Hello and welcome back to the sport that keeps on surprising us, Formula Virtual. I'm Neil Allenby here under the lights in Bahrain as we prepare for the Bahrain V-Prix. I will do the grid walk now and then we'll have the national the national anthem. As you can tell it's extremely hot and I'm drenched in sweat. It's your man Enrique Ruiz heading yet another Franklin front row lockout ahead of the two Downtons, Powers ahead of van Snelheid. Let's get started shall we? So now as usual we'll start at the top of the grid, you can see the winners trophy there, someone is going to be taking that home tonight and his second name will probably begin with R. Speaking of which, there's a lot of work going on on Ruiz's car, actually make that both Franklins. There's still loads of time until the start of the race so no need to be concerned. Our reigning champion Nathaniel Powers is out of the car at the moment, they've got an umbrella over the cockpit. Lets see if he's free.
Nathaniel, 3rd place. Those Franklin's are becoming a bit of a pest aren't they? "They are, but pests are usually done away with." Bahrain is the only night race on the calendar, do you think the cooler temperatures will suit your car more? "Honestly, I don't think it'll make too much difference. The car is solid in both warm and cool temperatures." Thanks then Nathaniel, see you late. His teammate van Snelheid is currently talking to team boss Bradley Downton, after losing the championship lead in Germany due to an engine failure. We've got an enthralling battle between Downton and Franklin in the championship as the three time champions try to hunt down the 2017 champions. Behind them we have the driver who's been reborn recently, lets talk to him. Lewis, you've had a bit of a resurgence in the past couple of races. You are starting 5th. Do you think the new management have really managed to unlock the pace in the car or do you think it's something else? "The new management made a good decision by hiring me! This car is one of the best I’ve driven for some time, Kaz and his team did a brilliant job making it." What do you think you can do from here, what's your strategy for the race? “The car has felt great this weekend so far, but our race pace doesn’t look as good so it will be a hard race. The penalty for DS will make it easier for me but the FIRSTs will be hard to keep behind. You know me I’ll attack attack attack but we’ll have to see where we end up.” We will see for sure, thanks Lewis. Just moving past the end of the top 10 now, there's FIRST, Holmqvist and Meteor mechanics absolutely everywhere. I'm not going to try to stop anyone, so lets continue. We've got two people talking to each other I'll try to butt in. Alex, Gabriele, good to see you. Mind if I talk to you? Gabriele, after Germany qualifying last week you must be feeling a bit better placed for the race today, how was the car feeling yesterday? "Yeah, feeling good. The car seems to be going better here than the last couple of races, we don't really know where the pace of the car disappeared to. But it seems to, some of it, be back, so the race should be a good one for us." It's almost impossible to believe but there's only six races left and you've got two feisty teams in Holmqvist and Meteor trying to beat you in the standings, can you hold them off? "I think we can, that's what the guys are all aiming for. We've been a bit unlucky when we've been running in good positions, the other guys have had some surprise big results as well. I think that some of the races coming up, we should do well at, and if we can keep on scoring points in most of the races, then I think we can definitely hold on to P5." Thanks Gabriele. And Alex, it's been a tough couple of weeks for you, do the late troubles hurt the teams performance at the track? “Yeah, it’s been a tough couple of months really but we don’t let that act as an excuse for any on track performances this season. We’re very proud of the development that went onto the PX2 earlier on in the season which helped lift us to where we find ourselves now, but as you can imagine all upgrades stopped as soon as the first signs of trouble came about. We know where we are this season and we’ve gotta enjoy the lofty heights of seventh place before it inevitably comes to an end! The main focus now is looking towards next season and getting everything together.” Thanks to both of you and good luck for the race. We don't have a massive amount of time left so I'm basically running through here. We've got the usual candidate in the midfield, no one looks free, except... Lucas, are you free right now? "No I'm not but Carson has finished up talking with engineer if you want to talk to him." Alright thanks Lucas. Lets go down to the back quickly then and catch Davenport. Carson, great qualifying for you. Does it feel like a waste to see all the effort when your team has a penalty? "For sure, it is very difficult because we were very strong in the qualifying... but we had the penalty. I think everyone in the team is frustrated that we have to take the penalty. But I think the qualifying yesterday show that we have a strong car and we can really send a message to all the other teams that we mean business." Hopefully we can see more of that pace, thanks Carson. Now we're really running short on time, I've turned around and I'm going back up the grid. Almost all the drivers have gone to the top of the grid, I'll see if I can follow any of them up... here's one. Hunter, can we walk with you? Great to see you and the team back on the grid, you were only a tenth off Giodano, are you happy with that given he's a race winner? "It’s great to have made it to race here especially as we were the first team to win under these lights. It’s a special track. I’m happy with just being shy of Puccio." As you can see we're in Bahrain and it's as hot as a furnace with a dragon in it. How do you as drivers cope with the heat or does it not affect you? "As for the heat I’m Australian so it’s not much of a problem. But yeah it’s not much of an issue." Thanks Hunter. It's time now for the national anthem. Bahrain national anthem plays. So that's all from me, as we now prepare for the race. Wait a minute actually I've just spotted Ingram's technical director. Excuse me Juan Fernando, may we have a quick word before lights out? "Of course." You've kind of been stuck in a middle region this year, in the midfield but not really in the points. Where do you reckon you are compared to others? "Of course the midfield is tight si, but I think the car is worth more than the points we have so far. James and Jean disagree with me!" We were talking earlier to another driver about how the severe heat affects them, does it have any effect on the car or set up? "Yes it's very very hot and of course the car suffers, the drivers suffers, we suffer! We've dialled the engine back a little to ensure it survives but it's the same for everyone. I'm surprised some teams aren't on hard but hopefully that works for us." Thanks, have a good race. That's all then from me, see you after the race.
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