, and began hunting down Zimmer, who was second-last and fighting for 17th with James Davies. At the halfway point, Koczo was leading from Simpson, Redman (who had made a sizeable error at the chicane), Pacchiarini and Gary Cameron who was now virtually leading the championship, with Watkinson down in ninth.

At this point, Koczo and Melrose were flying, as Pacchiarini was slowing, and dropped to ninth. The early pitters, meanwhile, were beginning to gain ground, with BH in eleventh and Zimmer and Jones gaining time on the midfield. Koczo began to slow down on lap 16, dropping to third with Simpson now leading, while Frank Zimmer was back into the points, as most of the midfield started to pit, a window triggered by Nathanael Spencer's stop.

On lap 20, Dan BH, who was the first to pit, calmly took the lead from a slowing Dave Simpson, who also lost second place to Redman and third to a charging Frank Zimmer, while the last of the early pitters, Sammy Jones, was now in sixth. At this point, the race became complicated to follow, due to some similar liveries and the amount of lapped traffic on the track.

On lap 23, Zimmer began closing in on BH after overtaking Simon Redman. Simpson was destroying his race with his refusal to pit as he dropped to eleventh place. Sammy Jones was now up to third, but stuck in traffic and unable to close in on Zimmer, who was being told on the radio that BH hadn't yet pitted, preventing him from chasing down the American, who held on to win the race by 7.68 seconds, making sure that drivers of different nationalities won the first three races of the series. Frank Zimmer took second place with Sammy Jones third.

BH's sole tenth position prior to the race meant that he wasn't an immediate threat to the championship battle. However, Gary Cameron drove a clean race to fifth place while Ashley Watkinson could only finish in tenth position, handing the championship lead to Cameron, while Watkinson was still in striking distance, four points adrift, with Frank Zimmer and Sammy Jones tying for third place on 16 points.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	5	Frank Zimmer	Rosenforth-Jaguar	0:53.55	+-.--
2	13	Dave Simpson	JLD-Porsche	0:53.59	+0.04
3	20	Luca Pacchiarini	Pacchia-Coswojuddhartlambo	0:53.78	+0.23
4	15	David Koczo	Prospec	0:53.87	+0.32
5	9	Gary Cameron	Calinetic-Ford	0:53.88	+0.33
6	6	Adam Lewis	KQ-Hyundai	0:53.98	+0.43
7	2	Douglas Mann	West Cliff-Chevrolet	0:54.15	+0.60
8	16	Dan BH	Bangelia-Alfa Romeo	0:54.30	+0.75
9	10	Simon Redman	Kahama-Ford	0:54.31	+0.76
10	19	Darren Older Jr	CR-Ford	0:54.49	+0.94
11	12	Daniel Melrose	JLD-Porsche	0:54.58	+1.03
12	14	Nathanael Spencer	Prospec	0:54.61	+1.06
13	18	Ashley Watkinson	CR-Ford	0:54.71	+1.16
14	8	Phoenix McAllister	Calinetic-Ford	0:54.76	+1.21
15	3	Sammy Jones	West Cliff-Chevrolet	0:54.95	+1.40
16	11	Kay Lon	Kahama-Ford	0:55.01	+1.46
17	7	Hagane Shizuka	KQ-Hyundai	0:55.17	+1.62
18	4	Thomas De Bock	Rosenforth-Jaguar	0:55.19	+1.64
19	17	James Davies	Bangelia-Alfa Romeo	0:55.22	+1.67

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	16	Dan BH	Bangelia-Alfa Romeo	30	30:38.30	8	10
2	5	Frank Zimmer	Rosenforth-Jaguar	30	+7.68	1	9
3	3	Sammy Jones	West Cliff-Chevrolet	30	+26.62	15	8
4	14	Nathanael Spencer	Prospec	30	+38.69	15	7
5	9	Gary Cameron	Calinetic-Ford	30	+56.68	5	6
6	15	David Koczo	Prospec	30	+59.86	4	5
7	10	Simon Redman	Kahama-Ford	29	+1 lap	9	4
8	8	Phoenix McAllister	Calinetic-Ford	29	+1 lap	14	3
9	20	Luca Pacchiarini	Pacchia-Coswojuddhartlambo	29	+1 lap	3	2
10	18	Ashley Watkinson	CR-Ford	29	+1 lap	13	1
11	13	Dave Simpson	JLD-Porsche	29	+1 lap	2
12	12	Daniel Melrose	JLD-Porsche	29	+1 lap	11
13	2	Douglas Mann	West Cliff-Chevrolet	29	+1 lap	7
14	7	Hagane Shizuka	KQ-Hyundai	29	+1 lap	17
15	6	Adam Lewis	KQ-Hyundai	29	+1 lap	6
16	11	Kay Lon	Kahama-Ford	29	+1 lap	16
17	19	Darren Older Jr	CR-Ford	29	+1 lap	10
18	4	Thomas De Bock	Rosenforth-Jaguar	29	+1 lap	18
19	17	James Davies	Bangelia-Alfa Romeo	28	+2 laps	19

• Fastest Lap: Frank Zimmer: 0:54.05

Standings after the race

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

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Gary Cameron	21
2	Ashley Watkinson	17
3=	Frank Zimmer	16
3=	Sammy Jones	16
5	David Koczo	14

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Calinetic-Ford	27
2	Prospec	21
3=	Rosenforth-Jaguar	20
3=	CR-Ford	20
5	West Cliff-Chevrolet	17

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

Previous race: 2010 Luxembourg Grand Prix	Formula 1 Rejects World Race Series Championship 2010 Season	Next race: 2010 Chinese Grand Prix
Previous race: None	Saxon Grand Prix	Next race: 2011 Saxon Grand Prix