The first race of the LMP season took place at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit in Montreal. This circuit blends tricky corners with long fast sections and as such is a challenging circuit especially on machine and it's brakes.
Remon Franizzi lined up on pole ahead of Sulla Looming, Jafo Tendaze, Katier Reitveld, Tsukuba Ming, Rattra, Crippy Oh, Yuriko, Suzy Cuddihy, Nella Boccara and Kiboe.
Looming was concerned about the lack of Launch Control on her Reynard 01Q-01 race car and this proved to be the case as Tendaze and Reitveld both jumper her and challenged Franizzi into T1. Exiting T1 they were next to each other and contact was inevitable.
Reitveld was knocked into a spin and broadside on most of the field scraped past her. Unfortunatly Boccora and Kiboe both struck the stranded car with some force and damaged all three vehicles. Boccora was out on the spot while Reitveld lost a lap in the pits. Kiboe continued but was last and retired on lap 11 with an ill handling car.
Franizzi was in control very quickly and Tendaze, driving hard, was unable to close the gap with Ming holding station behind.
Oh was soon up to 4th after Ming lost time with a lap three spin but dropped behind Rattra sortly after. Her car appeared to be in trouble and on lap 8 she was in for a long stop dropping her behind Retiveld.
Rattra had retired on lap 7 so with the stops approaching Franizzi lead from Tendaze with Looming in third but strangely not quite on the pace. Cuddihy was consistant in 4th ahead of the recovering Ming.
The stops showed why Looming was off the pace.. she'd chosen medium tyres and a lightning stop left her second while Tendaze came out in third. Drama wasnt' finished in the race, however, as approaching the end first Oh, then Tendaze, both suffered brake failure and Ming had a last lap incedent.
1 Remon Franizzi
2 Sulla Looming
3 Suzy Cuddihy
4 Tsukuba Ming
5 JAFO2RHh
6 Katier Reitveld
7 Crippy Oh
8 Kiboe
9 Rattra
10 Yuriko
11 Nella Boccara
No comments:
Post a Comment