With Downton surprisingly being the fastest on average in qualifying, it begged the question is this was mostly because of Brazil, an outliner result where Mathershaw struggled in the wet session. In this article we’ll look at how each team performed in the first and second half of the season, including and excluding wet sessions. First half of the seasonOver the first 9 races, Downton and Franklin had a clear advantage in qualifying. The two were very close however, just 19 thousandths separating them. Ocelot were a further tenth off, while Mathershaw were the slowest. However, there are two things that skew this. Firstly, wet races, while not dramatically changing the result, did have minor bearings on this outcome. In Malaysia, Franklin were almost a second off the polesitter – when wet races are removed, Franklin were the fastest in qualifying while Mathershaw are very close with Downton. Secondly, Mathershaw suffered from Kangur’s qualifying pace (or lack of). When Simon slipped up, the team would be behind probably at least one driver from the other three teams. On race pace, Mathershaw were clearly the best with 5 wins, with Kangur’s victories coming from below the first two rows. However, the fact that despite their pace in qualifying was the best in the dry Franklin failed to win a race really is shocking, and after last year (4 poles, 1 victory) it’s likely they are a team in recent times that focus on qualifying rather than races. Behind them, Ingram and Holmqvist were interchangeable, with the green team were ahead by just over half a tenth. Holmqvist however did miss out on a few opportunities in the V-Prix’s (both drivers caught up in incident in Australia, mechanical double DNF in Malaysia, teammates colliding in Slovakia) which allowed Ingram to pull out a handy gap. Lopez led the lower midfield battle in qualifying, with a slim advantage over Phoenix. As noted before, North Star generally lagged behind in qualifying, but were on par with their two rivals in race pace. On top of that, without wet sessions North Star were just behind Phoenix. FIRST, AMR and Meteor were separated by small but noticeable gap. They were closer to the leading pace in the wet compared to the dry. Second half of the seasonThings got even closer in the second half. Mathershaw were only a tenth ahead of Downton, who slipped to third, while Ocelot improved quite a bit, slotting in between the two. Franklin though fell back to fourth, being a smidge under half a second off the pace in qualifying suggesting they began to focus on 2019. Without wet sessions however, Mathershaw improve in terms of gap to leader in qualifying, but Ocelot instead were the fastest, only a tenth off the pole sitter in dry sessions, backing up claims that a better driver may have challenged for the title in the car. In the races, Mathershaw took 6 wins and clearly had an advantage, but Downton were consistently on the podium along with two wins which enabled Powers to take the title, while Ocelot only won once, but had the pace to win more often, though strategies or driver error hampered them. The chasing pack fell even further behind in the last 9 races. Ingram were around a second a lap slower then the leader in qualifying come rain or shine. Holmqvist went from just behind Ingram to four tenths off and behind Phoenix thanks to an impressive lap from Davenport in USA (Holmqvist were faster in the dry however). Phoenix were one of the biggest gainers over the season, pulling out a sizable gap to Lopez and North Star in qualifying. North Star were just ahead of Lopez, though this was thanks to Halvosen’s good lap in Brazil (in the dry Lopez were faster). FIRST remained in the same position but AMR fell back, being just faster then Meteor, though managed to come 12th due to a race of attrition in Mexico. Full seasonIt’s feasible to say that the top three drivers (Powers, Kangur and Simon) could have won in either a Mathershaw, Downton or Ocelot given how close they were (4 hundredths in both overall and just the dry). In the dry, Mathershaw were fastest though, which when considered they were better in the races does justify the belief that they were the fastest team this year. Despite their poor second half Franklin were still quite close overall to the top four. Ingram and Holmqvist were separated by a few tenths and were in no mans land. The same could be said for Phoenix, North Star and Lopez, with the newcomers having an advantage over the other two in qualifying. FIRST, AMR and Meteor were all further behind throughout the season in that order. Quite clearly this season was amazingly close between the top four, but will it be the same for next year?
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