2012 F1RWRS Dutch Grand Prix
The 2012 F1RWRS Dutch Grand Prix was the sixth race of the 2012 Formula 1 Rejects World Race Series season, held on May 20th 2012 at Zandvoort. Chris Dagnall started the race from pole, while James Davies won his first and currently only F1RWRS race.
Contents
Race report
Buildup
After taking his maiden victory in the previous race, Phoenix McAllister was now third in the championship behind Pippa Mann and Kay Lon, while Chris Dagnall was fourth after taking second place in Belgium. The Briton was starting to gain ground by consistent points finishing. Following the race, Jeroen Krautmeir and his brother Wilhelm announced more details about their planned new team for the 2013 season called Precision Motorsport. The team would be based in Oschersleben and would use a Lola chassis built by Willy Rampf and Jorg Zander. Defending champion Nathanael Spencer declared himself interested in joining the team for 2013 as second driver.
Following his failure to pre-qualify at Spa, Damon Cannon expressed his lack of trust in the CR team, saying that "any car that cannot go flat out at Eau Rouge does not merit it's place in F1RWRS. I'm rapidly losing patience with CR." Group Lotus driver Richie White also expressed his discontent of the Lotus chassis.
Following the collision between Barii Mori, Rhys Davies and Sammy Jones in which Jones was eliminated from the race, Jones jokingly declared that he would be watching out for Mori at Zandvoort. Mori replied by saying that he "was hit from behind by [Davies and Jones] squabbling with each other and forgetting where the brake pedal was", adding that the accident had "[loosened] a screw in Sammy Jones' head." Jones then stated: "At the end of the day, if some rookie is going to accuse both myself and Davies for 'forgetting where the brake pedal is' then it sums up the attitude of modern drivers today. (...) when I can't even get an apology from the other driver, it makes me question why I even do this anymore."
Amidst financial difficulties for Trueba Racing Team, who had failed to pre-qualify six times in the first five races, second driver and stakeholder Tristan Jung announced that he had purchased an additional 15% of the team, with his share now amounting to 20% of the operation.
Melrose Racing Team, after the departure of Willy Rampf to develop the upcoming Precision Motorsport project, announced that they were actively searching for a replacement, citing Mike Gascoyne and James Key as possible targets.
Team Phoenix, following McAllister's victory at Spa, brought a new front wing and a modified air intake for McAllister to test.
Pre-qualifying
As usual, pre-qualifying was split in four qualifying heats of eight drivers each, with the 13 slowest drivers in the combined heats failing to pre-qualify.
The heats were respectively won by Pippa Mann, Chris Dagnall, James Davies and Nathanael Spencer. Bavarian Grand Prix winner Darren Older Jr again failed to prequalify, as did Thomas De Bock and Jeroen Krautmeir, both highly-rated drivers. On the flipside, Aurelien Moll pre-qualified for only the second time of the season, while James Davies put an end to his two-race streak of non-pre-qualifications. Nicolas Steele, meanwhile, became the second driver, after Moll, to record five consecutive DNPQs.
Qualifying
Chris Dagnall ended up taking his first pole position of the year and the fourth of his career, while championship leader Pippa Mann qualified fifth, her AMR beaten by the MAN of Hagane Shizuka, the HRT of Rhys Davies and the MRT of Daniel Melrose. Kay Lon would line up in seventh position, with the rear brought up by Aurelien Moll, Gary Cameron, Dave Simpson and Damon Cannon, the Aguri Suzuki Cup winner happy just to pre-qualify.
Race
Chris Dagnall kept the lead off the start, with James Davies making a particularly good start in the AMR, in fourth place at the end of lap 1, while Hagane Shizuka went the other way, dropping to fifth.
Dagnall kept the lead for the first part of the race, while Davies slowly gained positions, passing Daniel Melrose for third on lap 10 and Rhys Davies for second place 9 laps later. Dagnall was still setting the pace, but was unable to pull a large enough gap.
Pitstops started on lap 27 with 8 laps to go. Davies was among the first drivers to dive in the pits to change tyres, with the best part of the field pitting on lap 28. It soon became obvious that they had made the right decision when Melrose set the fastest lap of the race on lap 29, the lap where Dagnall came into the pits, Kay Lon briefly leading the race before pitting on lap 30.
As it turned out, Dagnall had stayed out too long and had dropped back to tenth position, leaving James Davies with a comfortable lead over Rhys Davies. With five laps to go, Dagnall started to gain position after position, consecutively passing Sammy Jones, Pippa Mann and Kay Lon, but stumbled on the also very fast Daniel Melrose in third position. Dagnall ended the race in fourth place, less than seven seconds behind James Davies, who took his maiden F1RWRS victory.
The race was not very eventful apart from an accident on lap 12 when defending champion Nathanael Spencer's Prospec's brakes failed, sending him into the tyre barrier at Tarzanbocht. Spencer got out of the car by himself and was uninjured.
Pippa Mann retained the championship lead with 37 points, just a single point over Kay Lon, with Chris Dagnall a further seven points behind. James Davies' victory elevated him to an equal fifth position in the championship with 26 points, tied with Rhys Davies.
Post-race
After the race, Barii Mori was heard arguing with team owner Aguri Suzuki, possibly about the upgrades made to Phoenix McAllister's car for the weekend, while Mori did not receive them and failed to pre-qualify, starting a series of reports citing Mori's will to change teams mid-season. Later on, McAllister expressed his frustration towards the team's lack of consistency by threatening to fire some of his team's employees, also asking for more involvement on Honda's part.
Melrose Racing Team, after Jeroen Krautmeir's announced departure for 2013, declared that they would host an open test at the Nürburgring a few weeks later in order to determine a potential replacement for Krautmeir.
Manx-Anglo-Nippon driver Douglas Mann declared that he had refrained from attempting a pass for the last point in order to ensure that the team wouldn't lose points due to an unneeded collision between teammates, only for Shizuka to stay bemused, as he would have gladly let Mann through. Mann replied by saying that Shizuka was paid to score.
On the drivers side, Nicolas Steele made his frustration clear concerning the deplorable performance of the Pacchia, stating the he didn't want to be "the best of the worst", referring to the Aguri Suzuki Cup. At the same time, Gary Cameron announced his departure from Calinetic, citing poor car performance, to move to Prospec alongside defending champion Nathanael Spencer, who had no teammate since David Koczo's move to Calinetic. Cameron was already scheduled to move to Prospec for 2013, but decided to precipitate the transfer, with Nicolas Steele replacing him at Calinetic.
Select quotes
"Unfortunately my car hadn't the best setup for this circuit, we didn't manage to test as much as we would like to due to a braking failure, but I think that if that squirrel didn't cross the track when I was pushing hard in my final hotlap, we could have improved the time and at least have passed in the standing my owner-team-mate. My future? Despite recent rumors, I firmly believe that I will continue to drive for Trueba." -Giovanni Roda
"What the hell has gone wrong with the car? I was promised by Mr Bahar himself that the car would be reasonably competitive, not DNPQ 4 times in 7 races. Maybe I should have thought about taking that offer from another Lotus team, run by that Tony Fernandes fellow instead, that was planning on entering F1RWRS?" -Richie White
"The senile old fool may have more experience but he still scored less points then I have since I have been in F1, I even managed 3 fastest laps in 8 races and a pole, what did he get? A handful of points. Maybe next time when I have a moment that is out of my control I should wave a white flag or even give him written notice that I might run over something and have a moment, so please do not follow so closely, maybe just wave him past at the the first corner and trundle around the back of the track.... We were all in danger but I had two cars that hit me and I could have suffered too." -Barii Mori
"There might be light at the end of the tunnel afterall as the car felt the best it has all season in race trim. The one lap pace needs some work since the car is incredibly inconsistant on low fuel loads as both Jeroen and myself experienced during pre-qualifying." -Daniel Melrose
"Another tough race but I'm glad to (just) retain the championship lead. And just look at our lead in the Teams' Championship. Woo hoo!" -Pippa Mann
"It was another anonymous race where the car wasn't to our liking and obviously didn't perform. We are hoping that in the next race both of us can pre qualify and add some points to our team." -Daniel Martins
"Another good result for the team, Chris has had a fantastic weekend, I'm only sorry he couldn't finish it on the podium, but nonetheless we continue to rack up the points between us and although AMR are quite far ahead in the standings, I think between myself and Chris we can outscore them enough to overcome them.
Oh and yes I was relieved Barii Mori didn't make it into the race, probably one of the main reasons why I actually finished!" -Sammy Jones
Classification
Pre-qualifying and qualifying
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Pre-Q | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14 |  Chris Dagnall
|
Jones-Renault | 1:02.84 | 0:59.93 | — |
| 2 | 25 |  Hagane Shizuka
|
MAN | 1:03.05 | 1:00.16 | +0.23 |
| 3 | 8 |  Rhys Davies
|
Holden | 1:03.80 | 1:00.20 | +0.27 |
| 4 | 3 | Daniel Melrose
|
MRT-BMW | 1:03.39 | 1:00.26 | +0.33 |
| 5 | 9 | Pippa Mann
|
AMR-Peel-DeLorean | 1:02.81 | 1:00.36 | +0.43 |
| 6 | 10 | James Davies
|
AMR-Peel-DeLorean | 1:02.97 | 1:00.52 | +0.59 |
| 7 | 11 |  Kay Lon
|
Kahama-Ford | 1:03.30 | 1:00.66 | +0.73 |
| 8 | 26 | Douglas Mann
|
MAN | 1:03.17 | 1:00.81 | +0.88 |
| 9 | 1 | Nathanael Spencer
|
Prospec | 1:02.91 | 1:00.89 | +0.96 |
| 10 | 13 | Sammy Jones
|
Jones-Renault | 1:03.24 | 1:00.95 | +1.02 |
| 11 | 16 | Ashley Watkinson
|
Hemogoblin-Ford | 1:03.14 | 1:00.99 | +1.06 |
| 12 | 21 |  Phoenix McAllister
|
Phoenix-Honda | 1:03.56 | 1:01.10 | +1.17 |
| 13 | 15 |  T. Hemo Goblin
|
Hemogoblin-Ford | 1:03.34 | 1:01.21 | +1.28 |
| 14 | 24 | Tristan Jung
|
Trueba-Piaggio | 1:03.89 | 1:01.37 | +1.44 |
| 15 | 30 |  Daniel Martins
|
ArrowTech-Lamborghini | 1:03.74 | 1:01.52 | +1.59 |
| 16 | 17 |  Aurelien Moll
|
ENB-Gillet | 1:03.62 | 1:01.63 | +1.70 |
| 17 | 5 | Gary Cameron
|
Calinetic-Ford | 1:03.43 | 1:01.71 | +1.78 |
| 18 | 19 | Dave Simpson
|
Minardi-BMW | 1:03.60 | 1:01.85 | +1.92 |
| 19 | 32 | Damon Cannon
|
CR-Ford | 1:03.54 | 1:01.86 | +1.93 |
| DNPQ | 29 |  Jari Kekkonen
|
ART-Lamborghini | 1:03.94 | ||
| DNPQ | 28 | Nicolas Steele
|
Pacchia-Coswojuddhartlambo | 1:04.01 | ||
| DNPQ | 23 |  Giovanni Roda
|
Trueba-Piaggio | 1:04.09 | ||
| DNPQ | 4 | Jeroen Krautmeir
|
MRT-BMW | 1:04.12 | ||
| DNPQ | 27 | Luca Pacchiarini
|
Pacchia-Coswojuddhartlambo | 1:04.14 | ||
| DNPQ | 6 |  David Koczo
|
Calinetic-Ford | 1:04.24 | ||
| DNPQ | 22 | Barii Mori
|
Phoenix-Honda | 1:04.29 | ||
| DNPQ | 33 | Richie White
|
Lotus-Judd | 1:04.32 | ||
| DNPQ | 7 | Frank Zimmer
|
Holden | 1:04.36 | ||
| DNPQ | 18 | Thomas De Bock
|
ENB-Gillet | 1:04.49 | ||
| DNPQ | 31 | Darren Older Jr
|
CR-Ford | 1:04.59 | ||
| DNPQ | 35 | Dean O'Lauchlan
|
O'Lauchlan-BMW | 1:04.60 | ||
| DNPQ | 37 |  Resi Respati
|
Osella-Ford | 1:04.70 |
Race
- Pole: Chris Dagnall: 0:59.93
- Fastest Lap: Daniel Melrose: 1:05.87
Note: One point is now awarded to the driver with the fastest lap and the driver with the pole position.
Standings after the race
- Bold text indicates who still has a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.
- Drivers' Championship standings
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pippa Mann
|
37 |
| 2 | Kay Lon
|
36 |
| 3 | Chris Dagnall
|
29 |
| 4 | Phoenix McAllister
|
27 |
| =5 | James Davies
|
26 |
| =5 | Rhys Davies
|
26 |
- Constructors' Championship standings
| Pos | Constructor | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  AMR-Peel-Ford
|
63 |
| 2 | RubberTex Jones-Renault
|
36 |
| 3 | Kamaha-Ford
|
36 |
| 4 | Phoenix-Honda
|
32 |
| 5 | Holden
|
26 |
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
| Previous race: 2012 Belgian Grand Prix |
Formula 1 Rejects World Race Series Championship 2012 Season |
Next race: 2012 British Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 2011 Dutch Grand Prix |
Dutch Grand Prix | Next race: 2013 Dutch Grand Prix |
