It was a dominant performance from Risto Kappet, who led from start to finish (excluding the pit stops). Making up for his poor start off the line in the last round, he soared away from his grid spot while using the push to pass system, getting himself a healthy lead by the time they got into turn 1. With Kappet soaring away, the battle for second place raged on.
Kappet with the perfect start to the race
For the first time this season, all four cars of GhostSpeed and GS Racing found themselves in Server 1 - a great opportunity to pick up valuable points. While Vitor Sousa would have a poor race, retiring early, Fábio Assunção would end up second, Miguel Lopes in 5th and Sergio Junior in 7th. Guus Verver of Walk Racing took the final podium position after a long battle with Sergio Junior early in the race.
Guus Verver would win out in the battle with Sergio Junior
The biggest surprise this weekend came from Neto Nascimento who looked seriously under-prepared for a championship challenge. With a win to his name this season, and always challenging at the top of the field, a few eyebrows were raised when he only managed 14th in qualifying. His race was no better when on the second lap he spun all by himself and dropped to last. A race of damage limitation, he'd eventually recover to finish in 9th, but it's a slip up that won't help his season.
Both suffering from inconsistent seasons, Tal Segal and Theo van den Brink deliver a great battle
Tal Segal and Theo van den Brink gave us some entertaining racing, battling each other for position over many laps, trading positions several times up until the pit stops. It was an encouraging show for both drivers who've spent far too much time in server 2 this year considering their pace.
Elsewhere, it would have been Ryan Seltzer's best finish of the season so far had he not made a mistake on the penultimate lap. On form and up in 8th place, he'd drop to 14th after going wide coming out of turn 2.
Andrew James: Two wins in a row, the only driver so far to get two wins. Congratulations! Take us through your race. It's looking like Walk Racing will wrap up the constructors championship, you must be very happy with the team's good showing.
Risto Kappet: Thanks, the race was not that different from Goiania. In quali, although I didn't get any drafts which might have been very beneficial, I still managed a PB and pole by a nice margin. Finally I also got a good (perfect?) start, also slammed push to pass immediately and pulled away, unlike the last race where I had to pass Guus [Verver] in the first lap.
"...the teams championship is looking very good..."
Then again it was just managing the gap to behind (helped by people fighting) and then seeing if I had the pace to save tyres and still drive away which I again had. This track was harder on tyres than last one but I had a very well balanced setup so could do the race with 1 set of tyres again and finish with a nice gap to Fabio and huge gap to anyone else, but I was lucky to avoid the pit stop carnage a lap later than when I pitted.
It was hard to keep concentration on such a flat track but made almost no mistakes again and very happy obviously and plan nothing else than to repeat all of this and if possible, put a bit extra in and dominate with an even bigger margin for good measure.
And yes with Neto having a bad one and Jake [Cooper] leaving, both the drivers and especially teams championship is looking very good. Also hope Austin makes it a Walk 1-2-3 overall! That would be a great achievement for the team indeed.
For those of you waiting for part 2 of our GhostSpeed - Nitor Velox rivalry piece, sadly that's come to a premature end. After a pre-race disagreement with another driver, Jake Cooper did not participate and is out of the championship. Nitor Velox are a new team, in their debut season, and perhaps the experience and patience of GhostSpeed Racing won out in the end. Either way, it leaves us wondering what might have been had they taken the fight down to the wire.
Server 2 Round Up
This late in the season, as some drivers drop out from the league for various reasons, server 2 saw a race with only 8 cars. Mark Breslin set the pole time, but would eventually finish third in the server (31st overall) behind Per Oqvist and winner Frank van Oeveren.
Frank van Oeveren makes the pass for first place in server 2
While his sister team-mates are fighting for the championship, Razvan Ariciuc finished down in 35th overall keeping him in server 2 for the final round, and Sven-Arne Andersson would retire at the half way point of the race.
Thomas Ninss: Round four of the series was yet another domination from the Estonian Risto Kappet, leading comfortably for most of the race in what was a commanding performance. For me the main thing I found interesting was just how similar Kappet's performance in this round was to his round three win at Goiania, looking completely in control of the race from the green flag to the end. Also was another solid drive from Guus Verver, continuing to show why he is leading the championship and probably the main contender for the title. One of the biggest surprises for me was Nascimento's very quiet race, being mid field for most of the race. With his finishing position being at the bottom end of the top ten. Whether this is any kind of indication of what to expect for the final round of the series remains to be seen.
"...It's good to see the smaller teams and a few of the independent drivers show some impressive pace..."
I also was impressed with the performance of Fabio Assuncao to get his best result of the season in second place, showing that when he's on form he is a very fast driver. In all GhostSpeed had their best race results wise, with Lopes getting a solid fifth place. I think it's a bit late at this point in the season for them to be able to challenge Walk for the team title, but it is good to see them starting to find some consistency and form as we get into the business end of the season. It was also good to see the smaller teams and a few of the independent drivers show some impressive pace, something which adds a good mix to the racing on display.
For the final round of the season I think watching to see whether GhostSpeed can bring the fight to Walk will be interesting, as well as seeing what sort of pace Nascimento can bring to the table to keep his championship hopes alive. I'll also be keeping an eye on the independent drivers and smaller teams, as they have seemed to start to bring a real fight to the front of the field as the season has worn on. Once again, pit strategy will be key to where drivers finish the race, as striking that balance between track position with fuel and tyre strategy will be a very influential factor in the results of the final race of this season.
Tune in this Saturday at 19:00 GMT to our Live Stream page for the championship finale, taking place at Jacarepagua. Grab the spotter guide here!
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