Report is now in for the final round of the Euro F3 Championship. Another solid weekend for us, as we clinch the Team championship! Yes Vermin Racing Team are the 2018 SRO Euro F3 champions! Excellent performance from Oscar and Jack, meant we scored podiums in both races, including Oscars race win in race 2. A big big congratulations to Martijn Van T Land who won the drivers championshp... Qualifying Qualifying for NJMP would see the fastest Euro F3 lap times to date with all drivers posting times under 1 minute. It was Championship leader Martijn Van T Land who was the first to hit the track and set a benchmark time with a 56.702. Richard Tippet Managed to beat that with a 56.597, but was then quickly toppled by the extraordinary times of Oscar Williams and Arttu Nieminen. Both of had dipped the lap times into the 1:55.9's. Nieminen taking the initial pole with a 55.948 and Williams just 0.024 off of that. Tippet dropped to 5th on the timing chart, as Van T Land and Jack Smith both went quicker on their fast laps. Roel Postma., Patrik Trefny and Vyachaslav Potapenko were all very close on the time sheets. An off the pace Rob Milliken rounded off the gird. Tippet put in a new personal best to go 56.484, this was still not enough to change his position he would start P5. The top 5 would be covered by less than 0.460. Nieminen and Williams continued to improve their times with both the only two drivers to break into the 55's. It was Nieminen's timeo of a 55.850 vs. Williams' 55.932 that would seal his pole postition. With Van T Land lining up 3rd with Smith 4th. Postma out qualified Trefny for 6th, with Potapenko and Milliken completing the grid in 8th and 9th. Top 3: Nieminen Williams Van T Land Race1 With Van T Land, only needing two 11th place finsihes across both races to clinch the drivers title, the odds were always stacked heavbily against Nieminen, the only hope for Nieminen to take the battle into the final round whould be for Van T Land to not finish the race. As the red glow of the lights dimmed to nothing, all the cars roared off their grid spots. The fear had been for the first corner to cause a huge accident ,but every driver got away clean and no accidents. At the start of lap 2, Potapenko would re take his position from Milliken who had managed to get past during lap 1. A lap 5 mistake from Nieminen in turn 3 allows Williams to attempt a move on him around the outside into turn 5. Being off line and towards the dusty non grip side of the track, Williams' car lost grip and began to to spin into the path of Nieminen. The pair collied, which sents Williams off to do some lawn mowing in his car, Nieminen was able to continue and maintained his lead. With Williams dropping down to 5th. he is quickly let back past by Tippet, who had a little deep into turn 7. His mistake would be costly allowing Postma to mount an attack up the hill and into turn 1. Tippet backed out of the braking zone early, taking a tighter line to re-pass Postma on the exit of turn. Better traction by Postma meant that Tippet had to back out of it for turn 2 to prevent the pair going side by side through the twisty, tight secor1. Trefny seized the change by taking advantage of the wheel to wheel battle ahead and closed the gap to the pair, quickly joining the battle for 5th place. Tippet tried a move around the outside of Postma in Turn 7, both entering into the final turn almosst brushing wheel rims, battling cleanly with precisionand respect. Trefny managed to out drag Tippet up the hill and passed into turn 1. Again Tippet tried for a switch back and passed Trefny on the inside of exit of turn 1 into turn 2, holding the inside line and retaking the position back. Up front, Nieminen had pulled out a comfortable lead over Van T Land, who was being slowly reeled in by Smith. A recovering Williams sitting in 5th was now starting to extend the distance from the Postma, Tippet, Trefny battle. Potapenko running 8th and Rob Milliken in the final spot. An eventful start to Lap 10 saw Van T land make a small mistake out of Turn 1, and Smith taking advantage of the mistake streaming past into 2nd place. Whilst back in the mid pack, Trefny was tucked in tightly to Tippet's tail, still was unable to make a pass into Turn 1. Just ahead Postma had some snap oversteer out of turn 1, sending him sliding into a half spin and dropping him down to just in front of Potapenko, Potapenko had a look down the inside at turn3 but the door is closed on him and he then also suffers some similar snap oversteer coming out of turn 5, running him up onto the dirt and Postma to escape his clutches. With the field starting to spread out a bit there is an almost tranquil pace and calmness on the track. Tippet finding a lot more grip than he had in the first couple of laps, easily extends his lead over Trefny by nearly a second per lap for around 8 laps but is unable to match Williams pace ahead. Some mistakes from Rob Milliken at the back of the pack sees him getting Blue Flags on lap 17. Smith, Van T Land and the fast car of Williams, who had managed to recover nicely and onto the backend of Van T Land, catching the slower Milliken are lining up for a good on track battle. Milliken wisely runs well off the track and out of the way of this battle as the trio enter the final corner. Williams just runs the outside edge of his tyres onto the grass, which sends him sliding off towards the inside of the track and back down behind Milliken. Lap 21, Smith is being pressured hard by Van T Land, who knows he only has to take minimal risks to win this championship. running a very close 3rd place behind Smith, begins to ease off his pace and allows Smith some breathing room. Tippet's lap times begin to slow down as he is now short shifting with lift and coasts through the corners due to fuel warning lights showing him that he is on the very limit for fuel with around 4 laps remaining and under 4 minutes. For some strange reason Williams slows right down on the penultimate lap, which promoted Tippet up into 4th. Nieminen takes a comfortable victory with Smith Second and the new SRO Euro F3 champion, Martijn 3rd. Tippet manages to limp home 4th, saving as much petrol as he can, with Williams 5th, Trefny 6th, Postma 7th, Potapenko 8th and a lapped Milliken 9th. Top 3: Nieminen Van T Land Smith Race 2: WIth the reverse grid in effect, a nervous Milliken lined up on pole, with Potapenko 2nd and Postma 3rd. As the lights vanished for the last time this season signalling the final race of the Euro F3 was underway, Milliken immediately pulled off to the inside line and let the entire pack through. Another clean get away by everyone with Potapenko leading into turn 1. Contact between Williams and Trefny, as the pair race side by side in turn 1, Trefny has no choice but to take to the grass, rejoining in 8th. Tippet loses out to Smith and Van T Land before turn 2 having to back off the throttle to avoid Trefny. Postma taking too much corner on the exit of turn 5 found himself careening into the tyres with a heavy impact, getting back on track he joins behind Trefny. Williams with excellent pace on Lap 1 makes an overtake on Potapenko for the lead into Turn 7. Potapenko slips down the field as lap 1 comes to an end, with him crossing the line in 6th. Tippet rusn wide into turn 1, which allows Nieminen to glide past him with ease and Potapenko to retake the position from Tippet. Tippet then ran a bit to wide off of Turn 5 allowing Postma to overtake and dropping further, As he defends the line, Tippet takes to the inside for a look on Postma, but had the door closed on him, which causes Trefny to gently nudge the rear wing of Tippet. All this action allows Milliken, who is showing a lot more pace in race 2 to overtake Trefny into turn 1 with an impressive and clean move. Smith tries a challenge on Van T Land around the outside of Turn 1, a brave move but he ends up aborting as he runs wide, losing a bit of time. Tippet now running down in 6th takes advantage of a mistake by Postma to move up and quickly catches Potapenko for 5th. Smith makes another small error running wide in turn 7 which results in a minor brush against the barriers, but remains ahead of Tippet, but losing a lot more time to Van T Land. Potapenko ran into a minor mistake kicking up dust on the exit of Turn 5, this small error is enough fpr him to lose two places to Postma and Trefny. The pair battle into Turn 1, with Trefny staying on the outside, Postma moved slightly into his line under braking as they touch wheels, Trefny is again forced to take to the grass and drops back in behind Potapenko. The pressure on Potapenko causes him to run wide a couple of laps later, releasing Trefny into 7th place. With Williams leading by a large margin, Nieminen is cruising in 2nd place with Van T Land making small gains each lap, until a big mistake into turn 3 results in him hitting the wall hard and dropping him down back past Tippet. With around 7 minutes left in the race, Postma has a huge accident and ends up off track and into the barrier, he continues on, Maintaining the place ahead of Trefny. Tippet who had been keeping the damaged Van T Land behind until lap 14, makes a costly mistake into turn 3, his rear end snaps out from under him and sent him into the barriers heavily. Tippet recovered but fell back 7th when Trefny powered past him on the uphill climb into Turn 1. With Postma and Trefny battling wheel to wheel, Tippet had a sneaky glance down the inside into turn 2. easing off he throttle to avoid any accidents. Trefny then made a mistake and had a slide which put Tippet back into 6th. A Solid performance from Potapenko meant he had managed to catch up with the Trio of Postma, Tippet and Trefny and capitalized on the error from Trefny who had now slipped down to 8th. Williams meanwhile was cruising to an unchallenged victory, with Nieminen a well driven 2nd and Smith an excellent 3rd. The final lap saw Tippet chase down Postma and hound him to the finish line but unable to make it past. A similar story for Potapenko and Trefny, with the latter unable to find a way past on the final lap. With the racing now over Vermin Racing Team take the team championship after an excellent campaign upon returning to Sim racing. Congratulations to Martijn on being the overall drivers champion. Top 3: Williams Nieminen Smith We will see you all next season!... big announcements coming soon :) Tip |
1 Comment
Chris Holman
6/13/2018 01:48:04 pm
Great job!!!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorR.T. Driver for Vermin Racing Archives
January 2019
Categories
All
|