2014 F2RWRS Belgian Grand Prix

The 2014 F2RWRS Belgian Grand Prix was the eighth race of the 2014 F2RWRS season. Alberto Cara would take home his second victory after only just beating Rosco Vantini. Mitchell Macklin had a terrible day after starting from pole when he was involved in an accident.

Report

Qualifying

After rain washed out most of Thursday Practice, the dry Friday afternoon qualifying session was a welcome relief for the teams and with the F3RWRS not leaving as much carbon fiber (Or more, as the case may be) on the track than they usually do, it looked like to be a good shootout amongst the 22 runners. On one of the real driver's circuits on the calender, Mitchell Macklin took full advantage of being the last runner to take his second pole running from Wouter Lamberigts (Who incidentally was actually was born in the Netherlands but races under a Belgian license) and Alberto Cara. The Holden Young Lions camp obviously read the mid-season review by some punk kid who goes by the name of "Wizzie" with Tommy Nash putting in a personal best effort in 5th and Jason Hamilton also in the top 10, being sandwiched by the two Jones Italia cars after the rumoured takeover of the Trueba team was finally made official. Laurent Seron disappointed on home soil in 11th while the large contingent of Dutch fans who made the trip from the Netherlands to watch their heros Micko Glotch and Bastiaan van Nieuwenhuijzen along with F1RWRS driver Gio van Dycke had to look a long way down the grid to find their countrymen.

Race

The tone of the day had already been set several hours earlier when the second F3RWRS race ended with a red flag after an enormous accident in the pouring rain but the weather had improved to the point where, except for a few areas, the track was bone dry, mostly thanks to the F1RWRS cars in Saturday Qualifying. Marco Bizzari's car did its best to drop some more fluid on the track as the team has overfilled the oil sump on his car. So much in fact, that some of it caught fire and ate the engine within about 5 minutes.

Up front and Wouter Lamberigts had won the start from Mitchell Macklin but by the end of the Kemmel Straight, Macklin and Rosco Vantini had made his way past the Belgian. In that time, Johannes Rueckert had jumped from 7th to 5th, Catarina Lopes had made her way up to 11th and the Simpson and Rising Ashes cars were starting to get into a real punch/counter punch battle. By the time Bizzari's engine blew up on the Kemmel straight on lap 2, Jason Hamilton had saved a massive tankslapper at Eau Rouge, Alberto Cara had lost his patience with Lamberigts yet again and shoved him off the track and Johannes Rueckert's race nearly ended backwards in the Les Combes wall.

Tanner Jason meanwhile made light work of Michael Robertson a few laps later as he, his teammate Nico Bellic, the two Simpson cars and KitKat's Hansuke Shioya were stuck behind the other Gillet car of Laurent Seron. The next lap and further up the field, Marie Simon put an assertive move on Tommy Nash into the Busstop chicane but half a minute later she, like Hamilton earlier, had a massive moment in Eau Rouge. Unlike Hamilton, she wasn't able to hold it as she speared across the track and first hit the unfortunate Rueckert, forcing the German in for a new front wing and eliminating herself from the race before several moments later, Alessandro Marchesi got caught up in the mess when he went one high and one wide alongside teammate Micko Glotch, taking himself out of the race. Hamilton took advantage of the situation to overtake Terry Hawkin at the end of the Kemmel Straight.

It was also on the Kemmel Straight where on the next lap Seron's transmission decided that it could go no further. Not that many people noticed as just down the road, Hansuke Shioya flew off the track at Les Combe, spun back on and took both himself and Anton Bosevic out of the race in the resulting collision. Sani Morgan came barreling through the scene some time later and in a heart stopping moment nearly took out two marshals trying to clean up the accident site. Tommy Nash misstepped in the braking zone into the Busstop a lap later which gave teammate Hamilton the opportunity to pass his teammate.

The first pitstops came soon enough and as Macklin attempted to enter the pits, the look on Melrose's face said it all. The championship leader had found some of the oil from Bizzari's engine blowup and other fluids from the weekend's running thus far, had a meeting with the outside wall and was out of the race. Second placed Vantini did the same thing moments later except he only lost a front wing but it wasn't too big a deal as he was due in anyway. Some of the coolant from Macklin's car started flowing back down the hill which caught out Bellic which put an end to another quiet day from the Serbian. Sani Morgan then got involved by hitting the stricken Rising Ashes car at a low speed. While not fast enough to do any damage, he did end up breaking a marshal's leg and got a trip to the stewards room after the race for his troubles.

Terry Hawkin did the exact same thing as Macklin a lap later as he was trying to enter the pits before an out of control Tanner Jason followed him into the Busstop wall which ended up with a second marshal having to make the trip to the medical center. The destruction continued around the back of the track when Dave Anderson's left rear suspension let got on the exit of Pouhon, becoming the race's fifth retirment in 5 minutes. Amidst all the chaos, the two Beirao cars, both on one stoppers, found themselves in first and third with Jason Hamilton, also one stopping, in second. Vantini was down to 5th after his first stop and was looking for a way past the sole remaining Aston Martin of Micko Glotch. Heartbreakingly, Catarina Lopes' transmission failed on her before half distance. While she may not have been on track for a podium, she was heading for a hatful of points amongst all the carnage.

Vantini finally got the move done on Glotch into the Busstop later that lap and set off after the leaders like a possessed man. Michael Robertson was doing a similar job on the remaining midfield runners, putting a move on the other Falik Arrows of Sani Morgan for 6th place down the Kemmel Straight. The race quietened down somewhat as both Cara and Hamilton found the wall at the Busstop where so many others did early in the race but neither hit it hard enough to do any significant damage. Both of them came out behind Nash but Cara made light work of the Canadian within a few laps of pitting. An intermittent throttle problem then struck Nash's car which meant teammate Hamilton was also able to get by a lap later although the problem soon disappeared.

While Nash had that problem, Hamilton had his second major moment of the afternoon at Eau Rouge, spinning his Young Lions car letting Nash back past while Michael Robertson also spun at the same place in unison just seconds later. This let Glotch past the Australian for 5th place while Hamilton couldn't get past Nash until the Canadian made his second stop. With all the pitstops now out of the way, Cara was leading again from Vantini and Hamilton. The main battle on track was between the two stopping Robertson and the one stopping Morgan with Robertson making a relatively straightforward pass on the Nigerian into the Busstop.

Whatever throttle gremlin Nash's Young Lions car had, it manifested itself into a partially jammed throttle which meant that he was out of the race from 5th place. Not that many people were paying attention as up front, Vantini was catching Cara at over a second a lap and at that rate, Vantini would have got him with just over a lap to go while Hamilton was bearing down on both of them. As it was, Bastiaan van Nieuwenhuijzen was in all sorts of trouble with gaining tires and was losing over 10 seconds a lap at this point. Cara made light work of lapping him but Vantini and Hamilton both lost a heap of time trying to lap him which knocked the wind out of both their challenges. Not that it stopped Vantini from trying as by the end of the race, the time he lost from lapping van Nieuwenhuijzen was more than the gap to Cara.

As it was however, Cara had done enough to become the first person other than Macklin to win multiple F2RWRS races ahead of Vantini with Jason Hamilton scoring his first podium in third. Micko Glocth also scored his best career result in 4th while Michael Robertson was slightly disappointed with only 5th place. Sani Morgan took some more valuable points in 6th but the Nigerian is under investigation for his two incidents early in the race. Lamberigts stayed out of trouble after being punted off by Cara to score two more points in 7th while Johannes Rueckert, with new front wing and badly graining tires at the end salvaged the final point although before the graining set in he was catching Lamberigts at a vast rate of knots.

Classifcation

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap	Points
1	7	Mitchell Macklin	MRT	1:58.890	--	1
2	4	Wouter Lamberigts	Gillet	1:59.018	+0.128
3	5	Alberto Cara	Beirão	1:59.216	+0.326
4	11	Rosco Vantini	Falik	1:59.356	+0.446
5	0	Tommy Nash	Young Lions	1:59.485	+0.575
6	15	Johannes Rueckert	Hydook	1:59.623	+0.783
7	8	Marie Simon	MRT	1:59.863	+0.979
8	10	Terry Hawkin	Trueba	1:59.902	+1.013
9	2	Jason Hamilton	Young Lions	2:00.068	+1.169
10	9	Marco Bizzarri	Trueba	2:00.275	+1.376
11	3	Laurent Seron	Gillet	2:00.290	+1.391
12	16	Alessandro Marchesi	Aston Martin	2:00.392	+1.493
13	22	Niko Bellic	Rising Ashes	2:00.409	+1.510
14	6	Catarina Lopes	Beirão	2:00.573	+1.674
15	19	Dave Anderson	Simpson	2:00.757	+1.858
16	17	Micko Glotch	Aston Martin	2:00.793	+1.894
17	18	Michael Robertson	Simpson	2:00.900	+2.010
18	20	Hansuke Shioya	KitKat	2:01.134	+2.244
19	14	Anton Bosevic	Hydook	2:01.380	+2.490
20	23	Tanner Jason	Rising Ashes	2:01.438	+2.548
21	12	Sani Morgan	Falik	2:01.814	+2.924
22	21	Bastiaan van Nieuwenhuijzen	KitKat	2:03.497	+4.607

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Alberto Cara	Beirão	29	59:32.176	3	10
2	11	Rosco Vantini	Falik	29	+5.537	4	8
3	2	Jason Hamilton	Young Lions	29	+17.181	9	6
4	17	Micko Glotch	Aston Martin	29	+32.343	16	5
5	18	Michael Robertson	Simpson	29	+55.719	17	4
6	12	Sani Morgan	Falik	29	+1:07.961	21	3
7	4	Wouter Lamberigts	Gillet	29	+1:14.152	2	2
8	15	Johannes Rueckert	Hydook	29	+1:28.508	6	1
9	21	Bastiaan van Nieuwenhuijzen	KitKat	28	+1 lap	22
Ret	0	Tommy Nash	Young Lions	27	Throttle	5
Ret	6	Catarina Lopes	Beirão	14	Transmission	14
Ret	19	Dave Anderson	Simpson	11	Suspension	15
Ret	23	Tanner Jason	Rising Ashes	14	Accident	20
Ret	10	Terry Hawkin	Trueba	14	Accident	8
Ret	22	Niko Bellic	Rising Ashes	13	Accident	13
Ret	7	Mitchell Macklin	MRT	13	Accident	1	1^
Ret	20	Hansuke Shioya	KitKat	11	Collision	18
Ret	14	Anton Bosevic	Hydook	11	Collision	19
Ret	3	Laurent Seron	Gillet	10	Transmission	11
Ret	8	Marie Simon	MRT	9	Collision	7
Ret	16	Alessandro Marchesi	Aston Martin	9	Collision	12
Ret	9	Marco Bizzarri	Trueba	2	Engine	10

^ Mitchell Macklin 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	60
2	Alberto Cara	45
3	Rosco Vantini	35
4	Marie Simon	29
5	Michael Robertson	24

Constructors

Pos	Team	Pts
1	Virgin MRT	89
2	Beirao	45
3	Falik Arrows	44
4	Young Lions	31
5	Aston Martin	30

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

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