We have arrived at the penultimate round of the 2023 eVirtual season, and for the first time ever the series is in Quebec for the Canadian eV-Prix at ICAR Speedway. Local hero Jules Barclay has claimed pole on a good day for Porsche, with fellow North American Sam Hudson alongside him on the front row. In a shock result, the top 2 in the championship occupy the 24th and 25th positions on the grid after a woeful qualifying for both of them. It’s a cold day in Canada, and the power mode choice makes it clear that this race will be a flat out sprint. 25 drivers will be starting on the Attacking power mode, with only Ryota Yoshida going against the trend from 9th. Part 1 & 2The green flag dropped and the opening laps passed by rather quietly. With over 230 laps and 4 pitstops to run in the race, drivers seemed unwilling to push their batteries too hard and with everyone on the same strategy there were no easy moves to make. Urmo Kruuda was the first to make a move, getting to the inside of Porsche’s Sebastian Bergkvist to claim 4th place on Lap 9. Some laps later it was Thunderhead’s Drake Davies making a move, getting past Jochem van Snelheid to continue what has already been an excellent weekend for the Thunderhead team. Up front Jules Barclay continued to lead, gradually extending his advantage over Sam Hudson until he was out beyond 5 seconds. With the short oval layout giving drivers no time to rest, one small mistake could prove very costly with the walls close by. It was Kiara Thunder who found this out first, tapping the wall on the exit of Turn 2 and breaking her Renault’s suspension. She would be the first retirement of the race, although the safety car was avoided. Apart from that one incident the first stint of the race would pass by fairly uneventfully, with Jules Barclay leading the field into the pits on Lap 46. Drake Davies was the one to watch, having continued to make up places. After passing Kruuda and Bergkvist, the Thunderhead was now up into 4th and seriously contending for the podium with Vocquelin. It wouldn’t be long before the Bahamian made his move, catching Vocquelin napping on colder tyres as he powered around the outside of Turn 1 to take 3rd position. Unfortunately, things were not going quite so well for his Monegasque teammate. Olen Inman would become the second driver to find the limits of the ICAR Speedway, and with his car beyond repair he was forced to retire the Thunderhead after returning to the pitlane. Vocquelin continued to drop back, falling behind Urmo Kruuda into 5th position and falling into the clutches of Jaguar’s Jochem van Snelheid. The battle for 4th continued to heat up, with 4 cars nose to tail around the speedway. Lap after lap the positions changed hands, with Sebastian Bergkvist working his way through to the head of the pack by the time of the second pit stops. Barclay continued to hold a comfortable lead, not pulling away spectacularly but maintaining a consistent gap to Hudson in 2nd. One driver who would not be making it to the next round of stops was Viktor Östberg, with a mechanical failure sidelining the Swede. Part 3 & 4With the race rocketing by the halfway mark, there were no signs of Jules Barclay slowing down. He continued to maintain a comfortable lead, with Hudson holding 2nd ahead of Drake Davies and the chasing pack of Bergkvist, van Snelheid, Kruuda and Vocquelin. After biding his time for a few laps it was van Snelheid who made a move on Bergkvist, relegating the Porsche driver down to 5th. A few laps later another mechanical failure would end the day of Ethan Matthews, with the Brit’s car cutting out and forcing him to roll into the pitlane. Stint 3 of 5 was soon in the books, with Barclay having enough of an advantage to put the Bentley of Ryota Yoshida between him and Hudson. From there the race continued to simmer quietly, with the final stint still to come it seemed that many of the drivers were holding off for one final push. One driver who decided to make some moves early was Dominykas Zvironas. The Lithuanian had caught up to the train Bergkvist was leading, and made light work of all 4 drivers with some spectacular passing. But soon events further down the field were to shake up the race. It began in the pitstops, with Hyundai’s Nick Addison seeing a slow pitstop drop him behind Thunström. Addison was furious, and immediately went on the offensive as the cars got back up to speed. Perhaps the Australian was a little too aggressive though, and contact was made just a lap later. Both drivers spun out, hitting the outside wall in a large shunt and collecting the unlucky Romano Agostino for good measure. Debris and smoke covered the track and the following cars were sent scattering. Incredibly after the elimination of one title contender, it was current championship runner-up Zozulya who was the first to get into trouble. Arriving on the accident scene mere seconds later he was caught out by Einarsson hitting the brakes in front of him. He managed to avoid the Renault but in doing so he could not avoid the wall, leaving the McLaren irreparably damaged. Robert Stefánsson was also unlucky to be forced into retirement after striking debris and breaking his suspension. With the safety car deployed what remained of the field was bunched up and ready for a 20 lap dash to the finish. No pitstops remained and everything was set for a sprint finish. Up until now Jules Barclay had looked comfortable, but he would have to master the race’s first restart to pull clear of Sam Hudson once more. Drake Davies was also prepared for a fight in 3rd place, with the hard charging Zvironas behind him. The green flag dropped and the battle began. And it did not start well for Jules Barclay, who spun his tyres on the restart leaving the way clear for Hudson to pounce. The American powered around the outside of Turn 1 to take the lead and he set about using all of his pace to build a gap. It looked like it was working, the Lada was pulling away ever so slightly to build a slim 2 second lead with just 10 laps remaining. But then the tide started to turn. Hudson had used too much of his battery in his attempt to build a lead and he was paying a price for it now, desperately saving battery whenever he could. Barclay could smell blood and began to close in for one final time on the Lada. With 4 laps to go he was right behind Hudson, but the Lada would not be budged from the inside line. Barclay tried everything, but Hudson was determined to deny the Canadian his home win. It came to the final turn as Barclay threw an outrageous dive, but Hudson saw it coming. Instead of letting himself be pushed wide, he backed off and slipped back inside as the Porsche had no hope of holding the inside line. With his greater acceleration, the Lada outdragged the Porsche to the line by just 1 tenth of a second. It would be Hudson who claimed his 3rd win of the season, continuing his late season push for the title. It would be hard to pick who was celebrating harder, Hudson or the man who rounded out the podium. After a truly exceptional race, Drake Davies would come home in 3rd place for Team Thunderhead, giving the Brazilian team their first ever podium finish. A late race move gave Zvironas 4th place ahead of Bergkvist, while Kasami would finish 6th after slipping quietly up into the points paying positions. He was pushed to the line by Vocquelin, with Kruuda, Brynildsen and van Snelheid rounding out the points. With just one round remaining, the championship couldn’t be closer. With his 3 bonus points for pole position, Jules Barclay has moved into a 3 point lead over Thunström. They are not the only two in contention for the title however, with both Hudson and Zozulya both more than capable of claiming the title in Morocco. The constructors championship is a little less close but there are still 2 teams left in contention, with Jaguar needing to overturn a 23 point deficit to Lada. With 4 drivers separated by just 17 points, the Moroccan eV-Prix is going to be unmissable and two weeks cannot go by quick enough. Final ClassificationChampionship Standings
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2024
Categories |