GPGSL Live Race Coverage, Atlantic Grand Prix, Piranema, BrazilHello and welcome to coverage of season 6 round 10 of the GPGSL championship here from the Piranema circuit in Brazil. Yesterdays qualifying saw both main championship contenders qualify high up the field which should set us up for an intriguing race day. Something else that will throw the preverbial spanner in the works is the torrential downpour that occured as the drivers were making their way around the parade lap. All cars will start this race on slicks and hope that the weather dries up.
As the grid takes shape here is proof of the awful conditions facing the drivers...
The five lights come on and then go out...WE ARE RACING IN BRAZIL...
Greenhalgh gets bogged down off the start line and it looks like Vilela has the jump on him...
But no...Greenhalgh manages to brake later and hold the treacherous outside line into turn one...
It looks like Aleksander also managed to get the jump on Warrington in the other AMR...he is now up to third...
Meanwhile Pedersen is up to 9th and Cartwright is getting attacked in 13th
The replays show us just how tight the start was for the cars in the midfield...which Muller came out of in plum last place...
Whilst Aleksander sets off after Vilela and championship rival Greenhalgh, Warrington has some defending of his own to do...
OH NO!!!! SHEPPARD HAS GOT FAR TOO CLOSE! THE TWO TOUCH!!!
Sheppard spins in the wet conditions...and the field stream past...but what of Warrington...
HE SPAN TO!!! DISASTER FOR THE AMR DRIVER!! He will feel hard done by there...
Warrington and Sheppard rejoin 21st and 22nd...they now have a long afternoon ahead.
BUT WAIT WHATS THIS?! ALEKSANDER LEADS?! UNSEEN BY THE CAMERAS GREENHALGH AND VILELA HAD A MOMENT AND ALEKSANDER SLIPPED THROUGH...THATS CRUCIAL FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP...
Vilela, who also managed to past Greenhalgh is now under attack from the AMR driver...
The two VSM's are now running line-a-stern...
drivers are trying moves all through the field. As they approach the quick left, right hander towards the end of the lap both MPR cars fancy their chances...
But Houston gets short shrift from Horvarth...
And as you can see...Jalving didnt have much luck either...
So at the end of a choatic first lap Aleksander leads comfortably...
And confidently...
Whilst Vilela seems to have built up quite a queue behind him...
Oakley is 8th and being chased by one of the SCR's and Norbert Horvarth...
Whilst his team mate Silvestre has his wing mirrors full of Snake...
At the end of lap one Silvestre goes to make a move on Hinz for 13th...
He proves to be the last of the late breakers and takes the position...
But look how close it is down there...
At the front Vilela is coming under attack from all areas.
A quick run down of the race order...
Greenhalgh is having a looking at Vilela...
But doesn't manage to get deep enough to make the move stick...sensible driving from Greenhalgh as he could have put both drivers out quite easily there...
The two Christel cars are lacking early pace and that is exemplified by the fact that Warrington and Sheppard have already caught up to the back of the field...
Aleksander crosses the line to extend his line...just look at the queue behind Vilela now...
Infact, he is now having to drive defensively...
We are now cutting to a replay of something happening into turn one...Charrell Jalving is diving up the inside of his MPR team mate....this could be bad...
Thankfully Houston has seen Jalving...
They get through the corner safely
WHATS THIS?! VILELA HAS RUN WIDE!! Sensing Greenhalgh coming he has tried to recover to the racing line...
THEY TOUCH!!!
VILELA HAS BEEN SPUN ROUND...GREENHALGH HAS MANAGED TO CARRY ON!!
VILELA IS RIGHT ON THE RACING LINE...
AND IS HIT BY GREIDANUS
Quite miraculously that has actually push Vilela back onto the track and he is able to carry on, however he is now being swamped by a host of other cars...
This is how the incident look from Ben Johnson's car...
Johnson ends up getting a run at the ART Cars but behind him something else is unfolding...
watch carefully as Johnson's team mate Pedersen moves to over take the SCR on the outside...
OH MY WORD!!! MASSIVE CONTACT...CARTWRIGHT TURNED IN ON PEDERSEN WHO HAD NO WHERE TO GO!! HIS VSM CLIPPED THE SCR'S WHEEL AND IS NOW AIRBORNE...
The car finally comes to rest in a ruined state...a big shunt there for Pedersen...we hope he is okay...
The Marshalls rush in to check on his state...
Meanwhile out front Aleksander must be smiling from ear to ear in his cockpit...the Greenhalgh/Vilela incident has only helped him to stretch out his lead...
Greenhalgh now runs a lonely second...
And Vilela has somehow managed to stay 3rd, despite being harried by his team mate...
The replay shows us how Gredianus was able to pass Oakley for 6th place...great move from the other TSS driver...they appear to have a really good race setup...
Oakley is now coming under pressure from Horvarth and the first of the MPR;s
Meanwhile, further down the field Hinz has been outbraked into turn one and run wide...
AND SPINS!!! OH NO!!
After just 4 laps! Thats right only four...here are the standings...Aleksander already has a 4 second lead and surely will be hard to topple here this afternoon...
Vilela still can't shake the attentions of his team mate...
But on the pit straight Maverick gets a good enough tow...he is going to try this time...
The slipstream manages to get him up the inside...
And he brakes later!! Great move from Maverick to pass his team mate...
Can he now do anything about the lead that both Greenhalgh and Aleksander have...
Vilela now continuing to fall backwards...why is that car so slow in race trim?
Jalving is again making a pass into turn one...this time he is up the inside of Horvarth for 8th place...
Looking back from Jalving's car suggests that Houston is going to attack the true north driver too...
AND HE DOES! Wall of death around the outside by Houston means that Horvarth has lost two places in two corners and now sits in 10th...
Vilela is now falling further into the clutches of Johnson in the remaining VSM...
He has a look approaching the high speed chicane...
But Vilela turns in and shuts the door managing to keep the place...for now...
That has put Johnson under pressure from Greidanus...and he has to go defensive into the last turn...
Karjalainen, 13th is now driving to defend against the lead Christel of Jack Elleker in 14th...
Out front, Aleksander is already pacing himself...
Vilela literally has got them queuing up...
To the point where Muller 15th is now actually on the back of the train...
VILELA LOCKS UP INTO TURN ONE!!!
He's gone off...
He's tumbling down through the order as cars rush past...
Now Elleker and Muller fancy their chances...
Elleker makes it stick...Muller doesn't...
Oakley, Gredianus and the two MPR's are now being brought into play after Vilela got out of there way. This is all starting to shape up nicely for the pit stop window...
Karjalinen is still bieing hounded by Elleker who is already up to 13th after all the first laps carnage...
Johnson 4th is now starting to pull out a bit of a gap on Gredianus...I don't doubt he would have been given the hurry up when he saw Vilela go out...
Gredianus now seems to be struggling somewhat and has actually dropped back into the clutches of Oakley and the MPR's...
WHATS THIS?! Jalving got out of the last corner beautfiully... he sits in the slipstream of the Tafuro car and then pulls out heading up to the braking zone...
Jalving brakes later and takes the place but Oakley has locked up and is heading straight for the gravel trap...
Which claims its second victim of the day...
AND IN A BIG WAY! Oakley carried far too much speed into the corner...he was too busy try to fend off Jalving and missed his braking point...
It then goes from bad to worse for Tafuro GP! Right behind that accident Silvestre comes under attack from Worseling...and indeed behind that move Elleker looks to be shaping up a move on the other Snake car...
AMAZING DRIVING HERE!! TWO MOVES HAPPENING SIMULTANEOUSLY!!!
Silvestre looses the place to Worseling who then has to end up defending against Elleker who brakes unbelievably late into turn one and takes Karjalainen...
Just at how close the pack is still, especially in the midfield...pit strategy really is going to be very important to these cars this afternoon...
Worseling is now having to defend from the car that he just overtook...plus Elleker is also lurking around waiting for something to happen...
Kittleson has made a huge lock up going into turn one and is now headed straight for the rear wing of the MAC racing car that he was trying to over take...
CONTACT!!!
Both drivers spin...that means that both SCR cars have now been involved in crashes this afternoon...
And all the while Aleksander still coasts away from the pack out in first place...whats perhaps more worrying for everybody else is the fact that the rain has now stopped...
And he is doing a fantastic job of pacing himself against Greenhalgh who can't eat into that 4 second lead...
We'll be back shortly with more coverage of this pulsating race...
Race Director: Ernie B. Ecclescake
GPGTV Youtube Channel