Race reports from the opening round of the 2020 VWRS season. With Dominykas Zvironas and Stefan Klien departing, the path has somewhat cleared for the highest returning driver from last years Championship - Maximilian Thunström - to make a title bid. But he has fellow highly rated juniors Jules Barclay and Matteo Zetticci to deal with, and can anyone else step up to challenge the expected big three? Race 1As ever, the VWRS began at Adelaide, Australia, with 30 drivers ready to impress FV teams. Already season favourites were being marked out – the highly rated Maximilian Thunstrom and Jules Barclay were both entering their final season in junior series, while the impressive Matteo Zetticci was also expected to challenge for the title. But in qualifying, Lopez junior Max Meyer sprung an upset by beating Barclay to pole, with Ethan Matthews also doing a great job in 3rd. Zetticci could only manage 5th while Thunstrom was a disappointing 7th. Former VERS/FV3 winner Declan Byrne was the highest place rookie in 9th. Immediately off the start Meyer flew away from Barclay and zoomed into a commanding lead. Behind, Nicolas Steffensen had a poor getaway from 4th and was swamped by Zetticci, Urmo Kruuda and Thunstrom. The Italian started to work his way to the front – he dispatched Matthews on lap 3 with a clean move into turn 1 and on lap 7 he passed Barclay after being held up. However, Meyer was already well up the road and the Italian slowed to a steady pace. Thunstrom was less successful. Unable to find a way pass Kruuda, he locked up going into the last corner and clipped the rear left wheel of Kruuda’s car, breaking his front right suspension and putting the Swede out of the race from 6th. Kruuda continued, but there was visible damage to his car and at the half-way mark his tyre had a blowout, the Estonian parking his car on the side of the track and losing his 5th place. The main benefiters from this were Daniel Zeintek, Rafael Palou, Danilo Forini – all three started out of the top ten, but they all made up 4 positions in the first few laps with some good moves and with the two retirements ahead of them they were now firmly in the points. Another person who benefited was Byrne. He fell to 14th at the start after his car bogged down but passed Gianluca di Stefano and fellow rookie Pablo del Fuego to move back up into 10th. Towards the last quarter of the race, another driver coming strong was Erik Oliversson. The Swede entered the points when he passed di Stefano, before nipping past the rookie pair of Byrne and del Fuego. Sebastien Vocquelin also followed suit – following a poor qualifying, he moved up to 14th at the start before also passing di Stefano and taking advantage of Byrne and del Fuego fighting each other to move into the points as well. Towards the end of the race Matthews began to struggle with the tyres and was overtaken by Steffensen and Zientek, who made up a total of 6 positions throughout the race. However, up front Meyer was never headed and won comfortably, ahead of Zetticci who scooped up the fastest lap point. Barclay had to make do with third ahead of Steffensen and Zientek. Matthews was disappointed in 6th while Palou and Forini’s mid race push rewarded them with 7th and 8th. Moe Zeya had a quiet race in 9th, Oliversson took 10th and Vocquelin ended up 11th. On the last lap, del Fuego passed Byrne to take 12th and the final point with it. Race 2For race 2, the grid was more like what many expected – Zetticci on pole, ahead of Thunstrom and Barclay. Meyer started 4th while del Fuego was the highest starting rookie in 10th, after his points finish earlier in the weekend. In comparison to race 1, Steffensen and Zeya had poor qualifying sessions, down in 16th and 24th. Like Meyer before him, Zetticci had a great start and managed to reach the first turn well ahead of the pack, leaving Thunstrom to fight off a feisty Barclay. Behind Matthews from 6th got forced off the road at turn 1 and dropped to 9th, along with some slight damage. On the other hand, once again the big gainer was Palou, the Lopez junior making his way up to 12th from 14th initially before passing Zeintek and del Fuego in the following laps. Barclay continued to harass Thunstrom but he couldn’t find a way past, and after a failed overtaking attempt, Meyer swooped in to take advantage and move into 3rd. Behind, Vocquelin’s race came to a rather spectacular end when a steering column failure meant he crashed off at turn 3, though thankfully the Frenchman was alright. He was joined in retirement with Zeya, who had an engine failure from 25th, a rather mute end to a mute performance. With Thunstrom and Meyer failing to pull away from Barclay, the Canadian launched another attack and passed both cars on consecutive laps to take second, though like in race 1, Zetticci was way far ahead to be challenged. Kruuda meanwhile, who had started 9th but was up to 7th thanks to Matthews and Vocquelin, won out in a 3-way duel between him, Forini and di Stefano for 5th. A few laps later, di Stefano slowed down and returned to the pits, retiring from the race. It was later revealed he had had a gearbox issue. He was joined in retirement by Thomas Falzon – the rookie started 13th, and after losing a place at the start, had caught up to del Fuego for 12th and looked to challenge for the final point before he spun off into the barrier at turn 5. As the race neared its end, there were 3 people who had clearly saved their tyres for a last push – Steffensen, Palou and Oliversson. The Dane had moved up to 12th at the start, then after Vocquelin and di Stefano’s retirements fought his way into 7th. Palou after his great start managed to hold position and passed Matthews towards the second half of the race, as the Brit struggled, though the Spaniard did lose out to Steffensen. Oliversson’s late charge was by far the most entertaining. He had a slow start and after 2 thirds of the race was a mere 14th, but he suddenly decided to push and passed del Fuego, Matthews and Zientek to take a solid 9th. For Zetticci though, like Meyer, it was a lights to flag victory. Both he and Barclay set the exact same lap time for the fastest lap and so both were rewarded with half a point. Thunstrom got his first points of the season in 3rd ahead of Meyer. Forini pounced on Kruuda late in the race to beat him to 5th ahead of the Steffensen – Palou – Oliversson trio. Zeintek had a up and down race but he ended up with 10th, ahead of the disappointed Matthews in 11th. Once again, del Fuego was the highest placed rookie in 12th, taking another point. Race 3For the 3rd race, the grid was set by the results of race 2, except the top 15 was reversed. Last year’s VOARS champion Raj Sharma started on pole ahead of Byrne, with Hector Draper 3rd ahead of del Fuego. For the likes of Zetticci and Barclay, it was going to be a challenge to fight their way into the points. From the start the top three got a clean getaway and held their positions into the first turn. Behind, Matthews got a good start and passed del Fuego for 4th on the first lap. With a train forming behind Sharma, Matthews went for an ambitious move on lap 7 into turn 11 on Draper but he braked too late and hit Byrne. Matthews still managed to get around the corner in 2nd, but Byrne dropped to 4th, and with damage to his car, he began to slip down the order. This promoted Zeintek, who had squeezed past del Fuego at turn 1, into 4th, del Fuego into 5th and Oliversson into 6th. Behind the top 7, Steffensen struggled with overheating tyres in the first few laps and dropped from 9th to 11th, ahead of Zetticci who had wasted no time in passing his title rivals. Scott Jackson suffered from a misfiring engine early on having started 16th and pulled out of the race. Matthews gave pursuit to Sharma, but the Phoenix junior was unable to catch the Indian and only succeeded in burning out his tyres. Draper took advantage and slipstreamed past Matthews into 2nd. Sharma’s attempt to stay ahead of Matthews had also seen him push hard and now he was paying the price – Draper spotted his opportunity perfectly and popped his car down the inside into turn 4 to take the lead. Behind, Byrne continued to fall down the order, dropping to 10th. Steffensen was also struggling and was passed by Zetticci and Barclay, the later who also pulled off crucial moves on Thunstrom and Meyer. The latter tried to right back but spun on the exit of the final hairpin and stalled the engine, retiring from 13th. As the race neared its conclusion, Matthews’ tyres worsened, and he slipped down from 3rd to eventually 7th. Zeintek and del Fuego moved into 3rd and 4th, but an engine failure for the Colombian put him out of the race when a podium was in sight. He had also dropped oil on the track, leading to Mickey Tyler and di Stefano sliding into the barriers from 19th and 22nd, putting all three drivers out of the race. The two drivers however who gained the most in the final few laps was Forini and Barclay. Forini took advantage of a mistake from Kruuda ahead of him to move into 7th, dispatched Oliverssen and Palou to take 5th, sailed past Matthews and passed Zeintek on the last lap to steal a podium after a stunning charge. Barclay did likewise, pulling off a brilliant move on Zetticci around the outside of turn 9, before passing Byrne and Kruuda quickly. He also overtook Palou who lost a gear and dropped behind Oliverssen as well, before the Canadian finally passed Matthews to take 6th. However, up front, Draper kept his cool to take the win and kickstart his season points wise. Sharma held on to second ahead of a delighted Forini. Zeintek and Oliverssen were a solid fourth and fifth, with Barclay taking the fastest lap in sixth. Matthews was seventh, while Palou limped home eight, just holding off Kruuda who rued his error that saw him lose concentration. Zetticci had to make do in tenth with the final point. StandingsSo, after the first round, it’s Matteo Zetticci who leads the standings, 8.5 points ahead of Meyer. Barclay and Forini follow, while Thunstrom’s disappointing weekend sees him in only eight. Sharma is the highest placed rookie in 12th. But that’s all from VWRS this weekend – we will see you next time out in Pau on the 9th of May.
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