RACE 10 RESULT AND REPORT - GERMANY

Race 10 of the season saw the racers travel to the Hockenheimring for the German Grand Prix. The morning papers had been filled with speculation over who was going to take the chequered flag – Cheeseman and bannbino have both been producing spectacular form of late but a few of the sport’s pundits were willing to take a risk on SHEEPIE_UK who had brought a host of changes to the track and was showing scintillating pace in practice sessions.

So while all of the nation’s media thought they had the magic formula to predict the race winner, none of them managed to predict the torrential conditions that our racers were welcomed with during qualifying. There was absolutely no sensible option other than the wet tyres and most struggled to find anything resembling grip or traction on their first few laps – the times clocking in around the 2:30s rather than the standard 1:20s. Somehow, somewhere Rockeye managed to make his tyres work and took pole position with bannbino not far behind in with a supremely-driven second. Cheeseman and SHEEPIE_UK made up the second row of the grid while others had to settle for subpar qualification stints due to the challenging conditions – none less than Satako who, after managing to find the pace to compete up front, ran out of fuel in the third sector to cost him a few grid spots.

The rain had stopped and the track had dried for race day, allowing the drivers to unwrap their unused slicks and hope for some lightning pace. Unusually for a Kent 360 race, the first corner produced very little incident – that was left to Cheeseman when his anti-stall kicked in and allowed most of the backmarkers to squeeze past – with the exception of ADMAN who collided into the rear of the vehicle and was rewarded with a subsequent drive-through. Up at the front, the front three – Rockeye, bannbino and Sheepie_UK were all involved in an almighty tussle for position. Rockeye had managed to pull ahead by a few seconds now where bannbino and Sheepie_UK were losing times swapping places. This all culminated in Sheepie_UK clipping a little too much of a kerb to send his car spinning, allowing bannbino to sail past and start making up some time between him and the race leader.

The mandatory pit stop of options to prime allowed Satako – who had started the race on the harder compound – to sneak into first position for the first time in his short F1 career. Unfortunately, experience was lacking as the newcomer allowed Rockeye to pass him on the inside of turn 4. The Mercedes driver managed to hold Hypno – now third – and bannbino for a couple of laps before taking the final corner too wide and spinning on the gravel. Would it be too late for bannbino to pull back a now 11 second gap?

Unfortunately for the championship leader, it was too much of an ask when Rockeye crossed the finish line with a time of 17:31.690. bannbino crossed the line 12.4 seconds later with Sheepie_UK – making a great comeback after a few early errors – taking third. ADMAN had recovered from his initial penalty to take 4th and, despite lapping 1.5 seconds faster on the options with everyone else on worn primes, Satako wasn’t able to claw back the gap between Hypno and himself and had to settle for 6th. The biggest surprise was yet to be announced however as Tempy303 managed to pip Cheeseman to 8th and leaving bannbino’s strongest championship contender to hang it out at the back with EagleJay – who had recently been restored to the Kent 360 track after a multitude of problems with his car.

A vital win for Rockeye but it allows bannbino to extend his championship lead even further. Consistency is now the key for bannbino – podium finishes for the rest of the season will guarantee him the title regardless of where his main rivals finish. Next up, Hungary.

Quality write up perhaps you should take up the full time post........