2014 F2RWRS French Grand Prix

The 2014 F2RWRS French Grand Prix was the third race of the 2014 F2RWRS season. For the third time in three rounds it was Mitchell Macklin who took home the victory in his Virgin MRT car.

Report

Qualifying

While the main game was enjoying themselves at Paul Ricard on the French Riviera, the F2RWRS was nowhere near there thanks to restrictions a Mr Bernard Charles Ecclestone imposed on the track. Therefore the F2RWRS found themselves in the middle of nowhere at Magny Cours. Which wasn't a bad thing for Alberto Cara because even though he lost the pole to Wouter Lamberigts yet again, Mitchell Macklin made a mistake on his hotlap which meant he was only 6th on the grid. That would have only been 7th for the championship leader had Hansuke Shioya, on track for about 3rd or 4th on the grid, hadn't made an error in the final sector which meant he only qualified 9th for the Sunday race. Who did deliver on a surprise however was Johannes Rueckert who qualified an excellent 4th on the grid in the Hydook, utterly destroying his teammate Anton Bosevic in the process.

Race

It was one of those days where the F2 drivers were wishing that Bernie had allowed the F1RWRS contract to bring the F2RWRS to the French Riviera as well. Instead, what they got was a wet weather system that moved in during the night and made for a cold, wet and miserable buildup to the race. The fans that were there however were expecting another cracker of a race and with good reason too as the track was absolutely soaked by race start.

Not that it mattered much to Alberto Cara as, for the second race in a row, he made a fantastic getaway, got passed the polesitter Wouter Lamberigts and started skipping away at a vast rate of knots along with Johannes Rueckert who had also made his way past the Belgian. Further back at there was a concertina effect heading into the Adelaide hairpin as Rosco Vantini braked hard to avoid Lamberigts, the two MRTs of Marie Simon and Mitchell Macklin got together behind him forcing Niko Bellic into the back of the increasingly unlucky Tommy Nash, forcing the Canadian to do a quick pirouette down the outside to avoid the melee. All the cars continued without damage as they tried to sort themselves out in the tricky conditions.

Giconi Okorie became the first retirement of the afternoon as he found the wall at Estoril whilst trying to powerslide his way through the oversteer which backfired spectacularly. At the other side of the track, Lamberigts was having a torrid time trying to keep it on the island and a mistake at 180 meant Simon made her way past him, nearly taking her teammate Macklin with her as well. Hansuke Shioya, running 8th, went off at the exact same spot just seconds later. Next up to try the astroturf at 180 was Rosco Vantini on lap 3 when he did the same thing and ran wide, letting Niko Bellic and Alessandro Marchesi through. Lamberigts then spun seconds later at the Imola chicane, forcing him down all the way to 21st and last on the road.

Bellic was now up to 5th place which didn't last long as Marchesi put a classy move down the inside of the Serbian in the braking zone for the Adelaide hairpin the very next lap. However, Marchesi's slow exit meant that Vantini got a run on Bellic as well heading into the fast Nurburging chicane which ended badly for the Italian as, instead of making a spot, he lost a spot to Terry Hawkin in the process. Back at the Adelaide hairpin and Nash, now running 13th and in a fierce battle with the likes of his teammate George Liquor and Tanner Jason, was trying to defend his spot from Trueba's Marco Bizzari but instead was tapped into a spin by the Italian, forcing him all the way to the back of the field.

Lap 6 and it was all going off at the back of the field. Dave Anderson and Lamberigts were battling for 18th and 19th heading into Nurburgring when both of them ran wide and into the path of Anton Bosevic, putting the Hydook driver into a harmless spin. The Nurburgring was proving to be one slippery little sucker as on lap 8, Simon was the next person to have a moment as she spun whilst pressuring Rueckert for 2nd. She rejoined in 4th behind teammate Macklin. Nash was steaming his way up the field and by lap 10 he was up to 16th while Hansuke Shioya, obviously not liking the conditions at all, had fallen all the way to the back of the field.

On lap 11 Terry Hawkin, in only his second race and his first ever drive of the car in the wet, took 6th place by forcing Niko Bellic wide into the Adelaide hairpin with a light love tap in the braking zone. The next lap, Jason's suspension collapsed on the approach to Imola, putting the American out of the race from 9th place. While all this was going on, Bizzari and Michael Robertson were having an absolute ripper of a battle on the outskirts of the top 10.

The first pitstops came at around lap 15 with Cara coming in at the end of lap 16. His crew did their job but he had to wait for Marchesi to transit the lane before he could rejoin which cost the Tropican driver dearly. Later that lap, Anderson tapped the other Beirao driver of Catrina Lopes and made his way past for 15th place. Du Lei became the third retirement of the afternoon when the transmission on her car let go.

It soon became clear that Marchesi had cost Cara a lot as not only had Rueckert now been promoted into the lead, he also lost 2nd place to Macklin who had put in some absolutely staggering laps as the rain got harder before his first pitstop. It got worse for the Tropican driver as in his push to keep up his BMW powerplant sprung an oil leak and set itself on fire, putting him out of the race. At the same time Macklin made a move on Rueckert into Lycee Pin stick to take over the lead of the race. At the same time, on the other side of the circuit, Anderson had another moment at Nurburgring, this time taking Sani Morgan with him, and again it was Bosevic that was the unlucky victim of the melee. Later that lap, the other Falik Arrows of Vantini hit the other Simpson car of Robertson on the run to Lycee Pin, forcing the Italian into a spin. Lap 22 was proving to be very messy as Shioya and Lamberigts also got together at Nurburgring whilst battling for 18th and 19th.

The race quietened down somewhat until lap 26 when Micko Glotch, running in the points in his Aston Martin, had an electrical problem which forced him to pit and put him outside the top 10. A few laps later, Anderson and Morgan got into yet more aggravation, this time into the Adelaide hairpin as Anderson tapped the back of the Nigerian to take 12th spot away from him. Half a lap earlier, his teammate Robertson retired with transmission failure whilst at pit entry, desperately trying to make his way back to the pits. The very next lap, Anton Bosevic became the sixth retirement when his radiator sprung a rather large leak which meant the engine was losing water at a vast rate of knots.

With the second pitstops complete and Macklin skipping away, the main battles on track were Rueckert and Simon fighting it out for the minor placings, Marchesi and Hawkin battling for 4th, and the time battle for the remaining points finishes between Bizzari, Bellic, Nash, Liquor and Glotch. Liquor was soon removed from that equation when the suspension on his Young Lions car collapsed halfway through Estoril. A few laps from home, Hawkin got past Marchesi for 4th and started powering his way towards Simon and Rueckert for the podium positions. And then, on the penultimate lap, Rueckert finally cracked to the pressure Simon was giving him as he went off into the kitty litter at Grande Courbe before rejoining in 5th. Behind him, Bizzari only made it to Estoril before he speared off as well, losing 6th place to Bellic.

Hawkin was now up to 3rd and came oh-so-close to getting second as well when heading into the final lap, Simon got held up by trying to lap Morgan's Falik Arrows which gave the Brit a run down the front straight. But either way third behind the rampant Macklin and Simon was still an incredible result who only for the drive less than 3 weeks prior to today. Marchesi consolidated his fine Turkey result with another 4th place while Ruckert was ruing what could have been in 5th. Niko Bellic scored 3 points in 6th while Bizzari got Trueba off the mark in 7th and Tommy Nash scraped home for the final points paying position.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap	Points
1	4	Wouter Lamberigts	Gillet	1:21.843	--	1
2	5	Alberto Cara	Beirão	1:22.146	+0.303
3	11	Rosco Vantini	Falik	1:22.497	+0.654
4	15	Johannes Rueckert	Hydook	1:22.523	+0.680
5	8	Marie Simon	MRT	1:22.544	+0.701
6	7	Mitchell Macklin	MRT	1:22.727	+0.884
7	3	Terry Hawkin	Gillet	1:22.777	+0.934
8	0	Tommy Nash	Young Lions	1:22.861	+1.018
9	20	Hansuke Shioya	KitKat	1:22.977	+1.134
10	22	Niko Bellic	Rising Ashes	1:23.036	+1.193
11	17	Micko Glotch	Aston Martin	1:23.269	+1.426
12	23	Tanner Jason	Rising Ashes	1:23.300	+1.457
13	16	Alessandro Marchesi	Aston Martin	1:23.305	+1.462
14	2	George Liquor	Young Lions	1:23.412	+1.569
15	9	Marco Bizzarri	Trueba	1:23.452	+1.609
16	19	Dave Anderson	Simpson	1:23.474	+1.631
17	6	Catarina Lopes	Beirão	1:23.527	+1.684
18	18	Michael Robertson	Simpson	1:23.613	+1.770
19	10	Du Lei	Trueba	1:23.632	+1.789
20	14	Anton Bosevic	Hydook	1:23.837	+1.994
21	12	Sani Morgan	Falik	1:23.949	+2.106
22	21	Giconi Okorie	KitKat	1:25.697	+3.854

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	7	Mitchell Macklin	MRT	46	1:15:13.510	6	10
2	8	Marie Simon	MRT	46	+27.132	5	8+1^
3	3	Terry Hawkin	Gillet	46	+28.150	7	6
4	16	Alessandro Marchesi	Aston Martin	46	+31.423	13	5
5	15	Johannes Rueckert	Hydook	46	+47.949	4	4
6	22	Niko Bellic	Rising Ashes	46	+1:05.800	10	3
7	9	Marco Bizzarri	Trueba	46	+1:10.637	15	2
8	0	Tommy Nash	Young Lions	46	+1:22.248	8	1
9	17	Micko Glotch	Aston Martin	46	+1:23.588	11
10	11	Rosco Vantini	Falik	46	+1:38.012	3
11	19	Dave Anderson	Simpson	45	+1 lap	16
12	6	Catarina Lopes	Beirão	45	+1 lap	17
13	12	Sani Morgan	Falik	45	+1 lap	21
14	4	Wouter Lamberigts	Gillet	45	+1 lap	1
15	20	Hansuke Shioya	KitKat	44	+2 laps	9
Ret	2	George Liquor	Young Lions	33	Suspension	14
Ret	14	Anton Bosevic	Hydook	31	Water Leak	20
Ret	18	Michael Robertson	Simpson	30	Transmission	18
Ret	5	Alberto Cara	Beirão	18	Oil Leak	2
Ret	10	Du Lei	Trueba	16	Transmission	19
Ret	23	Tanner Jason	Rising Ashes	12	Suspension	12
Ret	21	Giconi Okorie	KitKat	2	Accident	22

^ Marie Simon collected the fastest lap

Standings

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

Drivers

Pos	Driver	Pts
1	Mitchell Macklin	30
2	Marie Simon	18
3	Alberto Cara	14
4	Alessandro Marchesi	10
5	Rosco Vantini	8

Constructors

Pos	Team	Pts
1	Virgin MRT	48
2	Beirao	14
=3	Rising Ashes	10
=3	Aston Martin	10
=3	Hydook	10

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

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