2011 Supercup Mexican Grand Prix

**2011 Supercup Mexican Grand Prix**
Race details
2011 Supercup season

Date	July 27th, 2011
Official name	2011 Supercup Mexican Grand Prix
Location	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez Mexico City, Mexico
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.747 mi / 4.421 km
Distance	38 laps, 104.386 mi / 167.998 km
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Lewis Redshaw	Malta Force GP
Time	1:13.218
Fastest Lap
Driver	Lewis Redshaw	Malta Force GP
Time	1:14.541
Podium
First	Ryan Walker	Nordsjoen Racing
Second	Gregg Lawson	Woods Racing
Third	David Jundt	Nijo Racing

The 2011 Supercup Mexican Grand Prix for the Supercup - the thirteenth race of the season - took place at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit in Mexico on the 27th of July.

Report

After retiring from the lead in the previous race at Turkey, championship leader Bart De Vos shocked the paddock and pleased his rivals by announcing he would be unable to race at Mexico, but would return for Malta Force at the next round in Canada. De Vos' teammate Lewis Redshaw, and other championship contenders Pavel Loknovski and David Jundt surely pinpointed this race as a chance to close the gap even more between themselves and the absent Belgian driver. Young Latvian driver Viesturs Priede took the free seat at Malta Force for his Supercup debut, and Australian driver William Tringas joined the field for PB Racing, also making his debut.

Qualifying

Lewis Redshaw signalled his intent to take control of the championship, taking pole position, ahead of Phil Perkins, driving for Draig Racing. Ryan Walker took 3rd on the grid for Nordsjoen Racing, with Pavel Loknovski having to settle for 4th place. Gregg Lawson rounded out the top 5 for Woods Racing. Championship contender David Jundt had to settle for 7th place on the grid, ahead of Tom Parker, Ben Warren, and Ric Scott. Debutants Priede and Tringas qualified 17th and 18th respectively.

Race

At the start of the race, pole man Redshaw made a lightning quick getaway, leaving the rest of the field in his wake. It was a more difficult start for Ryan Walker, dropping from 2nd to 6th position almost instantly. 6th quickly became 4th though, after light contact between Tom Parker and Gregg Lawson resulted in the latter dropping way down the order. It was a very early retirement for Mineral GP driver Nikos Evangelidakis, who after a promising qualifying session, speared into the barrier on the exit of Turn 3 as a result of light contact with the rear tyre of Ric Scott. Back up front, and Redshaw was already pulling out a gap between himself and the squabbling Perkins, Loknovski and Walker in the battle for 2nd place. Not too far behind, a nice battle for 5th place had developed between Kenney Lybeer, Parker and Jundt, with Warren keeping a watching brief a few seconds behind. The field held relative station for the opening part of the race, until Lap 11, which saw the retirement of Perkins from 2nd place, after an accidental double downshift caused his engine to cry enough, elevating Ryan Walker up to 2nd, who had moved ahead of the now 3rd placed Loknovski. Perkins' retirement set off a crazy chain of high profile retirements from then on.

A crazy incident involving the two Triple-Double Racing cars occurred 5 laps later. After entering the start of sector 2, Loknovski appeared to lose control of the car, causing it to slow dramatically on track. Sadly for his temporary teammate Lybeer, he was the first one on the scene, and unable to avoid the almost stationary Estonian, both cars collided, causing both driver's to have to retire. Perhaps an even bigger shock was to take place on Lap 20, with the leader Lewis Redshaw retiring after losing control of his car at the penultimate corner, taking off both his wings. After his pitstop, he still appeared to have handling problems, and unrepairable suspension damage caused the leader to have to retire. This elevated Ryan Walker into the lead, in only his third race driving for Nordsjoen Racing, Tom Parker up to an impressive 2nd, and David Jundt in 3rd. While there were retirements left, right and centre at the front of the field, further down the order, Gregg Lawson's recovery drive was in session, and after making his way past Ben Warren for 4th place, he quickly caught up the 2nd and 3rd position driver's. After a couple of laps, Lawson made his way past Jundt, and reeled in the 2nd placed Parker, passing for the position on Lap 37 of 38, in what unraveled as a controversial battle after the race. As Parker pushed hard trying to keep up with Lawson, the young Englishman just pushed that little bit too hard, causing him to lose his front wing. With only 1 lap to go, he opted not to pit, and while he lost 3rd place to Jundt, he was just able to cross the line for 4th place ahead of Warren who took home 5th.

After surviving on this tough track, Ryan Walker took a deserved first win in the GPVWC for himself and Nordsjoen Racing, just under 7 seconds ahead of Lawson, who is surely a contender for driver of the day after recovering to 2nd place from a long way back. David Jundt took 3rd place, but more importantly, put himself right into the championship mix thanks to his three main rivals, one of which didn't race, not scoring any points. Despite Parker's misfortune late on, he still held on for 4th place, ahead of Warren in 5th. Ric Scott took home a lonely, but nevertheless pleasing 6th place. It was a great debut for William Tringas, who kept himself out of trouble and took 7th, ahead of the other debutant Viesturs Priede, who did well on his debut with an 8th place. Christoph Lichtenstein and Ihab Abbas rounded out the top 10.

With the retirements of Redshaw and Loknovski, and De Vos not racing, David Jundt moves up to 2nd place in the standings thanks to his 3rd place finish at Mexico. The Swiss driver just 8 points behind still championship leader De Vos. Redshaw slips to 3rd, but only 1 point behind Jundt. Loknovski slips down to 4th, 15 points off the leader. Gregg Lawson's 2nd place finish sees him now 25 points behind the championship leader, and the likes of Jundt, Redshaw and Loknovski may have to look over their shoulder for the charging Woods driver, who'll hope to maintain a late season surge. Further down the order, Lichtenstein's 2 points from Mexico sees him move into 10th, bumping Chris Williamson down to 11th place in the standings. In the Constructors battle, despite Redshaw's retirement, Malta Force still hold a commanding 48 point lead over 2nd placed Nijo Racing, who are now just 1 point ahead of Nordsjoen Racing, after Walker's win, and Warren's 5th place finish. Triple-Double Racing and Woods Racing still are rounding out the top 5, but well out of contention for the top 3 positions.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Lap	Gap
1	15	Lewis Redshaw	Malta Force GP	1:13.218	—
2	0	Phil Perkins	Draig Racing	1:13.414	+0.197s
3	10	Ryan Walker	Nordsjoen Racing	1:13.571	+0.353s
4	19	Pavel Loknovski	Triple-Double Racing	1:13.804	+0.586s
5	16	Gregg Lawson	Woods Racing	1:13.856	+0.638s
6	11	Kenney Lybeer	Triple-Double Racing	1:14.123	+0.906s
7	4	David Jundt	Nijo Racing	1:14.206	+0.988s
8	28	Tom Parker	Kernow Sport	1:14.296	+1.079s
9	9	Ben Warren	Nordsjoen Racing	1:14.819	+1.602s
10	2	Ric Scott	Draig Racing	1:14.915	+1.697s
11	12	Nikos Evangelidakis	Mineral GP	1:14.994	+1.776s
12	27	Ihab Abbas	Water Blue Racing	1:15.130	+1.913s
13	8	Gavin Thomas	Red 5 Racing	1:15.201	+1.984s
14	26	Josh Barton	Water Blue Racing	1:15.413	+2.195s
15	22	Mal McKee	Synergetic Motorsports	1:15.520	+2.303s
16	21	Christoph Lichtenstein	CP Lotus	1:15.634	+2.416s
17	15	Viesturs Priede	Malta Force GP	1:15.785	+2.568s
18	25	William Tringas	PB Racing	1:15.797	+2.580s
19	3	Chris Williamson	Nijo Racing	1:15.946	+2.729s
20	24	Teemu Toikka	PB Racing	1:16.308	+3.090s

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pitstops	Fastlap	Points
1	10	Ryan Walker	Nordsjoen Racing	38	48:39.835	3	1	01:14.710	15
2	16	Gregg Lawson	Woods Racing	38	+6.767s	5	1	01:14.834	12
3	4	David Jundt	Nijo Racing	38	+8.294s	7	1	01:15.028	10
4	28	Tom Parker	Kernow Sport	38	+29.504s	8	1	01:14.658	8
5	9	Ben Warren	Nordsjoen Racing	38	+30.518s	9	1	01:15.431	6
6	2	Ric Scott	Draig Racing	38	+45.317s	10	1	01:15.988	5
7	25	William Tringas	PB Racing	37	+1 Lap	18	1	01:16.062	4
8	15	Viesturs Priede	Malta Force GP	37	+1 Lap	17	1	01:16.905	3
9	21	Christoph Lichtenstein	CP Lotus	37	+1 Lap	16	1	01:16.827	2
10	27	Ihab Abbas	Water Blue Racing	36	+2 Laps	12	3	01:15.988	1
11	22	Mal McKee	Synergetic Motorsports	35	+3 Laps	15	5	01:16.989	0
12	20	Jason Muscat	CP Lotus	33	+5 Laps	22	2	01:15.530	0
Ret	5	Ojay Clark	Williamson Dynamics	30	DNF	21	4	01:15.603	0
Ret	8	Gavin Thomas	Red 5 Racing	24	DNF	13	3	01:16.03	0
Ret	15	Lewis Redshaw	Malta Force GP	20	DNF	1	1	01:14.541	0
Ret	19	Pavel Loknovski	Triple-Double Racing	16	DNF	4	2	01:14.981	0
Ret	11	Kenney Lybeer	Triple-Double Racing	16	DNF	6	1	01:14.880	0
Ret	26	Josh Barton	Water Blue Racing	13	DNF	14	2	01:16.802	0
Ret	0	Phil Perkins	Draig Racing	11	DNF	2	0	01:14.596	0
Ret	24	Teemu Toikka	PB Racing	10	DNF	20	5	01:18.299	0
Ret	3	Chris Williamson	Nijo Racing	3	DNF	19	0	01:17.490	0
Ret	12	Nikos Evangelidakis	Mineral GP	1	DNF	11	1	02:10.598	0

Standings after the Race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Bart De Vos	96
2	David Jundt	88
3	Lewis Redshaw	87
4	Pavel Loknovski	81
5	Gregg Lawson	71
6	Jason Muscat	57
7	Georgios Davakos	41
8	Liam Hatchell	38
9	Tom Parker	35
10	Christoph Lichtenstein	27
11	Ryan Walker	26
=	Chris Williamson	26
=	Ihab Abbas	26
14	Sam Millar	21
15	Samuli Leinonen	20
16	Simon Cattell	18
17	Kenney Lybeer	16
18	Gavin Thomas	13
19	Mal McKee	10
=	Nikos Evangelidakis	10
=	Ben Warren	10
22	Ric Scott	8
23	Phil Perkins	7
24	Paul McKenna	5
25	Ben Morgan	4
=	William Tringas	4
27	Alex Cooper	3
=	Dan Rusu	3
=	Viesturs Priede	3
30	Robert Rose	2
=	Luke McKee	2

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Malta Force GP	165
2	Nijo Racing	114
3	Nordsjoen Racing	113
4	Triple-Double Racing	81
5	Woods Racing	74
6	PB Racing	58
7	Water Blue Racing	52
8	Synergetic Motorsports	48
9	Kernow Sport	35
10	CP Lotus	34
11	Red 5 Racing	28
12	Williamson Dynamics	21
13	Mineral GP	20
14	Draig Racing	15