2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
| Race details | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race {{{Race_No}}} of the 2011 Superleague season | ||
| ||
| Date | March 31st, 2011 | |
| Official name | 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix | |
| Location | Yas Marina Circuit Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates | |
| Course | Permanent Racing Facility 3.451 mi / 5.554 km | |
| Distance | 55 laps, 189.805 mi / 305.470 km | |
| Weather | Sunny | |
| Pole position | ||
| Driver |  Joe Consiglio
|
Nordsjoen-Mercedes |
| Time | 1:36.883 | |
| Fastest Lap | ||
| Driver | Joe Consiglio
|
Nordsjoen-Mercedes |
| Time | 1:37.475 | |
| Podium | ||
| First |  Lee Morris
|
Draig-Ferrari |
| Second | Joe Consiglio
|
Nordsjoen-Mercedes |
| Third | Jason Muscat
|
Red Archer-Renault |
The 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for the Superleague - the second race of the season - took place on the Yas Marina track in Abu Dhabi on the 31st of March.
Contents
Report
A week after the classic opening race in Melbourne, the GPVWC paddock moved to Abu Dhabi. Joe Consiglio was keen to put the heartbreak of the last event behind him and Lee Morris was keen to make it two out of two. However Morris, along with Ojay Clark, had the burden of a five place grid penalty for running too wide consistently in Australia - improving Consiglio’s chances of victory significantly and giving the Red Archers and Adam Rouse a better chance to make up ground after slightly disappointing results in Melbourne. The Woods pair were also keen to improve their performance after a poor showing last time round.
Qualifying
Joe Consiglio made the best of a light fuel load to put his Nordsjoen on pole for the second race in a row, but with a gap of 0.506 seconds to Lee Morris, it seemed likely that the two were on different strategies. Sam Millar was followed by Jason Muscat and Ojay Clark - both drivers being distracted on their final runs. The 2nd Red Archer of David Jundt was some distance behind, followed by Nick Rowland, Adam Rouse, Mark Stanton and Dave Carr-Smith (who had a big crash on his last lap of the session). Christoph Lichtenstein considerably improved his qualifying pace from Australia with 11th and David Stanton qualified 12th, while misery continued for the Woods pair with 13th and 17th. This time, however, Mark Wicks qualified ahead of Kieran Ryan. Debutant Abdel Damghi lined up 19th while Ben Morgan had another disappointing session just behind the Nijo. Tim-Oliver Wagner failed to make the start.
Race
With Morris and Clark’s five place grid penalties from the last race in Australia, Millar lined up alongside Consiglio with Muscat behind while Jundt, Rowland and Rouse were all promoted two places. As the lights went out, Consiglio got away well, unlike Jundt who got away poorly, losing out to Rowland and the late-braking Rouse. Morris initially got off the line in a lacklustre way, dropping to 10th but making his way back up to 8th going into turn 1. Morris passed Mark Stanton into turn 3 as Consiglio led Millar, Muscat, Rowland, Rouse, Jundt and Morris round turn 6, when a slow-starting Lichtenstein clipped the back of Ryan Walker sending him into a spin. Gavin Thomas barged into William Ponissi, who was taking the corner slower than usual because of the incident ahead. Ponissi, in turn, was pushed into Thomas’s team-mate Morgan who almost barrel-rolled into the wall, but the car remained the correct way up and the rookie was able to continue, although with a damaged car. Muscat then breezed past Millar into 2nd, Morris slipped past Jundt for 6th at turn 16 while Damghi almost spun his Nijo at turn 10 losing several positions. On Lap 2, just where Muscat passed Millar, Rowland pulled off a move on the Synergetic for 3rd, while Rouse appeared to miss a gear as Morris easily passed by. As a result of Rowland’s pass, Millar had a bad exit from the turn 7 chicane and Morris saw his chance to pass him as well. Millar was now completely off-line, and with Rouse also managing to get past he dropped to 6th. Ahead, Rowland completely cut the turn 10 chicane. Jyri Lylykorpi and Phil Perkins both had spins, losing time and places, while Thomas had a huge shunt into turn 16 knocking both wheels off the car.
As the race settled down, Damghi and Walker made contact, resulting in Walker spinning for the second time in three laps. Clark passed Stanton for 9th and moved into the slipstream of Dave Carr-Smith. Stanton, however, managed to come back at them both, resulting unfortunately in contact with Dave Carr-Smith, the latter coming off worst in a spin. Morris made a sneaky move up the inside of Nick Rowland for third at the last corner, while Clark passed Stanton in the same way. Meanwhile Ponissi and Ryan provided some early entertainment with a good battle as Lylykorpi made his way up the field with a pass on Damghi. A mistake by Rowland lost the Midnight driver time, while a closely group of Millar, Rouse, Jundt and Clark had to avoid a slow Mark Fuller, with Rouse spinning out of the pack for the second race in a row.
By Lap 6, Millar was on the attack, and passed Rowland into turn 7, while Jundt was forced to brake late, frightening the Midnight driver off the road. Jundt then passed at the next chicane, while Clark got in on the action as the two went side-by-side, with Rowland coming off worst. Rowland would receive a stop-go penalty soon after. Plenty more drama as Fuller ran wide and broke his front wing under the hotel, with Perkins also running wide and crashing heavily into the back of the ST Racing boss. Both wings were lost on both drivers’ cars, with Fuller retiring and Perkins limping to the pits. Rouse and Carr-Smith, who were both recovering from spins, made their way past Mark Wicks into 9th and 10th, while Morris repeated his earlier manoeuvre on Jundt to overtake Muscat for 2nd. Soon after Rowland gave up and retired, while his team-mate pitched Rouse into a spin at the final turn. The mayhem gave Wicks the two positions he lost on the previous lap, only to lose out again to Rouse on the next lap. Also in trouble was Morgan, who had passed Lichtenstein for 15th on the previous lap, as he made a mistake and lost the back end of the car, bouncing into the Synergetic with a heavy impact - but both drivers continued. As the race settled down the positions were Consiglio, Morris, Muscat, Millar, Jundt, Clark, Stanton, Rouse, Wicks and Carr-Smith.
Consiglio and Clark were the first people in the pits, just like in Australia, with both exiting the pits on lap 14. Consiglio rejoined just ahead of Jundt in 4th, while Carr-Smith called it a day after losing his front wing at turn 1. Millar also pitted, exiting just behind Clark after a long pit-stop. Further back Ryan, Ponissi and Lichtenstein all pitted on the same lap, Jundt was the next of the front-runners to do so on the next lap. Stanton was promoted to 3rd following Muscat’s pit-stop on Lap 20, while Lee Morris pitted from the lead and re-joined just under 10 seconds behind the three stopping Consiglio. At the same time Abdel Damghi slammed into the wall on the exit of the last corner, effectively ending his race.
On Lap 27 Consiglio pitted for his 2nd stop, exiting ahead of the Red Archers but 12 seconds behind Morris. The Maltese driver really had his work cut out. Clark, following the exact same strategy, also pitted an emerged in 7th, behind Stanton. The two went side by side for several corners with Clark late on the brakes and up the inside of the Constant at turn 7. Stanton, however, came back and made a fantastic pass round the outside into turn 10. A strange mistake three corners later handed 6th back to Clark. An even stranger mistake from Millar on the straight approaching turn 7 caused the Synergetic driver damage, and he was forced to pit.
By Lap 35, Consiglio had the gap under 10 seconds, but it was looking unlikely that he could snatch the win from Morris. Behind a battle for 9th raged between Millar and Lylykorpi until Millar spun at turn 13, almost wiping out Morris who was coming up to lap him. The Synergetic driver had a puncture and retired three corners later. A few laps later race leader Morris made his final pit-stop and exited 17 seconds behind Consiglio. Morris approached the pit-straight as Consiglio made his third and final pit-stop. The Englishman had done enough and had a comfortable lead of just over five seconds.
After a miscalculation, Stanton was forced to make a splash and dash pit-stop and dropped from 6th to 8th. Meanwhile Jundt was slowly closing in on Muscat for 3rd and Chris Williamson was having a terrible race, making his 6th pit-stop after crawling round the track with no front wing. Going into the final laps it seemed it would now take a miracle for Consiglio to get close enough to Morris to take the win, but sure enough, Morris reported being uncomfortable with his steering wheel, Consiglio closed to within 2 seconds of the Draig. So an intense battle between the leaders began with Consiglio being much faster in the corners but Morris had too much straight line speed to enable the Nordsjoen to pass. Consiglio was closer than ever as the pair came up to lap Rouse on the final lap. But it wasn’t enough and Morris rounded off a fantastic performance starting from 7th on the grid to win the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for the 2nd time and make it two out of two for the season.
Post-Race Talking Points
Consiglio vs Morris
Just like in Australia, qualifying was a two-horse way battle between Nordsjoen driver Joe Consiglio and the Draig of Lee Morris, with the latter coming out on top. Consiglio, well aware of Morris’s five place penalty, could well have gone for a conservative strategy and still lined up on the grid in first position. However, such a strategy would have made Morris’s climb up the field easier and Consiglio seemingly didn’t want to risk falling into the close group of cars behind. Consiglio took the pole by 0.506 seconds and made his first pit-stop seven laps earlier than Morris did. This indicates Morris would have taken the pole if Consiglio had taken the conservative two-stop option and set the tone for the race. Being a couple of tenths quicker around the Abu Dhabi circuit, Morris knew the key to a possible win laid in clearing the likes of Millar, Muscat, Rowland, Jundt and Rouse quickly enough. Morris delivered and then never looked back.
Red Archer performance
Significant testing for the Abu Dhabi GP proved a huge success for Red Archer VRT, with Muscat bagging the team’s first podium of the year and Jundt finishing directly behind. The duo qualified 4th and 6th but with the demise of Morris and Clark they were elevated to 3rd and 4th on the grid. Jundt got a very poor getaway but somehow managed to only lose two positions going into the first corner, while Muscat maximised the car’s straight line speed to make an easy pass on Millar for 2nd at the end of the first long straight. Jundt made his way back through the pack passing Rowland, Millar and a spinning Rouse before putting in a superb late race performance closing in on his team-mate. Most likely, the key to Red Archer’s success was having a good setup for Abu Dhabi even before the Australian GP. A similar result should be expected in Suzuka next week and the team are now in a solid 2nd place in the championship.
Early battles
The end of the Australian GP saw an intense battle for third position at the end of the race. This time, a similar battle developed between many of the same drivers as Albert Park. The fight started with Millar losing out to Rowland on lap 2 and with Morris already up to 5th, the Draig driver able to take advantage of Millar’s lack of straight line speed at the next straight and moving up into 4th. Things then got worse for the Scotsman as Rouse nipped through one corner later. A hectic three-way fight then took place, with Millar trying to re-pass Rouse and Jundt all over his gearbox as they went three wide on the approach to turn 7 on lap 3, the positions ending up unchanged. Clark joined the battle after making his way up through the field: with Fuller’s damaged ST Racing in the way and a mistake by Rowland, the pack got bunched up with Rouse spinning in the confusion and Jundt almost making contact with the TDR. Rowland then cut the turn 7 chicane a lap later, letting Jundt through. This was followed by another small mistake from Rowland into turn 13 as he went side by side with Clark. Contact was made and Rowland was awarded a stop-go penalty but he retired before he could take it.
Classification
Qualifying
Race
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Pitstops | Fastlap | Controller | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14 | Lee Morris
|
Draig-Ferrari | 55 | 1:31:03.430 | 7† | 2 | 01:37.700 | 
|
15 |
| 2 | 2 | Joe Consiglio
|
Nordsjoen-Mercedes | 55 | +0.573s | 1 | 3 | 01:37.475 |
|
12 |
| 3 | 5 | Jason Muscat
|
Red Archer-Renault | 55 | +43.539s | 3 | 2 | 01:38.472 | 
|
10 |
| 4 | 6 |  David Jundt
|
Red Archer-Renault | 55 | +44.580s | 4 | 2 | 01:38.354 |
|
8 |
| 5 | 19 | Ojay Clark
|
Williamson-Mercedes | 55 | +1:07.644s | 10‡ | 3 | 01:38.360 |
|
6 |
| 6 | 23 | Adam Rouse
|
TDR-Toyota | 54 | +1 Lap | 6 | 2 | 01:38.798 |
|
5 |
| 7 | 3 | Mark Wicks
|
Woods-Mercedes | 54 | +1 Lap | 13 | 2 | 01:39.366 |
|
4 |
| 8 | 7 | Mark Stanton
|
Constant-Renault | 54 | +1 Lap | 8 | 3 | 01:38.979 |
|
3 |
| 9 | 0 |  Jyri Lylykorpi
|
Nordsjoen-Mercedes | 54 | +1 Lap | 16 | 2 | 01:38.810 |
|
2 |
| 10 | 4 |  Kieran Ryan
|
Woods-Mercedes | 54 | +1 Lap | 17 | 2 | 01:39.551 |
|
1 |
| 11 | 9 |  Christoph Lichtenstein
|
Synergetic-Ferrari | 54 | +1 Lap | 11 | 2 | 01:40.254 |
|
0 |
| 12 | 15 |  Ryan Walker
|
Draig-Ferrari | 53 | +2 Laps | 14 | 2 | 01:40.310 |
|
0 |
| 13 | 17 | David Stanton
|
ST-BMW | 53 | +2 Laps | 12 | 2 | 01:40.694 |
|
0 |
| 14 | 8 |  William Ponissi
|
Constant-Renault | 53 | +2 Laps | 18 | 2 | 01:41.144 |
|
0 |
| 15 | 22 | Phil Perkins
|
TDR-Toyota | 52 | +3 Laps | 15 | 2 | 01:40.896 |
|
0 |
| 16 | 20 | Chris Williamson
|
Nijo-Toyota | 49 | +6 Laps | 23 | 6 | 01:42.465 |
|
0 |
| Ret | 10 | Sam Millar
|
Synergetic-Ferrari | 36 | DNF | 2 | 2 | 01:38.628 |
|
0 |
| Ret | 21 |  Abdel Damghi
|
Nijo-Toyota | 23 | DNF | 19 | 2 | 01:40.967 |
|
0 |
| Ret | 12 |  Ben Morgan
|
Computrac-BMW | 22 | DNF | 20 | 2 | 01:41.128 |
|
0 |
| Ret | 24 | Dave Carr-Smith
|
Midnight-Renault | 13 | DNF | 9 | 0 | 01:38.971 |
|
0 |
| Ret | 25 | Nick Rowland
|
Midnight-Renault | 8 | DNF | 5 | 0 | 01:39.118 |
|
0 |
| Ret | 16 | Mark Fuller
|
ST-BMW | 4 | DNF | 21 | 1 | 01:46.342 |
|
0 |
| Ret | 11 | Gavin Thomas
|
Computrac-BMW | 1 | DNF | 22 | 0 | 01:56.677 |
|
0 |
† Lee Morris - demoted to P7 for corner cutting in the Australian GP
‡ Ojay Clark - demoted to P10 for corner cutting in the Australian GP
Standings after the race
|
|
External Links
| Preceded by: 2011 Australian Grand Prix |
2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2011 |
Succeeded by: 2011 Japanese Grand Prix |
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