2011 Italian Grand Prix

25px   2011 Italian Grand Prix

Race details
Race {{{Race_No}}} of the 2011 Superleague season
Date	September 15th, 2011
Official name	2011 Italian Grand Prix
Location	Autodromo Nazionale di Monza Monza, Italy
Course	Permanent racing facility 3.600 mi / 5.793 km
Distance	53 laps, 190.800 mi / 307.029 km
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Joe Consiglio	Nordsjoen-Mercedes
Time	1:20.055
Fastest Lap
Driver	Joe Consiglio	Nordsjoen-Mercedes
Time	1:20.613
Podium
First	Joe Consiglio	Nordsjoen-Mercedes
Second	Lee Morris	Draig-Ferrari
Third	Pavel Loknovski	Nordsjoen-Mercedes

The 2011 Italian Grand Prix for the Superleague - the sixteenth race of the season - took place at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza circuit in Monza, Italy on the 15th of September.

Report

An exciting Italian Grand Prix saw yet another victory for Joe Consiglio - but there were thrills and spills aplenty behind the Maltese ace as the GPVWC Superleague sets itself up for an incredibly tense season end.

Qualifying

With Ojay Clark joining Synergetic on the back of some good Supercup performances and some team buoyed by the prospect of making their power plants work to their advantage on the demanding Monza track, qualifying was an open business; while Joe Consiglio never looked in danger to relinquish the pole position, it took a last-ditch effort for team mate Pavel Loknovski to clinch the second position on the front row. Jason Muscat preceded an excellent Mark Stanton, in front of Championship leader Lee Morris and the Midnight pairing of Nick Rowland and Dave Carr-Smith. Abdel Damghi managed to put his Nijo in Q2 - a feat that evaded both Woods Racing, Ryan Walker and Phil Perkins.

Race

Consiglio leads Loknovski into turn 1 as chaos erupts further back.

The start saw drama unfold when David Jundt lost control of his Red Archer a mere metres after his starting position. The spinning Swiss was immediately collected by the faultless Bart de Vos, causing severe damage to the Belgian's car; but the impact sent the Red Archer back towards the centre of the track, where poor Gavin Thomas could only crash into it - his Computrac erupting in a ball of flames. The collision also involved Phil Perkins, who got a puncture, while Mark Wicks had to take evasive action and was hit by both Ryan Walker and William Ponissi - resulting in the Cornish driver's second first lap retirement in a row. Upfront, Consiglio was able to get away cleanly, but Jason Muscat confirmed his unlucky period as he was squeezed out of the track and into a slight collision with a barrier, picking up a puncture in the process.

Monza races are often high-attrition ones and this didn't disappoint either: Phil Perkins's engine exploded just two laps into the race, Mark Stanton, Ben Warren and Ben Morgan retired in spectacular crashes and several other drivers had to park their cars ahead of time. Consiglio, unfazed, administered his handsome advantage over his rivals as Loknovski and Morris fought behind - a battle destined to go on until the very end of the race and that the English driver would claim.

Dave Carr-Smith finished fourth, ahead of Kieran Ryan - not before the Irishman got involved in another situation, colliding with Loknovski as the Nordsjoen driver was closing in on Morris. Nick Rowland closed 6th, Ryan Walker finished 7th and David Jundt claimed 8th in a pretty miserable day for Red Archer. David Stanton and William Ponissi were the last two point-scorers.

The results in Monza allows Consiglio to close his gap from Morris to 11 points - with four races to spare. The Maltese ace now knows that winning all the remaining races would automatically mean the Championship - but the remaining tracks will provide a challenge as Morris, the Midnights and Red Archers will try and finish the season in glory. The Greek team's difficult day meant Nordsjoen is now only 1 point behind the leaders in the Constructors' Championship.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Lap	Gap
1	2	Joe Consiglio	Nordsjoen-Mercedes	01:20.055	—
2	0	Pavel Loknovski	Nordsjoen-Mercedes	01:20.550	+0.494s
3	5	Jason Muscat	Red Archer-Renault	01:20.609	+0.553s
4	7	Mark Stanton	Constant-Renault	01:20.771	+0.716s
5	14	Lee Morris	Draig-Ferrari	01:21.192	+1.137s
6	25	Nick Rowland	Midnight-Renault	01:21.298	+1.243s
7	24	Dave Carr-Smith	Midnight-Renault	01:21.467	+1.412s
8	6	David Jundt	Red Archer-Renault	01:21.568	+1.513s
9	23	Bart De Vos	TDR-Toyota	01:21.784	+1.729s
10	9	Ojay Clark	Synergetic-Ferrari	01:21.887	+1.831s
11	10	Sam Millar	Synergetic-Ferrari	01:22.374	+2.319s
12	21	Abdel Damghi	Nijo-Toyota	01:22.689	+2.634s
13	12	Ben Morgan	Computrac-BMW	01:22.813	+2.758s
14	3	Mark Wicks	Woods-Mercedes	01:22.846	+2.791s
15	17	David Stanton	ST-BMW	01:22.848	+2.793s
16	4	Kieran Ryan	Woods-Mercedes	01:22.934	+2.879s
17	11	Gavin Thomas	Computrac-BMW	01:22.970	+2.914s
18	15	Ryan Walker	TDR-Toyota	01:23.067	+3.012s
19	22	Phil Perkins	Draig-Ferrari	01:23.624	+3.569s
20	8	William Ponissi	Constant-Renault	01:23.866	+3.811s
21	20	Ben Warren	Nijo-Toyota	01:24.619	+4.564s

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pitstops	Fastlap	Controller	Points
1	2	Joe Consiglio	Nordsjoen-Mercedes	53	1:12:47.839	1	2	01:20.613		15
2	14	Lee Morris	Draig-Ferrari	53	+27.618s	5	2	01:20.918		12
3	0	Pavel Loknovski	Nordsjoen-Mercedes	53	+35.532s	2	2	01:20.829		10
4	24	Dave Carr-Smith	Midnight-Renault	53	+56.745s	7	2	01:21.849		8
5	4	Kieran Ryan	Woods-Mercedes	52	+1 Lap	16	2	01:22.635		6
6	25	Nick Rowland	Midnight-Renault	52	+1 Lap	6	3	01:22.056		5
7	15	Ryan Walker	TDR-Toyota	52	+1 Lap	18	2	01:23.087		4
8	6	David Jundt	Red Archer-Renault	51	+2 Laps	8	2	01:23.230		3
9	17	David Stanton	ST-BMW	51	+2 Laps	15	2	01:22.509		2
Ret	8	William Ponissi	Constant-Renault	44	DNF†	20	4	01:23.939		1
Ret	21	Abdel Damghi	Nijo-Toyota	42	DNF	12	2	01:23.137		0
Ret	9	Ojay Clark	Synergetic-Ferrari	37	DNF	10	3	01:22.136		0
Ret	10	Sam Millar	Synergetic-Ferrari	32	DNF	11	2	01:22.070		0
Ret	12	Ben Morgan	Computrac-BMW	28	DNF	13	3	01:22.390		0
Ret	5	Jason Muscat	Red Archer-Renault	23	DNF	3	2	01:21.246		0
Ret	23	Bart De Vos	TDR-Toyota	8	DNF	9	1	01:24.402		0
Ret	20	Ben Warren	Nijo-Toyota	7	DNF	21	1	01:24.602		0
Ret	7	Mark Stanton	Constant-Renault	4	DNF	4	1	01:21.671		0
Ret	22	Phil Perkins	Draig-Ferrari	2	DNF	19	1	01:24.553		0
Ret	3	Mark Wicks	Woods-Mercedes	0	DNF	14	0	-		0
Ret	11	Gavin Thomas	Computrac-BMW	0	DNF	17	0	-		0

^† William Ponissi completed 75% distance and therefore was eligible to score points.

Standings after the Race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Lee Morris	181
2	Joe Consiglio	170
3	David Jundt	123
4	Jason Muscat	100
5	Dave Carr-Smith	82
6	Ojay Clark	52
7	Pavel Loknovski	46
8	Mark Wicks	45
9	Nick Rowland	40
10	Bart De Vos	34
11	Sam Millar	33
12	Kieran Ryan	28
13	Christoph Lichtenstein	23
14	Ryan Walker	22
=	Adam Rouse	22
16	Mark Stanton	21
17	Phil Perkins	9
18	David Stanton	7
19	Jyri Lylykorpi	6
20	Ben Morgan	4
21	Petter Kaasa	3
22	Mark Fuller	2
23	Abdel Damghi	1
=	Gavin Thomas	1
=	William Ponissi	1

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Red Archer-Renault	223
2	Nordsjoen-Mercedes	222
3	Draig-Ferrari	201
4	Midnight-Renault	125
5	Woods-Mercedes	73
6	TDR-Toyota	67
7	Synergetic-Ferrari	56
8	Williamson-Mercedes	52
9	Constant-Renault	22
10	ST-BMW	9
11	Computrac-BMW	5
12	Nijo-Toyota	1

External Links

Preceded by: 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix

2011 Italian Grand Prix 2011

Succeeded by: 2011 Spanish Grand Prix