Puccio Giodano took his second win this season after holding off the two DS Mathershaw cars of Adrien Simon and Allar Kangur in an enthralling battle. The latter two spun off multiple times and left Giodano to take victory, but only after the Italian spun off at the final corner. Simon ended up second while Nathaniel Powers was third after a spin in the opening stages. Olen Inman was an unspectacular fourth while Kangur was fifth after a poor strategy call. Enrique Ruiz was sixth after a collision with Ryota Yoshida at the final corner, which saw the latter retire. Klaas van Snelheid also retired after reversing into the wall. At the start Giodano held on to the lead, but a great start from Powers saw him try to go in between Kangur and Yoshida for second. Kangur held onto second but Powers took third, while Yoshida’s line was compromised into turn two, allowing Simon to slip by. Van Snelheid lost out to Ruiz for sixth. Will Hoskins had a great start to climb up to eighth, while Viktor Ostberg, after a strong practice and qualifying, dragged himself from fifteenth to twelfth. Further back Sergio Alvarez and Johan Halvosen collided at turn twelve, with the Argentinian losing his front wing and the Dane spinning around. Kangur on his mediums clearly had the speed over Giodano’s hards and at the start of the third lap he overtook the Ocelot with a clean move on the inside of turn one. The next lap however, Giodano managed to catch a slipstream and passed him with an identical move to retake the lead. Simon dispatched Powers for third at the same time, with Yoshida also moving pass the champion at turn four. Up front, Giodano went defensive on Kangur on the run towards turn one again, but the Estonian pulled off a super move around the outside, only for Giodano to return the favour at turn four, again around the outside. Powers attempted to throw his car up the inside of Yoshida at the same corner but the two touched ever so slightly and Powers was pitched into a spin. He rejoined in eleventh. Kangur and Giodano’s battle allowed Simon to close onto the back of his teammate’s tail. Kangur made yet another move on Giodano at turn one on lap six, with Dmytro Kovalenko and Jules Simon pitting for repairs after the latter spun at the final corner and the former hit him. A lap later, Yoshida, who failed to make any impact on the leading three, spun at the final corner. Ruiz, unsighted, hit the stranded Ocelot and broke the Japanese’s suspension on impact, sending the tyre into the air. Ruiz’s car interlocked with Yoshida’s and he began pushing it. Plenty of cars managed to get through without incident but Elroy Wagner spun off and Felix Perez lost his front wing after the Franklin and Ocelot ended up on the racing line. Eventually Ruiz managed to detach himself and get back into the pit lane for a new front wing, but Sebastian Vocquelin ended up retiring after getting caught up in the accident. Jean Mattson and Felix Beyer, in his first race for Holmqvist, went wheel to wheel into turn one on lap eight, with the Dutchman holding on with the inside line. Mattson tried to dive-bomb him at turn four, and briefly got ahead, but a touch of oversteer on the exit allowed Beyer through again. The next lap, Mattson tried the same move and succeeded, with Beyer’s soft tyres beginning to degrade. The pair had already been passed by Powers a few laps before, with the Briton trying to get through the field. Things went from bad to worse for Franklin when James Vasquez passed Inman, but the Monegasque driver managed to retake the position a few laps later. Beyer became the first driver to pit on lap eleven, putting him on a two stop and all but confirming a poor result for him, much like Hugh Dwyer last year. Holmqvist’s chances took a further blow when Hoskins joined the ever-growing list of drivers to spin off at the final corner, and reversed into the wall, breaking his rear wing and leaving him with a DNF. Simon became the first of the top three to make a mistake, spinning at turn ten on lap fourteen, allowing Giodano to go down the inside of Kangur at the first corner a lap later. Powers finally passed Vasquez on the same lap, having tried but failed to overtake the rookie before. Not long after he passed Inman, putting himself in fifth just behind his teammate. The medium shod drivers, led by Kangur, began making their first stops on lap eighteen. While some, like Carson Davenport, were able to go a few laps longer, the majority came in on lap eighteen, meaning they would make three stops, the final one critically just a few laps from the end. Wagner managed to jump past Ostberg in the pit lane. Kangur wasted no time getting past Vasquez, while van Snelheid spun at the final corner. A few corners later however, Kangur made the same mistake as his teammate and spun at turn ten. Jules Simon hit the rear of his car and Mattson collected the young Frenchman, while the DS Mathershaw car escaped without damage. Both Mattson and Simon lost their front wings which ended up being a major factor for the fight for the lead. The Ingram driver pitted and came out just ahead of Giodano and (Adrien) Simon. He moved over to let them lap him, but on his fresher tyres, re-passed the leaders almost immediately, allowing Simon to close in on Giodano and Kangur to make up the time lost in his spin. While that was going on, Phoenix's Davenport spun at the final corner. He rejoined having lost one position to his teammate, and only just ahead of the Lopez cars. Worryingly for both teams though, both Judson Sikes and Halvosen were running ahead of them; the latter having made a brilliant recovery after his first lap spin, with Alvarez doing likewise to be just behind the pair, giving North Star a chance of leapfrogging both Lopez and Phoenix in the championship. Halvosen caught up with Sikes and overtook him, but the Dane was less than impressed with his teammate’s late move on the main straight. Back at the front, Simon had caught up with Giodano. As the Italian tried to the lap Mattson around the outside of turn one after Mattson covered the inside, Simon went for a late move on both of them. He managed to emerge in the lead while Giodano managed to put a lap on Mattson he was frustrated to have lost the lead. He retook first the next lap however, just as Wagner passed both the Phoenix cars and Sikes went back ahead of Halvosen. The two times winner again passed him, and once again he was annoyed by a late move from the Russian. Both Alvarez and Davenport pitted at the end of the lap, leading to suggestions the pair had collided earlier. Simon kept close to Giodano, and he took the lead in yet another overtake at turn one on lap twenty-eight. Kangur also made his way ahead of Inman. He pitted a lap later and refitted his hard tyres, leaving him with no more stops left. He came out just ahead of Kangur. Giodano followed in the next lap and came out behind both of them. Van Snelheid crashed at the final corner after reversing into the inside barrier, leaving him with his first DNF since Germany. On lap thirty-two, another bombshell occurred. Kangur lost the rear of his car at the final turn. Giodano hit him and pushed him around, costing him five seconds to Simon. Kangur rejoined the track twelve seconds behind his teammate. Alvarez passed Sikes on lap thirty-four, but was five seconds behind Halvosen, with the pair behind Ostberg and Wagner. Sikes had already had a dose of bad luck in France when he retried on the last lap from eighth, and he was left ruing his luck again when he hit the kerb at turn two and lost his front wing, ruining his chances of a top ten finish. Beyer also lost his front wing at the same time, further ruining his afternoon. Things were looking good for Simon, but DS Mathershaw’s greatest fear came to haunt them. Ruiz, who had recovered to the top ten, made a pit stop and came out just behind Simon. With fresher tyres however, and with both cars going to the end, the 2016 champion was going to have his arch enemy bearing down on him and possibly costing him time, with the crowd having memories of their collision in Australia when Ruiz held up Simon. By lap forty, Simon had already lost four seconds to the charging Giodano as he and Ruiz locked horns. Wagner spun at the last corner much to the anger of his team boss, as he lost out to the Phoenix cars. A lap later, another twist came. Simon came across the final corner and spun off as many had already done before him. Giodano flew past and took the lead. He lapped Ruiz and his V12 engine proved to be useful; better straight-line speeds than Simon allowed him to stay ahead of the Brazilian, something which Simon’s failure to achieve had cost him the lead. Mattson had quietly made his way up the grid and slipped passed his teammate for sixth. Vasquez’s race was ruined by his pit box being blocked by presumably Hoskins, preventing him from making his pit stop. He was still in the top ten with twelve laps to go but was losing massive amounts of time. Ruiz passed Halvosen for eighth, and with Ostberg’s overtake on Alvarez promoting him to tenth, Lopez’s seventh in the championship was safe at the moment. There was more carnage as Vasquez spun at turn ten and Schnyder hit him, putting the Swiss driver out of the race. With ten laps to go Powers spun at turn ten but recovered without losing any positions. Davenport also spun at turn four with brake problems, leaving him with a DNF. Alvarez demoted Ostberg to tenth with only a few laps to go, which would promote North Star to seventh. Wagner also passed his teammate as he tried to take the fight to Alvarez, but the very next lap the two passed the Argentinian driver at turn one, before Ostberg retook ninth. The order continued to shuffle as Alvarez capitalised on Wagner letting Kangur past by overtaking him for tenth. Kangur had to pit for a fresh set of boots on the penultimate lap, as did Ostberg which cost him a points finish. At the top however, Giodano had kept his head and drove a supreme race after he took the lead. As he came across the final corner, everyone expected him to come across the line to win, but to the shock of everyone, he spun. As his race engineer shouted at him over the radio, the Italian recovered to the track, but Simon’s failure to maintain the gap that had appeared after he spun meant Giodano held on to first to take victory ahead of Simon. Powers was third ahead of Inman and Kangur. Ruiz ended up sixth while Mattson followed home in seventh. Halvosen was an impressive eight, bringing North Star into eighth in the championship. However, Alvarez dived into the pits on the final lap, elevating Wagner into ninth and keeping Lopez in seventh in the championship. Alvarez still took the final point. See the full race below: Comments are closed.
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