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Formula Sprint 2
Japanese Grand Prix
Suzuka International Racing Course
Tuesday 2nd of April 2024 19:00:00
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April 26, 2011
Published on tags: Superleague
Ojay Clark compiled another excellent report - this time on the Chinese Grand Prix.

QUALIFYING

At the fourth round of the GPVWC season both Lee Morris and Joe Consiglio arrived at the Shanghai circuit seeming not to be as dialled in or at sync with the track as we have seen from previous rounds. Despite dominating in 2009 Consiglio claimed that he didn? like the track. Morris also seemed slightly unhappy with the amount of testing he had done but less so than Consiglio. Sam Millar looked very quick in the build up of the race but abandoned his first outlap in Q1 leaving him little time to set a good time as he just scraped into Q2 by a whisker. In the dying stages of Q2 Lee Morris despite a few messy laps was looking like he could claim his first pole position with Consiglio out of the picture, however Mark Stanton shocked the GPVWC paddock posting provisional pole by 0.850 seconds. With Morris unable to set another lap it looked like Stanton? and Constant Racing? first pole position. But just a moment later Jason Muscat came from nowhere to improve on his personal best by half a second to snatch the pole away from Stanton by 0.039 seconds and in turn take his and Red Archer? first pole. Consiglio also improved to 4th with Nick Rowland and Sam Millar followed by Dave Carr Smith, Ojay Clark, Adam Rouse and Tom Parker. An enthralling qualifying set the prospect for a fascinating race ahead with the top eight drivers covered by just 0.6 seconds. The range of 2 stop and 3 stop strategies were to also make the race interesting.

START: Muscat cleanly off the line followed by Stanton as Morris and Consiglio battled for 3rd down into turn 1 it was Millar who got the best get away but went too fast into turn 1 tagging the back of Consiglio and also ploughing into Rowland who then smashed into Millar? rear wing, rejoing the track and collided with Kieran Ryan as William Ponissi and Ryan Walker had to avoid, Walker came out of it minus the front wing. Adam Rouse, Ben Morgan and Jyri Lylykorpi also dropped to the back with separate incidents as Millar and Rowland soon retired but Consiglio carried on without severe damage.

LAP 1: Parker pits from 5th to make surely the earliest scheduled pit-stop any form of racing has ever seen and Perkins spins on the exit of the final turn breaking the front wing. The order at the end of the first lap is Muscat, Stanton, Morris, Clark, Carr Smith, Damghi, Jundt, Stanton and Wicks. The Nordsjoens are down in 13th and 16th. LAP 2: Consiglio rises to 12th as Fuller spins as Clark goes way too hot into turn 11 scaring Morris. The WD driver grabs a slipstream off Morris to move into 3rd whilst a recovering Rouse makes a nice move on Lichtenstein at the final turn for 10th.

LAP 3: Morris wants 3rd position back as the two drivers battle before the Draig goes round the outside of Clark into turn 8 pulling off a great move. Carr Smith and a flying Damghi take advantage of this but only Carr Smith succeeds with the three drivers going side by side for most of the next lap. A lighter David Stanton also passes Jundt back. Rouse passes Wicks into the hairpin.

LAP 4: Consiglio follows through passing the Cornish driver into turn 1. Lichtenstein also passes.

LAP 5: The leaders have pulled a gap to Morris but are losing time by squabbling as Muscat doesn? put up much defence as a lighter Mark Stanton passes into turn 1 and takes the lead. Meanwhile Damghi and David Stanton go into combat.

LAP 6: The overtaking partnership between Rouse and Consiglio continued as both have no mercy for David Jundt Rouse passes at the hairpin and Consiglio passes at turn 7 on the next lap.

LAP 9: Rouse and Consiglio are having a great fight and move up positions when Mark Stanton pits from the lead joined by Damghi. The Englishman entered the pits with a four second lead.





LAP 10: He exits 21 seconds behind Muscat, he now has his work cut out if he wants to win as he goes round the outside of Lichtenstein at the hairpin.





LAP 11: David Stanton exits the pits ahead of Damghi, the two would continue to battle throughout the entire race. Morgan and Ryan touch sending the Computrac into a spin.





LAP 13: Consiglio isn? lapping at the pace he was earlier and Jundt makes light work of him at the hairpin.





LAP 14: Fuller makes an unsafe rejoin and takes the front wing off Tim Oliver Wagner and Adam Rouse pits.



LAP 15: Three stopping Clark passes Lylykorpi for 9th.





LAP 17: Consiglio is finally back past Jundt at the hairpin.





LAP 18: Muscat pits with a lead of 2.5 seconds over Morris, it looks like a straight forward fight between the two stopping drivers as Muscat exits the pits just behind Mark Stanton. Consiglio also pits and rejoins 13th before passing David Stanton for 12th.



LAP 19: Carr Smith pits from 2nd dropping to 6th. Mark Stanton makes a mistake and hands 3rd back over to Muscat.





LAP 20: Morris pits making it a Red Archer 1-2, the first time a team has occupied the first two positions this season highlighting their consistency. Morris rejoins 4th ahead of Carr Smith as Lichtenstein pits from 5th on the same lap.





LAP 21: Jundt becomes the last man to pit and emerges ahead of Consiglio. Rouse has now caught Clark.





LAP 22: The two go side by side through turn 1 with Clark on the inside for turn 2, the WD ends up in a spin losing valuable time as Rouse is now 5th.





LAP 23: Jundt takes advantage of the spin but almost spins himself in turn 10, the Swiss managing to save the car from the inside wall.



LAP 24: It? disaster for Muscat, a half spin at exactly the same place as his team mate loses him 5 seconds and crucially two positions to Stanton and Morris.





LAP 25: There is some good news for Red Archer as Jundt passes Clark on the inside at turn 1.





LAP 27: Stanton pits from the lead to make his 2nd out of 3 stops. He rejoins in 4th just ahead of Jundt.





LAP 31: After another dismal race Perkins goes straight on at the hairpin and has a huge crash at the hairpin, an accident similar to that of Gavin Thomas in Abu Dhabi.



LAP 32: Rouse finally passes Lichtenstein for 7th and the gap between Morris and Muscat is only 4 seconds.





LAP 34: Morgan has a similar slide to the Red Archers at turn 10 but smashes into the wall giving him suspension damage leading to his retirement.



LAP 37: Jundt is up the inside of Stanton at the hairpin but Stanton performs the switchback as the two battle for 4th. Muscat has pitted and rejoins just behind the battle. Consiglio also pits, the two Maltese drivers are on identical strategies. Meanwhile Clark passes Wicks at the hairpin for 9th.





LAP 38: Jundt passes Stanton again but at turn 1 on the next lap they touch and Stanton spins rejoining just ahead of Muscat. The battle between the two rages for the next few laps.





LAP 40: Jundt makes his final pit stop and as a result of being held up exits behind Consiglio.





LAP 41: Morris exits the pits with a comfortable lead over Muscat.





LAP 42: Parker steams down the inside of Lylykorpi and almost wipes out race leader Morris. The Nijo driver soon retires and is yet to finish a race this season.





LAP 43: Clark passes Lichtenstein for 8th at the hairpin.





LAP 45: Muscat and Stanton? battle ends having passed each other six times. Stanton makes his final stop and joins right in the middle of Consiglio? and Jundt? battle.





LAP 46: Stanton on fresher tyres passes Consiglio at the hairpin.





LAP 54: Consiglio has caught Stanton through the traffic and as they come up to lap a battling Fuller and Ponissi, Fuller goes too deep into turn 11 puncturing Ponissi? tyre. The Italian bounces off the back of Consiglio who is undamaged and continues his attack passing Stanton at the hairpin. Jundt is now attacking too.





LAP 56: However the order stays at it is and Lee Morris crosses the line to make it four out of four with only a 2.5 second lead over Muscat with Carr Smith very close behind, a great performance by the Midnight driver. Consiglio, Stanton, Jundt, Rouse, Clark, Lichtenstein and Wicks round out the points positions.







TALKING POINTS



First Corner Incident



Shanghai? first turn is a hard corner to tackle. Even in normal circumstances most drivers would agree it is hard to choose the correct braking and turning points for the best possible entry and exit. Combine this with 23 cars in the space of a few metres and there was always going to be drama. Sam Millar started it off but it would be wrong to put all the blame on his doorstep as the chaos that happened behind was separate from the particular contact with Consiglio and Rowland. Other incidents included Rowland himself ploughing into Millar? rear wing on the run off area and then rejoining the track and storming into an innocent Kieran Ryan. Ben Morgan also went too fast into turn 1 and pushed Lylykorpi off the track. Abdel Damghi also punted Adam Rouse off the track at turn 1. This is however the 2nd first corner incident Millar has caused this season and quite rightly a severe penalty has been imposed. Consiglio did well to recover from the incident and drove a great race to 4th despite early damage.





Racing and Development Points



China marked the start of a new development stage in the season with eight of the twelve teams bringing new upgrades from Suzuka, some teams trying the upgrades out at the test in Fuji last week and some waiting until Shanghai. Red Archer gained the most from this with a mammoth upgrade which has been rumoured to gain Muscat and Jundt a massive 1.5 seconds in performance. Jundt didn? make the best of Shanghai and will be hoping to match his team mate? pace in South Africa and for the rest of the season. The Midnight Motorsport team also benefited from sizable upgrades enabling them to qualify well and bring home another podium for Carr Smith who only finished a few seconds off the lead. With rumours speculating that both Nordsjoen and Draig are close to bankruptcy the likes of Morris and Consiglio will have to watch themselves as the gap between the rest of the field has visibly decreased.





Star Performances in China



Before the start of qualifying in Shanghai not many would have put money on Jason Muscat stealing pole position and almost winning the Chinese GP. While the upgrades would have definitely helped him, to match the likes of Lee Morris for pace the whole way through the race was remarkable. Mark Stanton put in an equally impressive performance considering Constant are thought to have had no new upgrades since Suzuka. The Chinese GP has always been a favourite of Stanton? but with surely a lot of upgrades on the way soon, his performance in Shanghai was ominous for the rest of the season. Carr Smith also drove a great race and Abdel Damghi in just his 3rd race performed very well in the opening stages battling with Carr Smith and Clark but unfortunately, living up to his reputation of running out of fuel on the last lap in other leagues, he did just that. It cost the Dutch driver one position to David Stanton but he was still able to claim 12th.



NEXT TIME...



In two weeks the GPVWC paddock moves to South Africa, a very old track but returning to GPVWC after a race in 2009. This should give the rookie drivers a chance to shine and with penalties for Muscat, Millar and Rowland a mixed up grid can be expected. The track is the bumpiest on the calendar and we should see a very high attrition rate just like Suzuka. Jundt will be looking to capitalise on his team? new found speed and a lot of his rivals out of the picture and Morris will be looking to make it five out of five with Consiglio trying to stop him.