2011 French Grand Prix

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25px **2011 French Grand Prix**
Race details
Race {{{Race_No}}} of the 2011 Superleague season
200px
Date	May 19th, 2011
Official name	2011 French Grand Prix
Location	Circuit de Nevers Magny Cours, France
Course	Permanent Racing Facility 2.641 mi / 4.411 km
Distance	70 laps, 190.069 mi / 305.886 km
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Jason Muscat	Red Archer-Renault
Time	1:09.920
Fastest Lap
Driver	Joe Consiglio	Nordsjoen-Mercedes
Time	1:10.588
Podium
First	Joe Consiglio	Nordsjoen-Mercedes
Second	Lee Morris	Draig-Ferrari
Third	Bart De Vos	TDR-Toyota

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.

Report

Consiglio takes victory at Magny Cours.

2009 World Champion Joe Consiglio clinched his first victory of the 2011 season as he completed a strategy masterpiece to win the GPVWC Superleague French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours. The Maltese ace finished the race 3.5 seconds ahead of Championship leader Lee Morris, with debutant Bart de Vos claiming a podium in his first outing in the GPVWC's premier series.

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.