Bahrain was the first night race of the season, the track looked amazing under lights.
Qualify: >>Results<<
It was a close affair with the Duran Nikora and Jaycie Richards the 2 heavy weights going blow for blow and finishing 100ths of a sec apart from each other.
Race: >>Results<<
The race got underway and Adam Gill got off the line like a stabbed rat and jumped to the front of the pack heading into turn 1, followed by another Merc and series leader Scott Daniels. Duran in 3rd and Shane Gilfeather in 4th was closing fast. Jaycie didn’t get a great start as he grabbed a box of neutrals and fell back to 6th. Mikel Lidsaar, Jacob Rankin and Michael Donnellan rounding out the field.
The first 2 laps saw some good clean racing and saw Duran, Shane and Jaycie making nice passing moves. Duran quickly found himself leading the field and Shane worked his way past the Mercs, passing Adam the hard way around the outside to take 3rd. Jaycie recovered from his poor start and by lap 5 found himself only 3.9sec off Duran in first.
Lap 6 saw the field settle into a groove, Duran out in front, his engineer clearly has worked his magic on the set up and preparation of the car to suit Duran and his driving style. And the hard work has certainly paid off in the last 2 rounds. He is looking comfortable in the car and he is able to pump out fast consistent lap times.
Lap 8 saw Shane dive off early into the pits and re-join the field in 5th, the majority of the field followed suit on the following lap except for Adam who’s smooth driving style was able to help him conserve his tyres.
Shane’s early pit stop meant he was able to leap into 2nd leaving Jaycie with a 4.5sec gap to try and close. While Duran held a 5.6 sec lead over Shane. Scott and Adam held 4th and 5th while Michael was able to hold 6th and was working on tyre conservation and so far had got 50% better usage form his tyres. Before the race we caught up with Michael who has recently signed a new deal with Ferrari and his strategy was to get the most out of the tyres and work on a different pit strategy from the rest of the field. Mikel was sitting in 7th and putting in some consistent laps and was pushing Michael and keeping him honest. By lap 13 he managed to take 6th. Jacob was having a tough day at the office in 8th place.
Mid race and after all the pit stop saw the field with Duran in 1st, followed by Jaycie and Shane in 2nd and 3rd respectively, Scott in 4th followed by Adam in 5th. Michael in 6th Mikel in 7th and Jacob in 8th.
Lap 22 saw Adam, Michael and Mikel all vying for track space into turn one and unfortunately Mikel came off second best and found himself pointing at the wall, he made a quick recovery and set off after both Adam and Michael.
The race finished off with Duran taking the win. The F1 now leaves Asia to travel back and start the European races. First stop Catalunya...
By Sam Owen
Championship Table:
2015 F1 League | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Drivers | Race 1 | Race 2 | Race 3 | Race 4 | Race 5 | Race 6 | Race 7 | Race 8 | Race 9 | Race 10 | Race 11 | Race 12 | Race 13 | Race 14 | Race 15 | Race 16 | Race 17 | Race 18 | Race 19 | Drop Rounds | Total Points | Current Place | ||
Scott Daniels | 20 | 20 | 8 | 15 | 63 | 1st | ||||||||||||||||||
Jaycie Richards | 10 | 17 | 13 | 17 | 57 | 2nd | ||||||||||||||||||
Adam Gill | 15 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 55 | 3rd | ||||||||||||||||||
Shane Gilfeather | 17 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 53 | 4th | ||||||||||||||||||
Michael Donnellan | 13 | 12 | 10 | 11 | 46 | 5th | ||||||||||||||||||
Duran Nikora | 0 | 0 | 15 | 20 | 35 | 6th | ||||||||||||||||||
Jacob Rankin | 8 | 0 | 6 | 9 | 23 | 7th | ||||||||||||||||||
Francarlo Rizzo | 0 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 20 | 8th | ||||||||||||||||||
Ross Rizzo | 0 | 0 | 17 | 0 | 17 | 9th | ||||||||||||||||||
Mikel Lindsaar | 0 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 17 | 10th | ||||||||||||||||||
Murray Conallin | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 11th | ||||||||||||||||||
Jason Goodacre | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 12th | ||||||||||||||||||
Geoff Brown | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 13th | ||||||||||||||||||
Matt DeGroot | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 9 | 14th |
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