Difference between revisions of "2011 French Grand Prix"

Revision as of 11:20, 10 June 2011

NOTE: This article is currently undergoing a major edit.
As a courtesy, please do not make edits to this article until this message is removed, in order to avoid edit conflicts. This message is intended to help inform people of the article's accuracy and state of completion.

25px   2002 Brazilian Grand Prix

Race details
Race {{{Race_No}}} of the 2002 Superleague season
200px
Date	March 27th - April 1st, 2002
Official name	XXXI Grande Prêmio do Brasil
Location	Autódromo José Carlos Pace São Paulo, Brazil
Course	Permanent Racing Facility 2.667 mi / 4.309 km
Distance	72 laps, 192.024 mi / 310.248 km
Weather	Clear, Air Temp: 30°C
Pole position
Driver	Daan Van Renswoude	Hernj-Roaldo-BMW
Time	1:15.467
Fastest Lap
Driver	Pedro Daniel Miguel	Hernj-Roaldo-BMW
Time	1:16.261
Podium
First	Pedro Daniel Miguel	Hernj-Roaldo-BMW
Second	Andrew Turner	MCR-Mercedes
Third	Kieran Ryan	Mapes-VO-Honda

The 2011 French Grand Prix for the Superleague - the seventh race of the season - took place on the Magny-Cours track in France on the 19th of May.

Summary

Consiglio takes victory at Magny Cours.

Consiglio started from the pole position after Jason Muscat, who had been the fastest in qualifying, was demoted to 6th for an incident in last week's Austrian Grand Prix. Lee Morris lined up 2nd, ahead of Dave Carr-Smith and Ojay Clark. Fernando Laaff started fifth, with the demoted Muscat ahead of Sam Millar, who could not replicate his qualifying from from the previous two races.

Both Maltese drivers had excellent starts, with Consiglio retaining first and Muscat jumping up to second; Lee Morris had another race start compromised by a poor getting off the line, and was passed by Clark as Carr-Smith had to take to the gravel at turn 1. Muscat's race, though, was short lived as an electrical problem meant he had to retire, depriving us of one of the great protagonists of this race. With Consiglio now ahead of Clark, the Nordsjoen driver was able to open an important gap over all rivals and, by the time Morris managed to dispatch the Williamson Dynamics, the gap between the leading duo was above 13 seconds.

It soon became clear, however, that Consiglio and Morris were on two different strategies, with the former choosing a three-stopper as opposed to his rival's two-stop strategy. In order to make it work, Consiglio needed at least 17 seconds advantage at the time of his last stop - a tall order for the 2009 Champion.

As the situation calmed in a relatively uneventful race, and a good de Vos settled in third, all eyes turned to the leading duo. After Consiglio pitted for the second time and emerged a mere 2 seconds behind Morris, a tense race was on the cards with both drivers needing one further visit to the pits. With the Draig racing driver able to defend well on the high-speed straights and the Nordsjoen more effective in the mixed part, Consiglio - who at that stage was able to lap significantly faster than Morris - tried for many laps to find a way through into the lead; it was only with a brave switchback at the Adelaide hairpin that the former Champion found a space wide enough to put his car into the lead.

Morris pitted for the last time with 23 laps to go, and Consiglio followed suit some 6 laps later - crucially, re-emerging with a 2 second lead that was to last until the end of the race, his first win since Singapore 2010. Morris clinched second to retain a good advantage in the Drivers' Championship, while Bart de Vos resisted Sam Millar's efforts to score a precious podium for TDR.