RACE 5 REPORT AND RESULT - CATALUNYA

The fifth race of the season saw us travel to Spain and the famous Circuit de Catalunya – a course that gifted Sheepie_UK with his first victory in Formula 1 which would ultimately lead to him becoming the sport’s inaugural champion. It’s been a difficult start for last season’s victor, however – could Spain once again launch his season and aid him in his quest for back-to-back titles?

If you’re a betting man, the form guide suggested not – bannbino has been channelling the spirit of Sebastian Vettel of late and, were it not for a rare mistake in Malaysia, the current championship leader would be maintaining a 100% record heading into the race. It looked certain for a while as last season’s runner-up launched his McLaren around the Spanish tarmac to set a qualifying time of 1:23.713 – besting last season’s pole by two-tenths of a second. However, making amends for a disastrous run in Turkey, a blistering qualifying lap of 1:23.396 from Hypno85 sealed pole. Rockeye managed to keep pace and only lost out at the front of the grid by less than a tenth of a second but a bizarre error during an earlier lap led to a grid penalty and knocked him down to 7th, allowing bannbino to slot into the front row. squeak83 took 3rd, with ADMAN slotting in 4th place. In contrast, Sheepie_UK had a disastrous qualifying and finished 8th – a massive 1.5 seconds off the pace.

Still, hindsight has taught us that Kent 360 Racers inevitably attempt to win the race on the first corner and Catalynya proved to be no different – as the lights went out above the starting grid, everyone jostled for position as they sought after that elusive gap to take position in the long straight down to the first and second corners. bannbino managed to catch Hypno sleeping off the starting blocks and slipped past into the first corner, taking the lead. An explosion of carbon fibre then alerted the drivers’ attention as positions changed more often than Paris Hilton’s underwear – Satako and Villa John both managing to avoid collisions to find themselves fighting for podium places with leading regulars squeak83 and Rockeye.

With bannbino stretching out his lead as others struggled to maintain position, attention turned to the wrong end of the track. Villa John, Satako, Cheeseman and Sheepie_UK all made mistakes – trying to make rubber stick on an unforgiving surface – but none more so than Rockeye. There were high expectations on last season’s strongest finisher and it was all looking good until the 5th lap where, on turn six, an over-eager throttle pushed the Renault onto the gravel and forced him to yield several places. But when it rains, it pours; a subsequent pit stop later ended the race prematurely for the driver when he uncharacteristically attempted to mount the pit wall on the last turn of the lap, mangling the suspension and leaving the heads of his race technicians buried in their hands. Race over, game on.

With Rockeye retiring from the race, a podium finish was a distinct possibility for those that usually found themselves just outside of the big points. Villa John and Satako traded mistakes on the opening couple of laps before both found themselves out of the running for a podium place and back fighting in the midfield with Hypno85 – who had really struggled to recover after a disastrous start – Sheepie_UK and Tempy303. As the track temperature rose with the Mediterranean heat, so did the temperament of the drivers – Satako and Tempy303 locked horns on numerous occasions, with Satako running wide on the hellacious final chicane and incurring the wrath of Tempy who was irate that the HRT had drifted back onto the line. Satako felt he still had track position and fists were waved from inside the chassis. Later, with Sheepie_UK practically parked on his gearbox, Satako was forced into an error which left him with no choice but to concede position to both Tempy303 and Hypno85 behind. However, the HRT once again drifted back onto the racing line which left Tempy303 with nowhere to go but into the back of the forerunner which pushed Satako onto the gravel and effectively out of the race. An incident later on involving Satako and Hypno85 which forced the pole-setter onto the grass didn’t help the newcomer’s cause and while he’ll consider himself fortunate to finish the race in the points, this will be one day on the tarmac he’ll be quick to forget.

In the end, the result was inevitable – bannbino took a comfortable victory by 12.6 seconds with newcomers ADMAN11 and Cheeseman69Boi – who made an incredible recovery from last place – claiming the other podium spots. Squeak83 dropped a position behind BSheepie due to a 10 second penalty for an earlier altercation and Sheepie_UK’s dogged determination to make up for a poor qualifying session led to a multitude of unforced errors, although last season’s champion still managed to recover to 6th – two places up from his starting grid position.

So, with Rockeye scoring the infamous “nul points” it left bannbino to open up his championship lead further from his nearest challenger and open up the door to ADMAN11 – who’s made an impressive start to his maiden season in F1. Sheepie_UK is just about within touching distance of the front runners but will need to show some of the form he exhibited towards the end of last season if he has any hope of retaining his trophy.

Onboard with race-winner bannbino:

Wicked write up, stk0. you've practically put the crown on my head already!!

Great write up.

Another quality write up nice one. If only we could hear Tempy's radio,,,,,, lol