2012 Supercup British Grand Prix

**2012 Supercup British GP Grand Prix**
Race details
2012 Supercup season

Date	July 11th, 2012
Official name	2012 Supercup British Grand Prix
Location	Silverstone Circuit, Northamptonshire
Course	Road Course 3.667 mi / 5.901 km
Distance	36 laps, 132.01 mi / 212.44 km
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Petter Kaasa	Torrent Motorsports
Time	1:35.931
Fastest Lap
Driver	Terence Grech	Malta Force GP
Time	1:36.020
Podium
First	Alex Cooper	CSG Racing
Second	Petter Kaasa	Torrent Motorsports
Third	Terence Grech	Malta Force GP

The 2012 Supercup British Grand Prix - the 10th race of the season - took place on the Silverstone Circuit in England, on the 11th of July.

Report

Alex Cooper continued to chip away at the point’s lead of Petter Kaasa with a home victory at Silverstone. Petter Kaasa would recover from a rare mistake at the start-line to finish second while Terence Grech would sustain his recent rich vein of forum with third.

Kaasa secured his fourth pole of the year ahead of Martin Schumacher, the German turning out for CSG Racing in place of Ric Scott for this event. Cooper would share the second row with Torrent Motorsports Mindaugas Klumbis. Behind the front four was a tight group from fifth to twelfth, covered by only a few tenths of a second.

Drama hit from the offset as the pole sitter’s car would lose traction under acceleration and spin out onto the grass, dropping him to 22nd position as the field hurtled through Abbey corner. It was a horrible start for Torrent, as Klumbis was involved in a clash that resulted in the Lithuanian spinning around. His day would end shortly after a collision with a lagging Teemu Toikka left him with terminal damage.

At the front, the CSG team led a rare one-two for the team with Schumacher taking point, showing his performance in Korea was not a once-off. Kaasa took advantage of the tight midfield to steadily work his way up the standings. An intense battle took place throughout the top ten over the early stages with as many as ten cars involved. Grech and Roy Schroten, along with Kaasa would eventually break away from the group as others fell to errors during skirmishes.

Adam Rouse suffered a rare spin trying to avoid running into the back of Andrew Morgan. The Northern Irish driver returned to the Supercup field for the first time since his win in Canada, this time driving for NRT Racing. Morgan’s return was short-lived as he got together with Kaasa when attempting to go side-by-side with the Norwegian through Abbey, coming off the worst and retiring.

Philip Cullen would find his early race compromised by unforced errors and damage from contact with the spun Rouse at Vale. The Halcyon driver, as is the norm now, battled it out with Rouse and Jack Nicholls which saw the trio involved in numerous tight tussles. Rouse would come off worse, losing the car on the exit of Stowe and again on the home straight causing substantial damage to the Hawkeye car, leaving him outside the points for the first time since Barcelona.

As the pit stops approached, Kaasa had made it up as high as third place. Schumacher would again have an unforced error cost him dearly, spinning on the entry to the pit-lane and damaging his wing. After pitting from the lead, he would rejoin down in sixth place. He was not alone in having issues during the pit stop phase. A lazy spin cost Bart de Vos, running sixth prior to his stop, dearly on his out-lap leaving him at the tail end of the group that consisted of Nichols, Marek Skrajnowski and the very impressive Morten Wernersen. The Green Stripes Racing pilot ran within the top-10 all day and would be rewarded with a points finish.

Kaasa inherited the briefly lead with Schumacher’s issues and Cooper stopping. The championship leader stopped a lap later than Cooper on lap 22. The Norwegian had no answer for Cooper but limited the damage done to his championship lead with second place – a result some would see an unexpected bonus given his start-line faux pas.

Terence Grech and Roy Schroten enjoyed relatively quiet races compared to their rivals. Both drivers earned the plaudits of their fellow drivers as they finished third and fourth respectively. Behind them, confusion reigned as Schumacher caught and passed Cullen for fifth. Seemingly odds-on to secure the position, he was inexplicably blocked by debutant Matthew Chan while lapping him. The antics of the Innervision driver allowed Cullen to cruise back up behind Schumacher and the pair touched going into Stowe corner. Both subsequently recovered from their off’s but Schumacher seemed to take exception with Cullen after the race had finished, slamming his car into the Halcyon after the flag. The pair was seen discussing the incidents in the paddock afterwards.

Skrajnowski came home in seventh, adding to the sizable bounty of points picked up for Malta Force by Grech and Wernersen’s stellar drive was rewarded with his first points finish in the Supercup in eighth. A late stop at the end of lap 36 cost Jack Nicholls seventh position, dropping him to ninth in a combative day for the Englishman, including a final lap dice with de Vos on the final lap that went in his favour. The reigning Supercup champion’s topsy-turvy day eventually ended with him scoring a solitary point, his first point for Halcyon.