May 11, 2019
Published on tags: 2019 Superleague Alex Siebel ACR

 

Alex Siebel took victory in a thoroughly entertaining Spanish Grand Prix as he made it two wins in a row in the WTF1 Superleague.
The ACR Zakspeed led home an Evolution Motorsports two-three with Jannick Bock ahead of Dennis Jordan.

Red Archer?s Fabio Sixta was unlucky to miss out on a podium, whilst Green Stripes reserve driver Kieran Shanks brilliantly made his way up to fifth from sixteenth on the grid.

Bock started on pole ahead of Siebel, but it was third placed Petar Brljak who made the best start. However, as the Bahrain victor pulled to the outside of Bock at turn one, his Edge Esports teammate Daniel Kiss made contact and both fell down the order.

That seemed to trigger more chaos as multiple cars went off at the back, with a third incident at turn three putting Liam de Waal out of the race.

Shanks had avoided the melee at the back and moved up into the top 10. Opportunistic moves helped the GSR machine up into fourth by the first round of pit-stops.

Another driver on the move was Geoffrey Fournier. The Frenchman was making strides into the top ten, before contact with the Scuderia Basilea of Laurent Keersmaekers at turn eleven pitched the orange Epic across the grass and into the unfortunate Michael Hafildason. Both drivers would pit.

Alex Cooper was doing a fine job in the second GSR and well inside the top ten. That was until a medium tyre-clad Wopke Hoekstra would form a train of nine cars in a battle for seventh place. The Englishman got caught out as the cars went three wide through the first sector of lap 21, losing out to Michael Eyres, Eros Masciulli and a resurgent Petar Brljak.

Meanwhile up from, Siebel and Bock traded overtakes into turn one in the middle stint of the race, as championship leader Bock led into the final stops. Dennis Jordan had made up for rocky start by making his way up to fourth behind Sixta.

Sixta pitted and opted for mediums whilst the two Evolutins both elected the red striped super-softs. Siebel on the other hand stayed out for an extra four laps and took on the faster ultra-softs. The move looked to have been costly as he rejoined behind all three rivals on track.

However, after moving past Sixta, Siebel made two moves around the outside at turn one to leave his championship rivals trailing behind.

The reigning champion crossed the line 1.7 seconds ahead of Bock to take his second Spanish GP in a row, and reduce the deficit in the overall standings.

Behind Shanks, Brljak recovered brilliantly to take a respectable sixth place, with Masciulli, Matthias Muuss, Rait Kilk and Eyres rounding out the top ten.

Daniel Kiss fought back to eleventh, whilst Daniel Brewer, David Fidock, Ben Hamlet and Cooper completed the points finishers.

Bock continued his record of finishing in the top two in each race and remains in the lead at the top of the Drivers championship, although Siebel by virtue of his victory cuts that gap to eight points. Jordan completes the German top three.

The double podium for Evolution means that they extend their championship lead to 58 points over ACR Zakspeed. Another impressive outing for Red Archer means that they stay in third ahead of Edge Esports and Epic Racing.

What the Podium said

Jannick Bock: ?Today Alex was the proper guy I guess, I didn?t have enough tyres and he did so he could run ultras at the end and could pass me easily.

?My problem was that I used too much tyres in the corners, especially the right front, Alex was the better guy today.

?I like Monaco a lot, hopefully the tyres won?t be a problem for me there.?

Dennis Jordan: ?I feel like it was my fault that we lost the P2, because Jannick was giving me a tow but I feared that Alex would dive at me at the last minute. I tried to defend but with the tyres he could drive around the outside easily.?

Alex Siebel:
?I was always considering going longer with three cars yet to pit ahead of Jannick, so I thought that I would lose two positions but will have better, softer tyres.

?It was a risky decision, and I had a lot of bad luck in the last stint with the guys in front with DRS.

?The last two races have gone very well, here was also better but I think that every race will be dead tight. Myself, Jannick and Dennis are all on the same pace.?