16 drivers graced the tilker designed circuit of shanghai as the WRL circus made its 2nd to last stop over in the far east for round 3 of its 2012 campaign. Race 1 Victor and In form League leader Oslakovic arrived with a 8pt lead from his nemesis and title rival Michi Hoyer while the ever present Chris Setzer, determind to reel the pair in and get his title defense back on track,once again sets the early testing pace.
For Setzer back on track it started, a crushing 1.4 second gap seperated him and 2nd place qualifyer Hoyer as the German notches Pole for a record 357th time. League debutant Pashalis Gergis upset the old guard with a superb 3rd only .070 of a tenth behind Michi, with Bobi 3 tenths adrift in 4th. A further 3 tenths back, Oslakovic could only manage 5th. while On fire Hristo impressed by ousting the struggling mukk for 6th. 8th to 10th was secured by Keith Georgi and Paul. suprise of the day came by way of Mitja Seruga failing to reach the top 10 with murat Ton and Todd rounding out the field
Qualifying Results
The race start did not disapoint, Trademark starts from bobi Georgi and now Mitja saw them take positions on the run up to turn 1 however, the talking point was the near perfect launch from Luka who in a few hundred yards seen him challenging for the lead from 5th, However it wasnt to be, Setzer kept his nerve and held the tricky outside line to guarentee him inside position for T2 and that was enough. With track position It was a case of tyre managment as once again Chris setzer deals a hammer blow to the league leaders with a peerless drive to take his 2nd win of the championship and close the gap to 9 pts. The redbull driver left the oposition bemused "I gambled and tried to do a 3stop on softs, and it actually worked". It wasnt all champaign for the bulls though as Dutch superstar teammate Ton van Egmond failed to finish cursing "Sorry i have a connection lost problem, and cannot finisch the race"
2nd place Driver Michi survived an early scare of both poor initial tyre choice and a rear end shunt from Lotus's Pashalis "i had to pay the price for the hards losing one place after another being back in P6 almost. Then Gergis hit me and i feared major damage to the diffusor but it kept in tact" His poor early pace however paid off. He exited the pits on lap 16 for his 2nd stint in p2. Oslakovich made sure it was a hard fought 2nd as on laps 22 23 24 the pair exchanged positions with Michi finally making it stick on lap 25 and able to pull away. Not all was as it seems, it appears he caught the attention of stewards as he struggled to find grip, choosing instead to try and take advantage of the generous run off areas. 10 second penalty was his forfeit, fortunately 12 seconds was his gap back to Luka therefore he managed to scrape his 2nd
Luka climbed 2 positions of the grid to take the final podium position in 3rd, his efforts means he clings onto his p1 staus by a mere 3 pts from Hoyer. Sadly we have heard no words from the Oslakovich camp so are unsure of his weekends feelings. We do know his start and battles with Michi were indeed memorable and any podium secured in fields as talented as WRL's is no easy task. Lotus like redbull suffered misfortunes in that only 1 car managed to finish. Bright young greek star Pashalis Gergis, having already raised a few eyebrows in testing looked racey. Early battles with Hristo and Georgi looked promising for an exciting race but it wasnt to be, lap4 seen him caught out by Hoyers slow pace on the hards and after running into his rear a loss of front wing and damaged suspension seen him unable to continue. Driving around his controller issues its clear to see that he is defineatly one to watch for the future.
4th place finisher Bobi Minkov enjoyed an eventful race. An unforced error at the end of the back straight seen him dead last. With everything to do and the bit between his teeth he was back upto 7th by his 1st stop of 5, impressing with numerous overtakes. Struggling with tyre wear though, the bulgarian endured a race long battles of strategy with Hristo Mukky Georgi and Seruga. A pass on Mukky on lap 31 secured 5th with 4th being awarded after Hristo's engine failure. Of highlight were his back and forthe battles with mukky who put up a spirited chain of defensice laps in their 3rd stint. Torro Rosso are struggling with tyre wear, teammate Georgi was forced into making a whopping 7 visits to the pitlane, the feisty bulgarian had to settle for 8th..Again a press black out at Torro means we dont really know what happened.
5th went to season rookie flyer Mitja Seruga. Since his arrival Mitja has caused a storm up an down the pitlane. His pace has certainly had frontrunners anxiously looking in there mirrors, while his racecraft has attracted eyes of the stewards on more than one occasion. When it comes to seeing a gap, while some say a gap doesnt exist, the slovenian means buisness and takes no prisoners. Some gap again today were called into question lap 1 9 and 30, Serugas charge to 5th was met with raised eyebrows while his move on lap 32 to outbrake hristo and Mukk met with anger and protests. Sadly for him the stewards agreed, handing down a stop go as well as a drive through for misdemeaners resulting in demotion for a hard fought 5th to 9th. the league is yet to hear any defense or explanation
6th Hristo enjoyed a competitive race until his engine let go, Lucky for him, lapped traffic fell kindly as he managed to claim 6th as Chris crossed the line
7th an intoxicated Mukky had a busy race. With constant battles with bobi mitja georgi and hristo, a couple of unforced spins meant that in the end 7th was the best he could do "I had a lot of good fights and some rather aggressive driving by some. I have to say i think I did some pretty awesome defensive driving" . Teammate Paul followed up in 9th to score his first points for the team and seemed very content with his result "Finnnnnnally happy to score some points for the team and start my season" poor tyre choice meant he was out of contention early on, on the upside he was very satisfied with the outcome of his duel with rival Keith "after a couple of laps it was clear i was in a direct battle with keith, both optin for similar tyre an pit strategy" whome he raced wheel to wheel with for nearly 2 stints finally breaking away after a balance tweak during a stop
shadows Keith and Todd brought it home 10th and 11th repectively. Like torro there seems to be internal investigations goin on as there both yet to release any statement. Its clear a lack of testing could be to blame for recent poor results but it wasnt for the point of trying. The pair worked together to try and holt Brennans charge to no avail...ex fsr champ keith am sure will put this weekend behind him and concentrate on Bahrain
Lone virgin driver Murat yet to rediscover his past glory, suffered engine failure 5 laps from the end to be classified in 12th, the upbeat legend chirped afterwards "Pretty good race for the back of the grid. Not too much wheel to wheel action for me but my race went very close with 4-5 drivers at the back"
Race Results
With the teams evenly balanced, and both titles are looking tight. Can Luka resist the pressure? find out in 2 weeks when we head to the gulf for round 4, pitstops, overtaking and action is guarenteed.
Paul Brennan
