Round 7 - Zandvoort - Free PractiseHello and welcome back for round 7 of the GPGSL. This week the circus has rolled in to the fantastic circuit of Zandvoort in Holland, and everyone is looking to pull off that winning performance. First up is the Testers, as they give the circuit its first spin. Anyway enough talk, the sun is shining, the pink elephants have been put away for a couple of days, lets head down to the track!
And with that all important green light, McGregor dives on the opportunity to head out onto track, as he is the first man out.
Which naturally means that he sets the fastest time so far. Im not sure i can see that time holding up for 30 minutes though...
Although for now the MAC stays put, as Rangelov fails to beat the time, with his team-mate Stoddart in hot pursuit...
Legge puts them both in their places however, as he takes a full half second out the time to take top spot.
Spencer looks to keep up his impressive debut season, as he grabs 2nd spot behind Legge.
Pellatt goes green in the Shadow Subaru, as he takes 1st by the narrowest of margins, merely 4 thousanths!
MAC number 2 crosses the line, and Hinz decides to stick about where his boss lies. 4th place for the German driver.
Reigning testers champion Stuart Ingers looks to stamp his authority on the testers championship, as he goes top with a really impressive time!
Another man up there in the standings is Dan Paddock, who goes very close to matching Ingers, but can only grab 2nd.
De Boer gives the home fans something to cheer about, as he manages to put his car into 3rd place for SCR.
Stefan Van Renselaar can't pull off the same dutch magic as De Boer however, only getting 7th for his ART car.
Not for very long he doesn't however, as Cannot Steer immediately steals that place from him.
Current leader Kederer looks a bit off colour with that lap? Only 10th for him, maybe the mushrooms in his pasta werent what he thought...
Owen Edwards looks to try and help kickstart the TNR season, but only puts his car 8th place for now.
Maverick meanwhile looks to continue stealing points from the testers series as he grabs himself 4th for the MPR team.
The second Aston car now crosses the line, and its half-way house for Davies. Over half a second down in 11th, im sure he's hoping for more.
In an almost duplicate image of a second ago, the lack of pink means that this TNR must be Mills, who has slotted his car into 9th.
Gilson comes in not long after... and slots in right behind, thats 10th place for the englishman.
Plenty of flashing lights on the Scala wheel telling Mr Scala himself that this is his inlap. Although he has managed to snatch 3rd with a great lap. Needs a new tear-off though...
Behind him, fellow Scala test driver Silvestre isn't having the same joy as his boss, he can only drag himself into 16th on his first run.
Another team owner comes in, and its Van Smirren in the very nice looking Scuderia car. Pity he can only place it in 14th...
Seems they are coming in pairs at the moment, any arks around? The other Scuderia of Kittleson puts himself right behind his boss, 15th place.
Last but not least for these initial runs, its Mal Stoddart and well... maybe it is least actually. Thats not a great lap as he can only get 21nd place.
And with everyone having been round the track once, i guess that means we can give you some standings:
Back to the action now, and Ingers nearly had more action than he bargained for. It was very close for the AMR man as he nearly gets collected by McGregor whilst leaving the pits!
Rather unsurprisingly that leaves McGregors laptime completely ruined. Ingers doesn't want to be held up though as he looks to pull the first pass of the weekend.
It gets even more hairy for the Aston car! A Scuderia leaving the pits gives Ingers pretty much nowhere to go, so he has to slow, pretty much ruining that lap!
Aside from all the fighting and overtaking, Rangelov has actually managed to improve Snakes 21st/22nd positions. Although its only up to 18th...
Hinz manages to get an improvement of his time. Unfortuantely not by very much though, he still sits in exactly the same position.
Confirmation that Ingers doesn't manage to improve with all the confusion he had on his lap. On the plus side he has pulled off two overtakes so far...
Kederer still not living up to his past form, his improvement is still half a second down, and is only up to 15th place.
Whilst one AMR is all over the cameras, the other has quietly worked well on improving his time, as Davies gets himself up to 8th.
Mills seems to have an attachment with 9th place. He fights to get the exact same spot as earlier back. I guess its in the points.
Silvestre isn't having a massively successful break from race driver today. He improves, but only up to 14th place, still outside points.
Steer seems to have something rather solid blocking his exit...
Great shot of McGregor as he goes through the first sector, and he's not too far off Ingers. Maybe he can improve if he doesn't lose too much more time.
Oh dear... Commentators curse. No sooner have i said it, McGregor loses it at turn 7 and finds himself offroading round the outside.
Thats really not the improvement that he was looking for...
Rangelov is slowly working his way forwards through the pack. He grabs himself 13th this time, maybe by the end he will sit in a points position?
A great view of Hinz's helmet, as he crosses the line and pulls off something much much better too snatch himself 8th.
Matteo Scala looks well up for getting a good haul of points here. He snatches back that 3rd place that he had from his first run, great lap.
With only 14 minutes left, here is the order the drivers sit in. Apologies to Stefan Van Renselaar for missing his 4th place lap:
Mills decides to break his chain of 9th places, and instead chooses 10th place... Not really much difference there.
Silvestre grabs 14th place for the 2nd time today. He's closer to the leader, but unfortunately no further up the chart.
Legge looks exceptionally close in the first sector to the top time. Should i say anything about what he can do? Nah i won't...
Seems that was a much better idea. The ART drives does a similar job in the other two sectors, and manages to get himself a decent 6th place.
Spencer however doesn't improve his time. Although the frustration at Maverick infront of him might have something to do with that.
Davies keeps moving up the field quietly. This time he's snuck his green AMR car rather nicely into 6th place, 2 tenths off.
Steer has managed to navigate his way passed the concrete column and improves greatly to find himself in with a shot of points in 7th. He really does need those points...
Oh thats massive! Rangelov loses it in the exact same place that McGregor did, but can't keep the car under control and slams sideways into the barrier losing 2 wheels in the process.
As the cars slides helplessly onto the track, Mills is the next unfortunate man to come along and can't help but drive straight into the stricken Snake, completely ruining his front wing.
As Pellatt demonstrates, everyone that was on a flying lap that had to pass the incident finds their timed ruined. With so little time left that could be it for a lot of the drivers.
Despite the chaos, Kittleson still manages to find terrific amounts of speed round the track and grabs himself a 3rd place! Good pace!
Whilst one snake is craned away in pieces, the other one is still on track. And he managed to make a bad situation slightly better does Stoddart, thats a very solid 5th place!
And with pieces of car together with an already pretty impressive set of times on the board, the last 4 minutes of the session pass without anyone managing to improve their time at all.
So congratulations to
Stuart Ingers of Aston Martin Racing! A time set in the first run unbeaten by anyone amidst the incidents and the passing, it was a rather formidable time!
Sorry if you aren't featured much in the coverage, thats probably because you didn't improve on your first run/did nothing like crash or overtake, apologies
Official Results to follow!
Qualifying shall be run shortly, and posted as soon as i can, it shouldn't be too long, but until then...
Goodbye!
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2012 02:02AM by GPGSL.