Given his exploits this year, it's a surprise that Saturday saw the first pole position for McLaughlin, but now the New Zealander has a chance to take another win. Looking to stop him are Vocquelin and Thunder, while many front runners look to recover from lowly positions. Today sees perhaps the most variation in strategy, as 5 drivers chose an efficient battery, those being both Highwinds, Maxwell, Hudson and Davies. 9 went for balanced - McLaughlin, Thunder, Zvironas, van Snelheid, Einarsson and Ostberg, as well as Cesar, Taylor and Zozulya. The rest, including front row starter Vocquelin, are going aggressive. Off the start, it was McLaughlin who kept the lead as the field followed - surprisingly, overtaking prove rare at the front for the first couple of laps. At the back, Zozulya immediately passed Hutchinson, before passing Davies 3 laps in, by which point Taylor has passed Ostberg. It started to become clear from lap 5 onwards that the efficient cars would struggle for pace: Taylor dispatched Maxwell with ease, Hudson slipped behind several cars and Klien dropped behind both Yoshida and Domenicalli - the former also overtaking the latter. Cesar had also started to make ground, passing Garcia, while Zvironas was the first retiree when his battery died on lap 7.
The drama started on lap ten though as Bergkvist spun while chasing Thunder. Trying to avoid the Swede, Yoshida also went off and both cars hit the inside barrier; bringing out the safety car for 4 laps. This coincided with the first pit stops for the aggressive runners on lap 12, dropping them to the back. The next flurry of pit stops came quickly after the safety car, balanced in on lap 15, efficient on lap 17. After it all shook out by lap 18, aggressive runners hadn't lost out too much - McLaughlin lead and Thunder had jumped Vocquelin for 2nd, but Domenicalli followed ahead of van Snelheid, Matthews, Ellington who was undercut by many, Nakumaya, Einarsson and Agostino. Cesar came out behind Agostino in 11th, but Taylor and Zozulya were still 17th and 19th. Vocquelin was quick to pass back Thunder, but Nakumaya nearly caused another safety car with a dramatic spin. He survived but dropped behind both Einarsson and Agostino. Taylor was on a charge now, taking Kasami, Zhao, Hudson and Garcia in the space of 4 laps, while the race of attrition continued as Domenicalli disappointingly lost hydraulic pressure from 4th and Ostberg hit the wall. Aggressive runners 2nd pit stops came on lap 24, Vocquelin 11th and Matthews leading the rest from 14th to last. Van Snelheid moved into 3rd but a pair of overtakes on Einarsson and Ellington from Cesar and Taylor saw them move into 4th and 5th now, with Zozulya 8th behind Ellington having passed Klien and Hudson. Balanced runners pitted again on lap 29, handing the lead to Ellington with McLaughlin and Thunder ahead of Vocquelin. Cesar emerged from the pits close to van Snelheid and stormed past him - the pair both ahead of the next aggressive runner in the form of Agostino, who pulled the move of the race around the outside of Matthews at turn 3. Aggressive drivers boxed on lap 36, as did the efficient drivers, leaving McLaughlin leading from Thunder, Cesar up to 3rd from 17th, van Snelheid, Taylor, Zozulya who passed Einarsson, with Ellington rounding out the top 8. Vocquelin was ninth, Hudson tenth after overtaking Klien. The action quietened down for a bit, with Zhao crashing out and Agostino passing Klien the main landmarks before the next round of pit stops on lap 43. The top three held position, with Vocquelin up to 4th having eased past Ellington. Agostino had now also passed Hudson, but the main focus was on Taylor and Zozulya - now next to each other on track, the Downton driver picked up a nice tow and was past by lap 44. To make matters worse for Jaguar, Hutchinson embarresingly spun and hit the pit lane wall, knocking him out of the race. Aggressive runners completed their penultimate stop on lap 45, all bar Vocquelin dropping to the back, the Frenchman now in 12th. Up front, Cesar caught up to Thunder and a fantastic duel followed - the Fusion put up a stern defense and held off the Brazilian for 5 laps but eventually the Maserati driver was too quick, getting past to move into 2nd. Taylor meanwhile came back at Zozulya, forcing his rival into a slight error and storming past on the main straight. Efficient runners pitted for the last time on lap 54, with only Ellington remaining in the top 10. Balanced runners pitted for the last time on lap 58, and it couldn't have gone worse for van Snelheid as he overshot his pit box, knocking the front jack over and costing him places to Taylor and Zozulya. The latter initially came out behind Ellington but recovered past him quickly, as Kasami retired with suspected braking issues. The final pit stops of the race came on lap 59 for aggressive runners - Vocquelin dropped to 10th, promoting Hudson up to 9th behind Einarsson and van Snelheid. As the race entered the last ten laps, Ellington slowly slipped back, losing out to van Snelheid and then Einarsson. The main focus was on Taylor and Zozulya though as once again the two locked horns. The latter drew alongside through turn 2 and powered past, with 7 laps left, but Taylor wasn't down yet. He kept close to the Downton, and 3 laps left on the board he spotted his chance - as they passed by to lap Garcia, Taylor ducked under the inside of the pair of them on the main straight to superbly take back 4th. At the top though, despite Cesar closing in late on, McLaughlin crossed the line to seal a dominant win to revive his hopes of winning the title, taking the fastest lap to complete a perfect 29 points. Cesar's fantastic recovery to 2nd also keeps him well in title contention while 3rd gave Thunder a deserved first eV podium after an impressive weekend. Taylor 4th and Zozulya 5th means the title lead swings back to the Briton, now leading by a solitary point. Van Snelheid was disappointed in 6th, Einarsson brought home some much needed points for Renault in 7th while 8th, 9th and 10th for Ellington, Hudson and Vocquelin didn't reflect their efforts - good drives from the trio negated by poor strategies.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2024
Categories |