After taking a podium in Australia, Brock Kidd started on pole position for the second ever eVirtual race. The Downton driver will start ahead of Jaguar's Will Taylor, with last race winner Felipe Cesar heading the 3rd row. When the lights went out it was a horrible start for the American however – he dropped from pole to third before they even reached the first corner, as Taylor stormed through to grab the lead. Kidd tried to recover and repass Cesar but got pushed out wide at turn 7 on lap 3 and dropped even further back to 6th. In anger he tried to force his way pass Stuart Harrison but ended up pushing both cars off at turn 7 and allowing Jochem van Snelheid to pass both of them. Then, to top off Kidd's misery, his car died before they had even reached quarter race distance and he had to retire. The biggest gainer in the opening laps was Alexander McLaughlin, who seemed to effortlessly dance around the pack as he scythed his way from 13th to 7th. Elsewhere, Ryota Yoshida’s power steering failed early on and despite a valiant attempt to keep going he eventually had to retire, the Japanese driver completely exhausted. Olen Inman's terrifically horrible season continued when he tagged the barrier on the exit of turn 19 and broke his rear suspension, making it 3 retirees in the opening stage of the race.
Now in second, Cesar sensed an opportunity for a second consecutive win and looked to take the lead. However, Taylor was looking for a win for the first time since his Indy days and fought off the Maserati lap after lap. Eventually Cesar got frustrated and ended up spinning at turn 5, dropping down to third as Oleksandr Zozulya made it a Jaguar 1-2. The Ukrainian wasn’t the only one making up places, as Steffen Rosenberg, after his eventful Australian eV-Prix, showed everyone it wasn’t too hard to overtake around Marina Bay, with passes on Luke Stokey and McLaughlin to move up to 7th, before Harrison ran wide at the hairpin at the far side of the track, dropping down to 9th behind the 3 drivers mentioned before. Harrison's Renault teammate Aron Einarsson wasn’t doing any better, as the Icelander clipped the barrier before the same hairpin and broke his suspension, in an identical crash to yesterday. He was joined on the side-lines by Refugio Boyer, who was noticed for the first time this year after crashing at turn 12. Quick work from the marshals meant no safety car was required for either crash. Zozulya himself was looking for a first win since the VTC season and began to fight with Cesar despite team orders to hold station. Unsurprisingly matters turned on their head when Zozulya locked up at turn 1 when trying to pass on the inside and dragged both cars off, allowing the recovering Cesar to come back and take the lead from the pair. Behind the titanic top 3 battle, McLaughlin repassed Rosenberg for 6th with a neat pass at turn 12, before Stokey took 7th from the German a lap later. At the same time the Tesla driver began to suffer with brake issues and a train of cars began to gather up behind him, with Rosenberg, Harrison, Kip Maxwell and Steven Kasami all covered by just a few seconds. Having lost the lead, the two Jaguars began to charge after Cesar. As the laps ticked down it seemed like Zozulya and Taylor had cost themselves victory but a mistake from the Brazilian brought them in range with two laps left. Zozulya pulled alongside on the main straight but Taylor managed to pick up a double slipstream and swooped around the pair with arguably the move of 2020 to retake the lead. Cesar held off Zozulya initially but ended up being passed later on in the lap. Taylor was long gone by then and the Briton took a fabulous win, with Zozulya in 2nd, with the fastest lap on the final lap, making Jaguar the first team to take a 1-2. Cesar had to make-do with 3rd, while a late charge from McLaughlin got him 4th with a stunning recovery drive, beating Bergkvist and van Snelheid. Stokey's brakes eventually failed and he was pitched into the barriers at turn 5, costing him a good result. This promoted Harrison to 7th, after he slide past Rosenberg at turn 3. Maxwell had a tyre puncture late in the race, adding him to the list of retirees, and was joined by Kasami who had an Inman style crash out of turn 19. Rodrigo Sanchez also joined the list after going off at turn 14. This all promoted Otso Toivonen and Ivan Lesic into the top 10 at the end, giving them their first points of the season.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2024
Categories |