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March 26, 2020
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Cenobite Motorsports driver takes second victory from two races in Superleague Lights 2020
Liam de Waal drove a stellar second stint at the Bahrain International Circuit to take his second win of the 2020 GPVWC Superleague Lights Season.
Geoffrey Fournier came home second in his first race of the season for RSR, whilst Michael Francesoni pulled off one of the all-time great comebacks to finish on the podium.
The race was a slipstream carnival that saw the whole field involved in wheel-to-wheel action, with de Waal coming out on top.
The Cenobite Motorsports driver qualified on pole ahead of the TG Racing car of Francesconi.
There was no drama on Lap One as the field got through relatively cleanly. Jason Muscat had managed to gain three places, whilst Giuseppe Saracino dropped down to tenth.
The two Draig cars got into each other at Turn Four - along with Ben Horrill - demoting them all down the order.
Lap Five and the battle for the lead was hotting up. Francesconi and Fournier picked up DRS and made it three wide into Turn One - the former taking the lead ahead of de Waal and Fournier.
Three laps later and the top three were at it again. Joined by Adrian Faber they went into the first corner as a spread of four, this time with Fournier taking the lead of the race.
Francesconi had dropped down to fourth behind Faber. In an effort to regain position, the TG driver made a move into the sweeping Turn Six that ended with contact. Faber held on whilst the spinning Italian dropped to 17th.
A quarter of the way through the race and Faber now had Douwe Tapper for company. They made contact down the straight at top speed, and further contact at the bottleneck of Two sent Tapper back to 17th. Behind them most cars in the train from sixth to 17th made some degree of contact.
Dino Paolini was second in the championship after Round One in Australia. A spin at Turn 12 caused contact with Terence Grech and Konrad Zerebiec - leaving CM-Tech with two retirements.
Through all of the chaos, Jack Mayor was now in the final podium position. Saracino was making up for his poor start, and made his move down the main straight for third.
Horrill and Johan Lindberg came together again, this time resulting in two retirements, whilst up front, de Waal had caught back up to Fournier.
After shadowing the Frenchman for a number of laps, de Waal made his move with DRS assistance to take the lead.
After the pit-stops, Saracino was still ahead of Mayor. However, a half-spin at Turn Four allowed Mayor back onto the podium.
Five laps later and Saracino had latched back onto the MDR. Small contact at Turn Six sent the TTF BBR around and back to 15th.
Muscat had made his way past Sebastian Kosmala for sixth and set sights on reaching Sandeep Singh. A move on the sister RSR hindered both drivers, allowing Kosmala to steal fourth away.
Francesconi had quietly made ground through the field. A move at Turn One on Singh was followed by a pass on teammate Muscat. The best move came for fourth on Kosmala. A dummy to the outside and the switch to the inside at the first corner sent him through and into pursuit of third-placed Mayor.
Kosmala then had trouble at Turn Five, an issue sent the car veering left and out of the race. Singh was losing positions to Pedro Moura and Marcin Rybaczuk but holding onto the top ten.
Francesconi had managed to reach Mayor by the start of the Final Lap. he went up he inside at the first corner but overshot, allowing Mayor back in with a shot. The Englishman tried to switchback underneath out of Four but to no avail.
Jukkapekka Lalu moved past Saracino to take an improbable tenth after starting he race in last.
All the plaudits though, fell to Liam de Waal, who made it 50 points out of 50 in 2020. Fournier kicked his season of with a solid second position ahead of Francesconi wh capped his miraculous comeback off with third.
Mayor headed Muscat, Moura, Rybaczuk, Singh, Tapper and Lalu in the top 10, whilst Saracino, Collin Spork, Grech, Lewis Bickers and Faber rounded out the points scorers.
De Waal holds a 27-point lead already over Tapper and Moura. Fournier jumps straight to fourth whilst Paolini drops from second to fifth.
In the Constructors Standings, Cenobite Motorsports hold station 25 points ahead of RSR, with MDR eight points further back.
Geoffrey Fournier came home second in his first race of the season for RSR, whilst Michael Francesoni pulled off one of the all-time great comebacks to finish on the podium.
The race was a slipstream carnival that saw the whole field involved in wheel-to-wheel action, with de Waal coming out on top.
The Cenobite Motorsports driver qualified on pole ahead of the TG Racing car of Francesconi.
There was no drama on Lap One as the field got through relatively cleanly. Jason Muscat had managed to gain three places, whilst Giuseppe Saracino dropped down to tenth.
The two Draig cars got into each other at Turn Four - along with Ben Horrill - demoting them all down the order.
Lap Five and the battle for the lead was hotting up. Francesconi and Fournier picked up DRS and made it three wide into Turn One - the former taking the lead ahead of de Waal and Fournier.
Three laps later and the top three were at it again. Joined by Adrian Faber they went into the first corner as a spread of four, this time with Fournier taking the lead of the race.
Francesconi had dropped down to fourth behind Faber. In an effort to regain position, the TG driver made a move into the sweeping Turn Six that ended with contact. Faber held on whilst the spinning Italian dropped to 17th.
A quarter of the way through the race and Faber now had Douwe Tapper for company. They made contact down the straight at top speed, and further contact at the bottleneck of Two sent Tapper back to 17th. Behind them most cars in the train from sixth to 17th made some degree of contact.
Dino Paolini was second in the championship after Round One in Australia. A spin at Turn 12 caused contact with Terence Grech and Konrad Zerebiec - leaving CM-Tech with two retirements.
Through all of the chaos, Jack Mayor was now in the final podium position. Saracino was making up for his poor start, and made his move down the main straight for third.
Horrill and Johan Lindberg came together again, this time resulting in two retirements, whilst up front, de Waal had caught back up to Fournier.
After shadowing the Frenchman for a number of laps, de Waal made his move with DRS assistance to take the lead.
After the pit-stops, Saracino was still ahead of Mayor. However, a half-spin at Turn Four allowed Mayor back onto the podium.
Five laps later and Saracino had latched back onto the MDR. Small contact at Turn Six sent the TTF BBR around and back to 15th.
Muscat had made his way past Sebastian Kosmala for sixth and set sights on reaching Sandeep Singh. A move on the sister RSR hindered both drivers, allowing Kosmala to steal fourth away.
Francesconi had quietly made ground through the field. A move at Turn One on Singh was followed by a pass on teammate Muscat. The best move came for fourth on Kosmala. A dummy to the outside and the switch to the inside at the first corner sent him through and into pursuit of third-placed Mayor.
Kosmala then had trouble at Turn Five, an issue sent the car veering left and out of the race. Singh was losing positions to Pedro Moura and Marcin Rybaczuk but holding onto the top ten.
Francesconi had managed to reach Mayor by the start of the Final Lap. he went up he inside at the first corner but overshot, allowing Mayor back in with a shot. The Englishman tried to switchback underneath out of Four but to no avail.
Jukkapekka Lalu moved past Saracino to take an improbable tenth after starting he race in last.
All the plaudits though, fell to Liam de Waal, who made it 50 points out of 50 in 2020. Fournier kicked his season of with a solid second position ahead of Francesconi wh capped his miraculous comeback off with third.
Mayor headed Muscat, Moura, Rybaczuk, Singh, Tapper and Lalu in the top 10, whilst Saracino, Collin Spork, Grech, Lewis Bickers and Faber rounded out the points scorers.
De Waal holds a 27-point lead already over Tapper and Moura. Fournier jumps straight to fourth whilst Paolini drops from second to fifth.
In the Constructors Standings, Cenobite Motorsports hold station 25 points ahead of RSR, with MDR eight points further back.
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