New KaRo Cars Spotted

Spy photographers were out in force in Northamptonshire recently as an eclectic mix of race cars sporting the now well known KaRo racing colours was spotted on the Southern Circuit at the Silverstone race circuit.

The cars were kept under wraps for much of the session until they were wheeled out for what was believe to be promotional work. Our spy photographers, however, were able to get shots of 4 of the cars, before security prevented further images. First out on track was a real stranger to 'road circuits' as the Oval based Silver Crown ( above ) was scene out on circuit doing donuts and clearly having a bit of trouble with right hand bends.

Next up was another car more commonly seen on Oval tracks as a Streetstock took to the track.

Then the road cars started to appear, firstly a locally produced Radical SR8 sliding it's way through Chapel corner as Katier was clearly enjoying herself.

Finally a Ford powered SRF was out on circuit bouncing through the first few turns Katier was clearly enjoying herself in these cars looking resplendant in purple and black with a splash of pink.

Security sadly interviened before what was believe to be a F1 style car and also a touring car, perhaps a VW Jetta, took to the tracks.

TWF1: Teflon Tyres produce a thriller!!

"They're shocking, they fall apart" mumbled one driver, while Grant Riddall was heard to explain "I can only get 12 laps out of the hards."

"They're like driving on Teflon", muttered another, and indeed KaRo driver, Katier Scott, sported 'Teflon Tyres' sponsorship on her newly painted T4 Ferrari.

As with the modern Formula 1 teams, TWF1 drivers are faced with what amounts to a new tyre supplier this year. With much heavier wear rates, the overall grip levels are reduced, and drivers will have to balance tyre wear against race pace adding a tactical edge to the racing.

On Pole for the first race of the season round the challenging Portimato track was the impressive, hard tyred, Grant Riddall, .4s up on returnee Pablo Flores and 1s up of defending champion Rouke vd Hoek. The gap was perhaps a bit of a surprise, but with a variety of strategies at play, and Parc Ferme rules fixing fuel levels the strategies of different drivers was far from known.

In all 27 drivers lined up for the first race and off the start Grant got too much wheelspin (right), allowing Pablo to get a jump on him and Rouke to challenge for second place.

Further back, Kat Scott, as seems to be her tradition, probably got the best start of everyone. Threading the needle (below) she lept from 21st on the grid to 14th by the exit of T1. At the end of the lap she was up to 13th, while Tallini, Jaka, Nigel and Jef also all made good progress on lap 1.

Sliding down the order, the other way, several drivers made less than stellar starts, Paul Langford dropping 6 places on lap 1, and a further 6 two laps later to find himself with a mountain to climb from 21st place.

Paul's first lap, however, was remarkable in the way he avoided problems. His start wasn't great and he soon found himself battling with Salvatore Tallini.Into T3 the two were broadly alongside, Tallini took the racing line and Paul was forced to brake very hard, only the triple screen setup on Langfords 'car' giving him enough warning to save himself. T4, and again he was having to rely on his situational awareness as Ray Riddall cut the curbing and almost took out the dark green Lotus which at this point was in a Ferrari Sandwich.

Then finally a few turns later Paul has to lift as Kat failed to give him enough room through a fast left hander. All this left the GP Racing driver well down the order.

On Lap 2, Grant lost his nearest challenger, as Pablo spun into the kitty litter and rejoined several places down the order in 8th place and started something of a recovery drive.

On the same Lap, Ray Riddall also spun out losing out when Paul's nightmare race continued and he made a mistake into T3. The collision punted Ray round and down to last but one place, while Paul continued in 15th place, before spinning down to 21st a lap later.

Up towards the sharp end of the field Jaka and Nigel were making steady progress while John Wallace was getting Pressurised by the recovering Pablo.

Pablo certainly had some pace and was soon past the sluggish looking Bous car, and scampering after the Lotus 80 of Costa, which he is initially unable to pass.

Pablo's charge does continue, however, as he passes Nigel on lap 5, Simon Baggett on Lap 7 and finally Costa on Lap 8. Nigel had been holding a solid 4th place but spun, avoiding the McLaren of Baggett as they approached T3, the Lotus pitching right under hard braking and pushing Metcalf down to 8th.

The front 8 seemed to be starting to pull away by now, leaving the battle for 9th behind as the race progressed. That battle was as fierce as any in the race with Ralph Maiph, Tallini, Bret Metcalf and Jan Premuzic all swapping places several times over the first 6 laps before a half hearted attempted at a pass by Jan caused him to collide with the bronze coloured Lotus of Bret, and spin. Ralph had no-where to go and spun into the stationary Premuzic knocking the wing of his car and forcing Jan to pit at the end of the lap. The collision would have a telling effect on the teams results as Ralph would never fully recover from the collision while his team mate, John Wallace, continued.

Bret continued unhindered and soon started to put the latter as they chased down the other Metcalf in as the first pitstops approached.

First to pit, of the scheduled stoppers, was race leader, Grant. He has been serenely pulling away from the second placed, and longer fueled, Rouke but still rejoined in 7th place and was back up to the lead by lap 21 ahead of Wallace and Rouke, who had pitted on lap 16 dropping to 3rd once the stops had played out. Last to stop were the cars of Baggett and Scott who both waited towards lap 20 before stopping for fuel and tyres.

Or so we thought because, suddenly, on lap 24 the leader was back in the pits for his second scheduled stop. This caught Rouke out and he failed to capitalise on the chance to challenge for the lead as the leader exited the pits.

Rouke took a look inside into T3 but it was too little, too later, the 2010 double champion would have to settle for a chase down of Wallace instead.

Meanwhile other drivers were starting their season on a high. Eric Fulghum, who early on had been embroiled with a battle with Rouke's Team mate, Katier Scott, now found himself lapping the RoKa car who was in her own battle with Bous Team driver Ralph Maiph.

Initially Eric got past cleanly but a last corner slide by Fulghum caused confusion as Scott, Nigel, Fulghum and Maiph all careered towards T1 at different speeds. Fulghum's slide causing him to be substantially slower than the slipstream aided cars behind him. Kat Scott summed up the next few seconds by saying "I was caught between a rock and a hard place, I thought Eric and Simon had crashed, didn't know what the condition of Eric was and was concious we had two battles - a lap apart, approaching the turn. I did make a bit of a pigs ear of it, not the way I wanted to start the last lap."

Initially all drivers maintained their places but ultimately the fresher tyres on Nigel and Ralph's cars gave them enough to make up the places.

Grant cruised the last few laps for a superb win ahead of Rouke and the non-stopping John Wallace. 3 different strategies for the podium. Eric Fulghum also ultimately drove an excellent race also non-stopping while Ralph showed how marginal the non-stop strategy can be as he punctured a few laps from home setting up the thrilling last lap.

Newcomer Frank Oreskov, and Tallini, also drove excellent races - battling for 12th down to the last lap when a technical glitch let the newcomer through.

For me drive of the day must go to John Wallace for a superb tactical drive to second place by a team who, last season, also often tended to nail the strategy. Jef Vannijlen also deserves a mention thanks to a great run from 26th to 16th after resetting his qualifying time.

Monza Mayhem with the TW Classics!!

Grant Riddall once again thrust his car onto pole by an impressive margin at Monza, however with the slipstreaming nature of the track, another pair of wins was far from definite.

Riddall led from the green but by lap 2 was down to fifth as his slipstream allowed 4 drivers to get past him, but almost as quickly he was into second. Jef and Rouke got together and last a lot of time allowing the champioship leader to retake second. 

Other collisions early on had caused other drivers to be delayed as the tight, close, racing caused frayed nerves and requires intense concentration. Ralph and Mitch were the big losers as they fell towards the tail of the field after incidents while Mark Abbott failed to so much as take the start.

While Grant was battling his way towards the lead again, Jos Swarthoff was sything through the field. By Lap 3 he had made up 10 places to fifth and found himself in close company with John Wallace.

Kenyon and Fulvio were two more drivers who faded after a good start while by Lap 4 Grant was back in the lead.

He held on for a solid win just over a second ahead of Fernando and Bret Metcalf.

The Sprint had proved to be short and sharp, but the feature was likely to be an epic race with 22 laps of drafting on the menu.

Grant soon found himself in a battle with Fernando from the start while Ronny made a demon start. Elsewhere Bret and John Wallace seemed to be playing musical cars as a hugely eratic driver by Benoit seemed to make both drivers go out of their way to be close to him. 

Benoit made their life hard for 3 laps before he crashed out while John would retire with technical failure a few laps later. 

That left the consistant Bret with a battle on his hands with Paul Langford and... a recovering Grant Riddall. Riddall had been forced to pit on lap 4 after an incident, dropping him to 14th but a solid display of drafting soon brought him up to Bret. 

Several cars had other incidents but by half distance only 4 drivers had retired, with two more pulling out a couple of laps later. That left 14 drivers battling their way round at speeds in excess of 200mph. 

Up Front Jef was looking secure until he lost a couple of places on lap 13 as 4 cars battled hard to dominate the race in a pack that steadily pulled away from the Bret/Riddall battle.

Jef retook the lead but Ralph wouldn't let him rest, the pair frequently swapping places as they pulled away into an intense battle. Jef eventually pulled up an impressive win narrowly from Ralph with Fernando pulling out a solid 3rd place.

Overall Monza proved to be a very different challenge which saw drivers having to co-operate to get the best out of it. Some drivers proved better at this than others and this contributed to the excitement.

TWF1 - Jerez Report

The inaugural TWF1, 1971, event kicked off at the twisting spanish Jerez track last weekend with a huge field of 30 cars. On pole, as with the TWFC last week, was the impressive Grant Riddall who stormed to a mighty pole position almost a second ahead of the lime green car of Mario Wojahn. Mike Perray proved he didn't need a turbo to be face in third ahead of Ronny Nunez and Rouke.

With such a large field the odds of a clean first lap were, probably, remote and cars were brushing wheels from the off with Nigel and Leo lucky not to combine into a huge accident.

Turn's one and two saw more incidents, shuffling up the pack, but the first major off didn't occur tilltowards the end of the lap when Leo got into Aymeric and spun falling to the back of the pack.

By the end of Lap 2, however, there was a huge mixup of cars at the back of the field with Mario, spun by Rouke, Paul Langford, Fernando - who didn't qualify - and Leo all having to mix it with the backmarkers.

The first of those to cause a noticeable holdup was Kat Scott, who while not entirely happy with her car was managing to be reasonably smooth, precise and consistant early on. She ultimately lost out to the three cars behind (below) but not before she'd gained some respect from them.

Both Mario and Fernando citing her in their reports, Mario said, "Honourable mention to Kat, who did an outstanding job defending her position! Well done mate excellent racing."

Mario, despite the delay, would soon be passing other drivers as he charged through the field. He would reach 11th by lap 11 when he pitted and was up to 8th 10 laps later. Paul Langford, the third driver in the train, was moving up the field equaly impressively. On a different fuel load to the lime green car he pitted on lap 18 when running 9th.

These three drivers were certainly showing some driving and racing skills and Deutsch was no exception as he nursed tyres, deciding to run non-stop, he would finish an impressive 11th losing 10th to Langford on the final lap with his tyres dead.

Meanwhile Perray had jumped into second place and held it impressively but was unable to hold onto the Flying Riddall. Once again the formed streaked into the lead with a mighty impressive pace. It's clear that these low grip monsters suit his driving style and it'll be interesting to see how he gets on with the grippier Ground effect 79's later in this two car season.

Retirements didn't start for a few laps but by lap 18, five drivers had failed to score points as their wrecked cars littered the race track.

The pitstops, which are optional this season but reccomended, soon proved to be scattered as drivers balanced their loads vs qualifying pace. As with F1 in 2009 parc Ferme is preventing drivers refueling. Although due to technical issues this was waived for this race, the stops seemed to imply most drivers went with what they had.

The first Scheduled stops seemed to be around lap 11 with the last being Kat and Bret on lap 25.

Drama didnt' stop throughout an action packed race as drivers charged through the field, collided, spun or made mistakes. The final driver who failed to see the checkered was the unfortunate Mark Abbott who, running 3 laps behind the Matra, caught Katier as she struggled on low fuel two laps from the end. Rouke accidently made contact with Abbott who was unfortunately forced to retire, but didn't lose points as a result.

Overall an entertaining and challenging opening race with a mighty impressive win by Riddall. He doesn't win driver of the day and I think it HAS to be split three ways. Deutsch and Langford for impressive 21 place climbs through the field and Mario for an equally impressive driver when recovering from his spin.

The field now moves to Imola, for a much faster and more flowing race track.

TWFC Round 1 - Sandy Madness

The much anticipated Autumn season of Legends League rFactor racing kicked off last weekend with a crash a bang and a wallop as a substantial field arrived at the Jarama race circuit.

Prior to the event the stewards issued stark warnings to drivers for using too much of the sandy extremes of the circuit, whether they are adhered to we will see but it's almost certain that some drivers will ultimately leave with less points than they believed.

The pole battle went down to the wire with Ronny Nunez narrowly shading Grant Riddall by a little over a tenth, the pair being over half a second quicker than Rouke and Jef Vannijlen.

With no pace lap employed in the rFactor series' this year, the field headed down to T1 for the first time with slightly colder tyres and much colder brakes than normal.

Ronny and Grant both got through T1 cleanly, with Grant taking the lead. Further back, however, Paul mistook his clutch for the brake and cannoned into Angelo, the pair losing several places in the ensuing moment through the gravel.

Over the course of the first lap the field spread out nicely with some minor bumping as drivers jossled for position. A minor off near the end of the lap cost Ronny two places and removed the most likely pressure from Grant.

The final action of the first lap took place on the exit of the last turn as the delayed Paul Langford, suffering with a damaged car, lost control - spun across the track and smashed into John Wallace. Wallace's car bounced into the pitlane so the damage done was comparatively light, he did a quick pitstop to repair and rejoined near the back of the field

Langford continued and in doing so his race turned into a near disaster. His car was ill handling and as a result he had several collisions, spins and incidents on his way to a struggling 15th place. 

24 cars started the race and, as is often the case some benefitted at the start, Salvatore Tallini was one such driver, leaping 11 places on the first lap to finish it in sixth. Sadly for him a poor race saw him fade to a disapointing 15th over all.

Mitch Simon also made up a good number of early laps, finding himself in 7th by lap five from 16th on the grid. He battle hard, had minimal problems to bring his car home solidly in 8th after Deutsch passed him a few laps from home during a recovery drive which dropped him to 12th on lap 2.

Riddall, aided by Ronny's first lap off, cruised to a comparatively easy win ahead of Ronny who recovered well to second. Jed and Rouke took the next two places ahead of Jos Swarthoff and defending champion Ralph Maiph.

Race two and Riddall made a similarly good start and once again Nunez was not given the chance to pressure him as again he had an incident on lap 1. This time, however, he wasn't at fault as Jef rear ended the Ferrari turning it around and causing Nunez to drop to 16th place.

Dale Ballwag made the best start, jumping to 10th from 16th on the grid but by lap 7 he was out as the field started to thin out. In a replica of the lap 1 accident, one of those drivers to retire was the frustrated Ronny who was collected when Deutsch lost it in the same way as Langford. Both retired on the spot on lap 10 signalling the end of a disapointing race for someone who obviously has the pace to challenge for the championship.

Further up Rouke soon worked his way into second but there was no way he could hold onto the race leader as Riddall streaked away for an impressive second win. Behind Jef and Jos were embroiled in one of several battles through the field, Vannijlen finally coming out on top with an impressive third place.

The biggest battle, however, centered around the race for 10th place. At times 5 or 6 cars were battling nose to tail, with some slightly desperate lines being taken as drivers including Angelo, David Pym, Ralph Maiph and John Wallace fought hard for places.

The final pass in this monumental battle fell to Wallace as he passed the fading Mitch Simon for 13th with just 5 laps to go.

Overall two intensely entertaining races kicked off what is likely to be an exciting season of racing.

Drive of the day must go to Grant Riddall for two immaculate drives, although in race one, Mitch Simon undoubtedly put in a better drive. Simon's race two wasn't quite so good so Riddall takes driver of the day by a whisker.

TWF1: OldRing Report

Sitting at the end of pitlane, mechanics fussing over the car, as 24 other cars blast away down the long straight at OldRing, Champion elect Rouke vd Hoek looked lonely and faced an uphill battle to the title...

Then a wheel bounced past as his engine fired up for the start, the sounds to his left weren't of roaring engines, they were of carnage and tearing metal. Screeching tyres and overheating engines.

In all 27 drivers made the grid for the final round of the championship. If there was ever a signifier of a successful championship this was it. Seven drivers were guaranteed to leave without points as only the top 20 score points.

Bret Metcalf on pole got away solidly but spin a wheel up and suddenly veered off to the right, Simon Baggett bounced off him and he was collected by Bento. Further carnage was avoided as behind them Benoit's Renault overheated. This was caused by a formation lap mishap involving Robert Jones.

He spun on approach to the grid and caused it to be very slow forming up, the end result was a smokey Renault. Corrado spotted his problem, slowed by Jones behind was unsighted and cannoned into him. With tyre smoke from the start still in the air all hell broke loose.

In all around a dozen cars were damaged by the startline collisions with both Metcalfs, Benoit and Corrado all retiring.

Kat, Miguel, Simon, Costa all pitted at the end of lap one along with Luis Lima. Lima was the last person involved in the fallout from the start, a fact that was slightly surprising as he was one of 3 to start from the pitlane. He tripped over Corrado, in a slightly strange accident, who was creeping back to the pits. The collision ending Corrado's race.

The big benefiter's from the first lap carnage were Ralph Maiph who jumped straight into the lead, Rick Stratton who gained 12 places to sixth, Kat Scott who despite a pit at the end of lap 1 was 19th from 26th and Rouke, 16th after a pitlane start.

By Lap 5 the leaders were having to contend with lapped traffic. The leaders caught Kat towards the end of the lap and this caused Leo to make a mistake. Overcooking the corner he slide wide, almost making contact with the Ferrari and losing a place to Ronny (left).

Ronny had briefly held second on lap two, lost it to Leo on lap 3 but once back ahead he set about chasing the small gap to the leader. 

Behind a small battle was developing for fifth with Shazy and Rick battling a few seconds ahead of Paul Langford. Rouke was making great progress and already closing the one Alfa and was into the top 10. 

Jef was fourth and unable to keep up with the lead three, but comfortably ahead of Rick behind who by lap 11 was starting to drop Shazy. The latter had fallen into the clutches of Paul Langford who was having a bit of a mixed race. On at least two occasions he made a mistake at Adelaide losing a place to Shazy and on one occasion Rouke who was having a dream race.

Meanwhile Kat was making steady progress moving through the field and by lap 17 was battling with Martin. Martin managed to slip back after she went wide in turn 4, but she was soon back ahead and right with Phillipe. Marot made it very hard for the Ferrari and almost made contact in T4. She finally got past on the exit of Aque Minerale and by lap 22 was into the top 10.

Eric Fulghum, was also making quiet progress. He'd pitted on lap three after colliding with the pitwall following a very light rear nudge from Fulvio who also spun and lost time but didn't pit. By lap 16 Eric had been caught by the leaders and initially it looked like a normal lapping manoveur. 

Ralph passing the HMR car easily on approach to T1 but for some reason the two drivers then managed to confuse each other with braking points and Eric had the scary prospect of nearly taking out the leader. 

Post race Eric apologised to Ralph. He said, "Yea, sorry about that Ralph. Although, I remember being suprised that you were suddenly slowing. I have to watch the replay, I'm sure I got something wrong there.

"I just dive bombed the corner as much as possible and hoped you were not there. Thankfully, you went over the curbs at the second apex of the T1 chicane to give me room. Luckily rFactor gave it to us and didn't give us any damage as we brushed and interlocked wheels. Whew! Taking out the leader is the lamest thing ever, and the last thing I wanted to do."

Ralph continued but was being steadily caught by Ronny who by lap 24 was right with him. Under intense pressure Ralph held him off until finally, on lap 26, he finally made a pass for the lead. Drafting Ralph down start/finish he took the lead before turn 1 but was unable to escape. On Lap 31 Ralph made his move squeezing through a gap barely wide enough for a Brabham he retook the leader on approach to Adelaide.

By now 12 cars had retired, in addition to the five retiring from first lap incidents. Miguel, Robert Jones, DK and Simon Baggett amongst those who failed to make half distance. Others having troubled races included Tallini and Luis Lima. Tallini, who failed to make the end of the formation lap and thus started from the pitlane, pitted again on laps 9, 10, 15, 26 and 28. Lima pitted three times and several drivers pitted twice.

By now the field was settled, but battles still raged. Ronny was trying everything to get past the leader while Leo was having to fend off the advances of Rouke. Meanwhile Eric's fine recovery was about to fall apart. 

On Lap 29 Tallini was recovering to the pits but, suffering from a missing rear wing, lost it approaching Blanchimont he lost it. Eric was an unfortunate, accidental, and unavoidable victim and after heavy contact with the wall continued.. 

Only to collect Cooper ( inset) in Adelaide, as Eric found that the brakes on a car with heavy suspension damage don't work in the same way as on a fixed car. Fulghum was forced to pit and would lose a place to Kat.

Ultimately a highly entertaining exciting race. Several drivers putting in very good drives, others struggling on a track that seemed to suit the 1979 Formula 1 cars very well. An excellent end to a very good season, congratulations to Rouke for a well deserved championship victory. But as always it's fun to recognise a driver of the day.

I think it would be unfair for me to choose it as anyone who makes up 19 places in a race must be in with a shout, so over to Rick Stratton for his thoughts on the most deserving driver.

TWF1: The Fast and the slow.. of Fuji

Engine screaming, surging up towards the limiter, the bright yellow Renault looks completely at home down the main straight. Topping out at insane speeds it then squirms and struggles as the driver puts the anchors on for the hairpin. Fuji, with it's long straight saw the cars, most noteably Phil Carroll's Renault and Kat Scott's Ferrari, with powerfull engines stripping downforce for maximum speeds of well over 180mph by the braking point.

The Cosworth cars were lucky to hit 180 without effects of a tow but those cars would look so much more comfortable around the tight twists of the back end of this circuit that is full of contrast.

Pole went to one of those Cosworth's in the hands of Rouke, with Simon Baggett lining up second ahead of Timo and Leo Menegucci. Rouke made the best of the start with Timo jumping Baggett into second with Leo and Corrado keeping grid order.

Slightly further back, however, with a massive field of 26 cars the inevitable happened and someone touched. Bret had made an horrendous starting, skewing across the track then into T1 he locked up and slid into Costa. Langford and Marot were also involved although non of the car seemed to pick up much damage.

The field, however, was getting very congested now and into T1 Ivor made the same mistake and slid into the back of Fulvio, who was punted into the paths of Scott and Jones. Several other cars were lucky not to get involved the Jones ended up having to take a slightly scenic route as a result.

Two further incidents brightened up the first lap. Phil Carroll threw his car off the road avoiding Costa approaching the hairpin and Tallini managed to remodel his Ferrari towards the end of the lap. Tallini's car, minus a wheel, would retire at the end of the lap while the remaining cars streamed round to complete the lap.

John Wallace was the biggest improver in that lap running 8th from 18th on the grid between Bret and Miguel who were battling hard over 6th spot.

Up front the order looked fairly stable with Timo tracking Rouke. Leo, Simon and Corrado all holding station but on lap three Bret moved up to fifth. He worked his way past Bento when the latter spun under braking for the hairpin.

On Lap 6 Rouke lost the lead to Timo but that was far from the end of the battle and as the field approached lap 13 the action ramped up a level. The cause of the action was the removal, on the previous lap, of the 200m board causing drivers to brake too later for the corner.


Timo, Leo, Simon, Kat, John, Miguel, Corrado and others all missing their braking points to a greater or lesser extent.

Big losers caused by the missing board included John and Corrado, while Ivor probably took the biggest journey off road. At the end of Lap 16 therefore, Rouke was back in front from Timo, Leo , Simon and Bret. Fulvio was next up and starting to make good progress through the field while John Wallace was about to Retire.

He became the 5th retirement, before half distance, with Nigel, Kat, Shazy also joining Tallini in the Nill points column.

Up front it was clear Timo had the edge on pace, driving impressively quickly but Rouke had the lead and a battle Royale was developing. The lead swapped, and swapped again.. Rouke refusing to give up then on lap 23 Timo got it all right, drafting Rouke down the main straight Rouke went defensive. Off line he braked a touch early, Timo braver on the brakes swept round the outside the the race was his for the taking.

Take it he did, pulling steadily away to register an impressive win. Leo held onto third from Timo with Fulvio finishing an impressive fifth.

Overall an interesting race with a huge field that produced incident, excitement and resulted in the majority of the field taking at least one trip off the track.

Driver of the day? Well some good performances, Patrick Dobner started from the back and finished 11th so scores highly, Larry Thomas had a quiet race but one of his best to date. Fulvio also had a solid race while Timo was might impressive with Rouke being Tenacious throughout.

I think ultimately Timo deserves it, he lost the lead several times, never gave up and had a mighty impressive pace.