2011 Spanish Grand Prix

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25px   2011 Spanish Grand Prix
Race details
Race {{{Race_No}}} of the 2011 Superleague season
Circuit de Catalunya - 2007 Layout.png
Date September 29th, 2011
Official name 2011 Spanish Grand Prix
Location Circuit de Catalunya
Barcelona, Spain
Course Permanent racing facility
2.875 mi / 4.655 km
Distance 66 laps, 190.872 mi / 307.230 km
Weather Sunny
Pole position
Driver Malta Joe Consiglio Nordsjoen-Mercedes
Time 1:15.334
Fastest Lap
Driver Malta Joe Consiglio Nordsjoen-Mercedes
Time 1:16.479
Podium
First Malta Joe Consiglio Nordsjoen-Mercedes
Second Switzerland David Jundt Red Archer-Renault
Third England Gregg Lawson Red Archer-Renault


The 2011 Spanish Grand Prix for the Superleague - the 17th race of the season - took place at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain on the 29th of September.

Report

Joe Consiglio made the most of Lee Morris's absence and jumped to the top of the Drivers' World Championship standings with a dominant victory in Catalunya, as David Jundt and Gregg Lawson increased Red Archer's advantage in the Constructors.

Qualifying

Nordsjoen Racing's dominance in Spain was evident from qualifying, when Consiglio led stand-in teammate Tom Parker; the pole-sitter's 1:15.334 was more than a second faster than anyone else on the grid. Jundt was 3rd in a Red Archer lockout of row two, with Dave Carr-Smith the first of those who drive cars and not spaceships. Mark Wicks, who celebrated his 100th GPVWC race in Barcelona, lined up 6th on the grid in his Woods - a qualifying highlight for the Cornish driver who struggled to make an impact in the two-part session this year. Late replacements meant William Tringas of Australia and Matt Clipp of England were drafted in for their Superleague bow, but their lack of experience with the car showed as they lined up in 18th and 19th respectively.

Race

The race recorded one of the cleanest starts of the season, with only Bart De Vos taking to the run-off area after a small tap from Wicks - the Belgian driver's race destined to end within a matter of seconds due to disconnection. Ahead, Consiglio was able to make the most of Parker's defence and open a sizeable gap right from the start, his teammate fighting with the Red Archers for position until a spin put him behind his rivals.

What seemed to be a likely three-man fight for the second spot on the podium was cut short by Parker's retirement, caused by a sub-standard connection issue on his Nordsjoen - a problem, it appeared to be, caused by a twentieth-century solution unsuited for modern racing cars. The retirement of the #0 car meant the Red Archers finished on the podium with little trouble, followed by Carr-Smith and Wicks. Mark Stanton got to the scoreboard again with a fine 6th position, followed by Tommi Koivunen (who scored Nijo's best ever result), Phil Perkins and David Stanton. Debutant Clipp got the last point-scoring position.

Consiglio's run to the flag, however, wasn't untroubled. Just as he seemed to have the race under control, a misunderstanding with Ryan Walker saw the lapped TDR collide with the race leader, sending Consiglio into the barriers. Miraculously, the Nordsjoen didn't suffer any big damage and Consiglio was able to pit for repairs, emerging only 4 seconds ahead of David Jundt but managing to hold on to the flag.

Consiglio's win, paired with Lee Morris's inability to take part, allowed the Maltese ace to leapfrog the Draig Racing driver at the top of the Driver's Championship, completing a comeback which started after disappointment in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. With David Jundt not winning the race, Consiglio and Morris became the only two drivers with a chance to win the World Champion crown. In the Constructors' Championship, Red Archer managed to reverse the recent trend and increase their gap on Nordsjoen. With two drivers finally scoring for the Greek leaders, the gap over their rivals is now seven points - with a mere three races left in the season.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos No Driver Constructor Lap Gap
1 2 Malta Joe Consiglio Nordsjoen-Mercedes 01:15.334
2 0 England Tom Parker Nordsjoen-Mercedes 01:16.423 +1.089s
3 6 Switzerland David Jundt Red Archer-Renault 01:16.783 +1.449s
4 5 England Gregg Lawson Red Archer-Renault 01:16.984 +1.650s
5 24 England Dave Carr-Smith Midnight-Renault 01:17.563 +2.229s
6 3 England Mark Wicks Woods-Mercedes 01:17.588 +2.254s
7 23 Belgium Bart De Vos TDR-Toyota 01:18.426 +3.092s
8 15 Scotland Ryan Walker TDR-Toyota 01:18.561 +3.227s
9 17 England David Stanton ST-BMW 01:18.801 +3.467s
10 7 England Mark Stanton Constant-Renault 01:18.943 +3.609s
11 21 Netherlands Abdel Damghi Nijo-Toyota 01:19.315 +3.981s
12 22 England Phil Perkins Draig-Ferrari 01:19.393 +4.059s
13 11 Wales Gavin Thomas Computrac-BMW 01:20.201 +4.867s
14 20 Finland Tommi Koivunen Nijo-Toyota 01:20.672 +5.338s
15 4 Ireland Kieran Ryan Woods-Mercedes 01:20.745 +5.411s
16 16 England Mark Fuller ST-BMW 01:20.746 +5.412s
17 8 Italy William Ponissi Constant-Renault 01:20.942 +5.608s
18 12 Australia William Tringas Computrac-BMW 01:21.979 +6.645s
19 14 England Matt Clipp Draig-Ferrari 01:25.744 +10.410s

Race

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Pitstops Fastlap Controller Points
1 2 Malta Joe Consiglio Nordsjoen-Mercedes 66 1:26:21.866 1 3 01:16.479 Wheel ffb.png 15
2 6 Switzerland David Jundt Red Archer-Renault 66 +15.179s 3 2 01:17.388 Wheel ffb.png 12
3 5 England Gregg Lawson Red Archer-Renault 66 +1:02.657 4 2 01:17.418 Wheel generic-unknown.png 10
4 24 England Dave Carr-Smith Midnight-Renault 65 +1 Lap 5 3 01:17.316 Wheel ffb.png 8
5 3 England Mark Wicks Woods-Mercedes 65 +1 Lap 6 3 01:18.631 Wheel generic-unknown.png 6
6 7 England Mark Stanton Constant-Renault 63 +3 Laps 10 3 01:19.635 Wheel generic-unknown.png 5
7 20 Finland Tommi Koivunen Nijo-Toyota 63 +3 Laps 14 4 01:19.908 Wheel generic-unknown.png 4
8 22 England Phil Perkins Draig-Ferrari 63 +3 Laps 12 3 01:19.898 Wheel ffb.png 3
9 17 England David Stanton ST-BMW 63 +3 Laps 9 4 01:19.533 Wheel generic-unknown.png 2
10 14 England Matt Clipp Draig-Ferrari 61 +5 Laps 19 4 01:22.255 Wheel generic-unknown.png 1
11 8 Italy William Ponissi Constant-Renault 60 +6 Laps 17 5 01:21.175 Wheel ffb.png 0
Ret 15 Scotland Ryan Walker TDR-Toyota 45 DNF 8 2 01:19.098 Wheel ffb.png 0
Ret 12 Australia William Tringas Computrac-BMW 37 DNF 18 2 01:22.067 Wheel ffb.png 0
Ret 16 England Mark Fuller ST-BMW 31 DNF 16 3 01:21.628 Wheel ffb.png 0
Ret 0 England Tom Parker Nordsjoen-Mercedes 28 DNF 2 1 01:17.035 Wheel ffb.png 0
Ret 11 Wales Gavin Thomas Computrac-Toyota 24 DNF 13 4 01:22.841 Wheel ffb.png 0
Ret 4 Ireland Kieran Ryan Woods-Mercedes 11 DNF 15 0 01:19.940 Wheel generic-unknown.png 0
Ret 21 Netherlands Abdel Damghi Nijo-Toyota 4 DNF 11 0 01:20.423 Wheel generic-unknown.png 0
Ret 23 Belgium Bart De Vos TDR-Toyota 0 DNF 7 0 - Wheel generic-unknown.png 0

Standings after the Race

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 Malta Joe Consiglio 185
2 England Lee Morris 181
3 Switzerland David Jundt 135
4 Malta Jason Muscat 100
5 England Dave Carr-Smith 90
6 England Ojay Clark 52
7 England Mark Wicks 51
8 Estonia Pavel Loknovski 46
9 England Nick Rowland 40
10 Belgium Bart De Vos 34
11 Scotland Sam Millar 33
12 Ireland Kieran Ryan 28
13 England Mark Stanton 26
14 Germany Christoph Lichtenstein 23
15 Scotland Ryan Walker 22
= England Adam Rouse 22
17 England Phil Perkins 12
18 England Gregg Lawson 10
19 England David Stanton 9
20 Finland Jyri Lylykorpi 6
21 Wales Ben Morgan 4
= Finland Tommi Koivunen 4
23 Norway Petter Kaasa 3
24 England Mark Fuller 2
25 Netherlands Abdel Damghi 1
= Wales Gavin Thomas 1
= Italy William Ponissi 1
= England Matt Clipp 1

Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 Greece Red Archer-Renault 245
2 Italy Nordsjoen-Mercedes 237
3 Wales Draig-Ferrari 205
4 England Midnight-Renault 133
5 England Woods-Mercedes 79
6 England TDR-Toyota 67
7 Northern Ireland Synergetic-Ferrari 56
8 England Williamson-Mercedes 52
9 England Constant-Renault 27
10 England ST-BMW 11
11 Wales Computrac-BMW 5
= England Nijo-Toyota 5

External Links

Preceded by:
2011 Italian Grand Prix
2011 Spanish Grand Prix
2011
Succeeded by:
2011 Belgian Grand Prix