Race 2 at Croft today saw Brendon Hartley (Carlin Motorsport) finally
finish a race without controversy or crashing, and in fact the New
Zealander led the winner of the first race, Sergio Perez (T-Sport) all
the way home, but not before dramas further down the field that led to
a marshal being injured, a lot of cars being wrecked, and a restart.
3rd place went to Oliver Turvey (Carlin Motorsport) after he pulled a
very neat move on Atte Mustonen (Double R Racing) going through Tower
late in the race. In the National Class it was deja-vu all over again,
with Andrew Meyrick (Carlin Motorsport) once more claiming both the
win and the point for fastest lap. He was miles ahead of Salman Al
Khalifa (T-Sport) and Hywel Lloyd (CF Racing), the latter seeming rather
surprised to find that with the aggregated result he may have finished
behind Jay Bridger (Fluid Motorsport) on the road but he was actually
ahead of him in the race.
This was one of those races where it was just as well we started
with 29 cars, because we really didn't get that many of them back.
Everything started well enough, unless you were Ricardo Teixeira
(Ultimate Motorsport), the Angolan starting from the pit lane after
repairs needed after he crashed out of the first race of the day took
rather a long time to complete. Mind you, he might have been in the
safest place. As the lights went out, Hartley got away beautifully,
edging Marcus Ericsson (Fortec Motorsport) out as they ran down to
Clervaux, with Perez and Sam Abay (Carlin Motorsport) just behind them.
Turvey made a less than stellar start, dropping back from 5th, but
otherwise they all made it through the first corner without incident,
despite Michael Devaney (Ultimate Motorsport) going off like a rocket
when the race started. He was at the back after a disastrous qualifying
session and he wasn't planning on staying there. He'd made up at least
five places by the time they came out of the second corner, and he
obviously wasn't done yet.
A lap later and it was all academic, after Perez attempted to pass
Ericsson at the Jim Clark Esses and the two clashed. Perez escaped
with damage to the nose cone, but Ericsson wasn't quite so fortunate,
spinning wildly. It was now a question of damage limitation. With the
rest of the field following closely, it was almost inevitable that some
of them would be affected by the incident, but not on the scale that
actually resulted. When the dust finally cleared, not only was Ericsson
out, but so were Abay who spun in avoidance and was struck amidships by
Henry Arundel (Double R Racing), Esteban Guerrieri (Ultimate Motorsport)
who ended up in the barriers, Oliver Oakes (Eurotek) and Niall Quinn
(Team Loctite), the latter hitting the former and sending him into one
of the marshals 'post. Additionally, one of the marshals was injured
and was ambulanced to the medical centre, apparently with a broken leg.
The remainder of the field reassembled on the grid, and eventually
were sorted out into the order that they finished the 2nd lap in for a
restart over 18 laps. Hopefully with rather less drama.
At the restart, Hartley knew what he had to do and promptly did it,
again claiming the lead and leaving Perez to settle in behind him.
Devaney was relegated several places for the restart and promptly did
another demon start, hacking past a number of National Class competitors
as if they were standing still. At the end of the first lap he was up in
11th, and looking for a way past Alistair Jackson (Double R Racing). It
was to prove his undoing. An attempt at Tower failed, and a later lunge
saw the Ultimate Mygale bouncing across the kerbs and the grass and into
retirement a lap later.
After that things calmed down a little, though the last survivor of the
Ultimate orange wave, Teixeira, was making up ground at the back, and
had made up 6 places in 3 laps. He then threw it all away again, ending
up back behind Walter Grubmuller (Hitech Racing), the Austrian looking
rather unconvincing as he tried to work his way past the National Class
guys. Apart from that, and the battle developing between Kristjan Einar
(Carlin Motorsport) and almost anyone that got near him, including Al
Khalifa, Stefan Wilson (Fluid Motorsport), Bridger and the hapless
Teixeira who eventually retired after spinning off at the Chicane. It
hadn't been the best of races for Ultimate, and they will want to move
on from this as soon as possible. The upshot was damage to Wilson's
front wing, a spin from Einar that let Al Khalifa through, and then to
add insult to injury Lloyd came through for 3rd, just behind Bridger on
the track, but ahead of him when the times were aggregated.
Another one in trouble was John Martin (Double R Racing) who wandered
into the pits and out of contention after a spin as the race reached
its mid-point. By the time he came back out he was dead last. It was
all happening at the back! Wilson was now just ahead of Martin, the car
scraping horribly as he wrestled in through the corners with the wing
attempting to wedge itself under the car. He wasn't the only one not
having a good time. Viktor Jensen (Nexa Racing) was struggling just as
badly as he had in the first race, and compounded that by demolishing a
batch of floppy markers and generally trying - and apparently failing -
to wrestle the car into submission.
As the race moved towards its conclusion, Perez was still hanging on
to Hartley, though he couldn't get quite close enough. However, no one
else was anywhere within sight of the pair of them. Mustonen, it's fair
to say, had problems of his own, in the shape of Turvey, who was edging
ever closer to the Finn as the race wore on. He was certain he could get
past and he thought he knew where as well. He was right, but first he
tried to sell Mustonen a dummy at Clervaux. When that didn't work the
pair of them were side-by-side on the run to Tower, and then Turvey was
through. It was move he'd pulled in the past in Formula BMW and the Finn
simply didn't have an answer. His podium position was snatched from him
with two laps to go. And that was that, really.
Hartley came home to his first win, while Perez now leads the
championship by 4 points with his 2nd place. Turvey was of course 3rd
from Mustonen. Jaime Alguersuari (Carlin Motorsport) was 5th after
holding off Nick Tandy (John Tandy Racing) for the latter part of the
race, after Tandy had demoted Sebastian Hohenthal (Fortec Racing)
to 7th. Meyrick was 8th overall and claimed the National Class win,
and was followed home by Jackson and Max Chilton (Hitech Racing).
Grubmuller, in the other Hitech car, was 11th, claiming the last point
in the International Class, with Al Khalifa next up, then Lloyd, from
Bridger, Jensen, Steve Guerrero (T- Sport), Einar, Wilson, Craig Reiff
(Nexa Racing) and Philip Major (Fortec Motorsport). Martin was the last
classified runner in 21st.
It's to be hoped that at the next meeting at Monza there is rather less
chaos and confusion.
The extra point in each class for fastest lap of the race went to Perez
(who broke Takuma Sato's 7-year old lap record in the process) and
Meyrick.
Weather: Cold, dry.
Next Races: Rounds 5 & 6, Monza, Italy, 16th/18th May.
