Following the Australian V-Prix, the second round of the 2022 Formula Virtual World Championship, we take a look at the winners and losers from the weekend. By Neil Allenby Star of the weekend: Klaas van Snelheid It seems like a bit of a cop-out to pick the race winner as the star of the weekend, especially as it was Ruiz who put his Porsche Mathershaw on pole as his team locked out the front row ahead of Klaas. However, bear with me on this. Klaas had a slower start than Powers and Vasquez behind – both on the soft tyre compound – and the Dutchman fell to fifth on the opening lap. However, Klaas soon dispatched of the Ingram driver as he made a dive up the inside into turn eleven. Admittedly, Vasquez was compromised as Zetticci slammed into him after misjudging his braking, but it looked like Klaas would’ve had the place anyway. He then showed his immense pace by catching the top three at a rate of knots and stuck with them as the pit stops played out to end up leading on the mediums. It’s debatable whether the backmarkers towards the end of the race either hindered or helped the Downton driver, but it cannot be debated that he picked his way through them well. Klaas’ victory in Adelaide strikes me as being a new and improved Klaas, a Klaas 2.0 if you will. In the past, whilst the 24-year-old has always had incredible pace, he has sometimes succumbed under pressure of expectation. Could we be seeing the emergence of Klaas van Snelheid, Formula Virtual World Champion? It is, of course, too soon to say, but this season is his best opportunity yet. Struggler of the weekend: Max Meyer The clear struggler in Adelaide, to me, was Lopez driver Max Meyer. A poor qualifying left him starting 20th, ahead of only Forini and the five drivers who had issues in the Saturday session. Meyer lost a place at the start before a ‘day late and a dollar short’ move on Jules Barclay left him without a front wing after clobbering the barrier. After his front wing change, Meyer then failed to make much of a dent on the back of the pack which was worrying considering the midfield’s jostling and battling. Whilst the Lopez is clearly not a car capable of scoring points on merit this season so far, Meyer looks a long way off even his teammate and will need to bounce back strongly in Malaysia. Hard luck story: Hunter Ryan The hard luck story of the Australian V-Prix was between two drivers, for me; Will Taylor and Hunter Ryan. Taylor did well to capitalise on an error from Matteo Zetticci at the start and looked set for, at the very least, eighth place on his hard tyre strategy until his engine gave in. Ryan’s poor luck, however, just about beats Taylor’s. Ryan grew up in the suburbs of Adelaide and surely played a big part in Formula Virtual heading to the street circuit for the first time this year, so must’ve been hoping for a great result in his hometown. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Ocelot’s decision to leave it until the end of the session to send Ryan out backfired as a myriad of yellow flags meant the Australian had to slow significantly during his flying lap and subsequently ended up last on the grid. Unfortunately for Ryan, his poor luck continued into the race as he retired with a gearbox failure on lap 28. This capped a miserable weekend for Ryan and was compounded by teammate Giodano scoring a fantastic four points for the team, showing the pace was clearly in the car. Standout rookie: Matteo Zetticci The standout rookie of the weekend, for me, is Matteo Zetticci. It does help the Italian’s cause that the other three rookies didn’t finish – or start, in Zientek’s case – the race, however Zetticci did drive a solid race to maintain his strong position in the championship. After making a typical ‘rookie’ error on the first lap, clunking into Vasquez after being put off by Klaas’ dive down the inside of the Colombian, Zetticci drove with a mature head – despite several lockups into the final corner. Matteo never allowed himself to get too distracted with drivers on different strategies than him and quietly stalked Will Taylor before finally passing him – before the Phoenix driver retired – and going on to finish in a relatively respectable seventh place. Seventh is not where the 2021 VWRS Champion will want to finish regularly, but is still solid points in only his second ever Formula Virtual race.
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