Utzer marches towards title
3rd win this season for the Renault driver, who now enjoys a comfortable 17 points lead over Mane Goddard. The Minardi driver was one of 11 retirements today, marking a set-back for him for his title defense.
At the start of the race Rinneaho lost the lead to Utzer, and to make things worse for him he rolled out with a gearbox failure only one lap later. Utzer and Diehl started to pull away, behind them Reed and Keranen were battling for 3rd place. Laad could get past teammate Ancevski, who had Harvey and Kederer closing in on him. Kederer got past Harvey, and both of them passed Ancevski when his Mercedes engine blew up.
Diehl, Reed and Keranen were among the first ones to pit, all being on a 3 stopper. Kederer got past to 2nd, before retiring with an engine failure a few laps later. Diehl, Keranen and Reed didn't get much further as well, within a few laps of each other their engines blew up as well. Laad was up to 2nd then, and led for a few laps as Utzer pitted a bit earlier than him. After everyone had stopped once, Utzer lead with 17 seconds over Laad, who had Goddard right behind him. Harvey, Buurlage, Engberink, Black and Heymans followed, with only 4 seconds between them. Black was the next to retire, allowing Lintner to move up to 8th. Goddard got past Laad, and made on to chase Utzer.
Final pitstops came, the order of the top 4 remained unchanged. Utzer still had a comfortable lead over Goddard, Laad a further 5 seconds behind. Harvey followed in 4th, Lintner in 5th got past Buurlage during the stops. Graham in 7th, Cornes in 8th. Engberink, who previously was in 6th, had retired with a loose wheel before the stops began. With 13 laps to go Goddard retired with a puncture, promoting Laad to 2nd and Harvey to the final podium spot.
FIA Press Conference
@Benutzername: Things are looking quite good for you, any worries that you might run out of luck?
@Jimlaad43: Second podium already, will we see you on the top step soon?
@Millsy24: 3rd consecutive points results, seems you managed to finally sort out the problems you had earlier in the season?
Market is open!
Bottom half of the standings can spend up to 500 of their bank accounts!