It’s a second street circuit in a row, with eVirtual taking over downtown Pau for the French eV-Prix. The championship frontrunners have all risen to the top after Saturday’s qualifying session and it will undoubtedly be a fierce fight amongst the top 4, all of whom are on soft tyres. The alternate medium strategy is being run by both Bentley’s as well as Stefánsson, Matthews, Kruuda, Vocquelin, Garcia and Davies, while Cosmo Roberts is the sole runner on the hard tyres. With rain falling, eVirtual’s all weather tyres are in use for the first time this season, adding an extra challenge to what is already a tough street circuit. Part 1 Off the starting line it was a strong opening to the race from the pole sitter Jules Barclay. The Canadian had lightning quick reactions to give him a strong lead into Virage de la Gare and he wasn’t looking back from there. Within the opening 5 laps Barclay had opened up a comfortable 3 second lead and from there he continued to manage the lead over Thunström. Jaguar were in a strong position after qualifying, but instead of also challenging for the lead van Snelheid found himself locked in an intense battle for 3rd place with Oleksandr Zozulya. The Ukrainian launched a successful dive bomb into Virage du Pont Oscar on Lap 2, relegating van Snelheid from the podium. The two continued to fight, with van Snelheid showing the nose on numerous occasions to limited success, and this prevented the two from keeping pace with the lead battle, falling behind to the tune of nearly a second per lap. They remained comfortably ahead of the alternate strategy runners for now, although the softs were starting to move through the pack with Oliversson and Zvironas up to 6th and 7th respectively. After the opening laps the race began to settle, as the wet weather made drivers think twice about making too many ambitious moves. And for good reason, K8ley’s Leo Brzyski found out just how slippery a wet street track can be when he hit a painted line and clobbered the Turn 6 wall. With broken suspension, the Pole was the first to be forced into retirement. Meanwhile, Erik Oliversson had continued his progress with an easy pass on his teammate to move into 5th place. However, the top 2 had continued to set a blistering pace at the head of the field, establishing a commanding 17 second lead after just 14 laps. Brzyski would not remain lonely in the pitlane for long, as Arrow’s Zander Brynildsen became the next to retire from the race after his Mercedes powertrain cut out. Shortly after, the first pit stops of the day were due for the majority of the field. With Barclay and Thunström holding such a strong advantage, they were nearly able to come out with the race lead intact. Only the GP1 of Robert Stefánsson snuck through, with Östberg the next best alternate runner in 4th. Just as it was beginning to look like a proper two horse race between Barclay and Thunström, the race was turned on its head by none other than Barclay’s Porsche teammate Sebastian Bergkvist. Running all the way down in 23rd, Bergkvist’s day was not going well and it got worse when he made a big mistake into the Chicane Foch, sending his Porsche careening into the barriers and out of the race. The safety car was deployed, and while it effectively gave Barclay the lead back once Stefánsson made his stop under yellows, it also cut down the massive advantage that he and Thunström had built up over the opening half of the race. One driver who would not be taking advantage of the safety car was Jochem van Snelheid. The Dutchman’s slim hopes for the title took a bruising as his Jaguar gave up the ghost behind the safety car, giving him an early respite from the French rain. Part 2 With nearly 30 laps on the board, the restart would be led by the same man as the original start. And once again Jules Barclay made no mistake, skipping away from Maximilian Thunström and making the most of the clear track to maintain his lead. This lead was less comfortable however, with Thunström sticking to within 1.5 seconds of the Porsche and Zozulya following closely behind. Further behind, the safety car had promoted some of the soft runners to newfound heights, with Thunder running in 6th ahead of Hudson, teammate Einarsson and Rodolfo de la Fuente. Both Thunström and Zozulya were unwilling to let Barclay run away with the lead again, with all 3 drivers aware that a win for any of them could prove crucial to the championship battle. But on a wet street circuit, there is little room for error. A well placed puddle, a slight snap of oversteer, and one broken Jaguar later it was championship leader Maximilian Thunström who was the latest to find the Pau walls. While the commentators and fans attempted to work out what this could mean for the championship, the safety car was called for a second time. And this time it would be the soft runners who would find the pitlane closed at just the wrong time, creating even more championship chaos as Barclay and Zozulya dropped to 9th and 10th behind the alternate runners. With just over 10 laps remaining the race was suddenly up in the air. GP1’s Robert Stefánsson was thrust into a potential first ever race win, leading Bentley’s Viktor Östberg and Lada’s Urmo Kruuda. Bentley also had Ryota Yoshida in 4th leading Ethan Matthews, while Cosmo Roberts, Gabriele Garcia and Drake Davies were focused on hanging on for a potential points finish. At the restart Stefánsson got the jump and led into Turn 1. Bentley had been hoping for a race winning challenge from Viktor Östberg, but the Swede seemed completely unable to get any tyre warmup as the rain began to increase at the circuit. Frustratingly for the rest of the pack the Bentley was acting as the cork in the bottle, unable to challenge Stefánsson but acting as a major roadblock to those behind. After a long few laps Urmo Kruuda slipped by but the damage had been done, Stefánsson was 5 seconds up the road with just 7 laps remaining. What’s more, he was swiftly followed through by none other than Jules Barclay. The Canadian was on an outrageous charge, at times gaining multiple places a lap. Determined to overcome his bad luck with the safety car, Barclay was now right behind Urmo Kruuda, but he would still have a 5 second gap to Stefánsson even if he managed to pass the Lada. Lap 49 and Barclay made his move, sneaking past Urmo Kruuda and into second place. The hunt was on for the Canadian and he showed every sign of being up for the task. Using the soft tyre to great effect, he set multiple fastest laps as he hunted down the GP1 driver. Incredibly, with 3 laps to go Barclay was already on the back of Stefánsson and with the speed he had it wouldn’t take long for him to take the lead. There was no looking back from there and Barclay would take his 2nd win in just 3 races, as his mid season title charge continued. His closest challenger Zozulya was nowhere near as impressive after the restart. Zozulya found himself dropping behind GP1’s Erik Oliversson and although he was able to pass many of the alternate runners, he could only manage a 6th place finish at the line. Elsewhere, Urmo Kruuda would hang on for his 2nd podium of the season ahead of Oliversson and Viktor Östberg. Zvironas was right on the tail of Zozulya at the finish but was unable to find a way past the Downton, leaving him to settle for 7th. Finally the points places were rounded out by three alternate runners, Yoshida leading home Ethan Matthews and Gabriele Garcia in what would be the first ever points for the Maserati team. While Barclay’s win hasn’t gained him any places in the championship, it has brought the top 3 much closer as we head into the final 4 races of the season. Only 17 points now separate the three championship contenders, with the rest of the pack now looking unlikely to make a run for the title. Although they suffered an unfortunate double retirement, Jaguar are more comfortably ahead in the constructors championship and Porsche will be looking for some more impressive performances from 2nd driver Sebastian Bergkvist to enable them to challenge for a title of their own. With the European leg of the season completed, the eVirtual field will now head to Tocancipá, Colombia for the first part of a road course double header. With only a handful of rounds remaining the Colombian eV-Prix could be make or break for the championship hopefuls. Final Classification
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