Round 3 - Brazilian Fuel Crisis
GTMES took the long flight from Australia to Brazil. GR3 was running a grid of only 4 this week, giving a high podium chance to our drivers. After putting his Subaru on pole last week,
xZePhyR96x stormed to his second consecutive pole position. His lap was over 1.5s ahead of
road2fury who put his Mercedes-Benz on the front row as well.
Sota59 was marginally behind in 3rd and
jonirune91 was off the pace due to a late arrival and unable to burn off enough fuel for a lightweight lap. GR4 had
Nilsemann2002 setting a blistering pace, out qualifying championship rivals by nearly a second.
Thunder-pigeon would join him on the front row, with
doc-shipman taking 3rd,
awmccabe challenging the Honda's throughout qualifying but was unable to get his final lap to match the speed he was showing in practice. The two Audi drivers, with their 100kg BoP advantage were showing pace, but no-one could get close to the speed of the Alfa!
As the race began, the top 3 GR3 drivers got away cleanly with
jonirune91 jumping the lights by the tightest of margins, sending him to the back of the race. Both GR4 Honda drivers started well, coming out of the Senna Esses ahead of the Alfa. As turn 4 approached,
jonirune91 had caught up which caused GR4 leader
thunder-pigeon to make a mistake, allowing
doc-shipman and
Nilsemann2002 through.
Jonirune91 then went about hunting down 3rd, while
thunder-pigeon fell further down the order trying to rejoin the track. At the end of lap one, he was sitting in class 5th, 4 seconds off the battle for 3rd, and 8 seconds off the class lead.
As the race developed,
xZePhyR96x drove a superb controlled race from the front, a familiar sight for all.
Sota59 was running in second, trying to hold off
road2fury and allow teammate
jonirune91 to join the fight for second and maximize team points.
Doc-shipman was trying a similar tactic in GR4, leading
Nilsemann2002 but with his teammate so far behind and with the speed that
Nilsemann had already shown in qualifying, it was inevitable that the Alfa driver would pass.
Thunder-pigeon joined the three way fight for third, first passing
awmccabe but the Mazda driver used his superior brakes to comeback at the Honda. After a couple more laps,
thunder-pigeon made the move stick then set his sights on the Audi of
tazz. A move into turn 4 got the job done, then
awmccabe also made his way through a short while later.
Awmccabe would stay around 1-3 seconds behind
thunder-pigeon for the rest of the stint, both unable to catch
Nilsemann but kept pace with the 2nd place Honda. Then, with a sign of things to come,
Nilsemann pitted on the 18th minute! The team radios in GR4 wondering how he would make this work on a one stop… both Honda drivers stuck to their strategy and pit on the 21 minute mark 2 laps later with clearly enough fuel to go to the end, with
thunder-pigeon overfilling and missing an opportunity to close the gap on his teammate after fuel saving over
doc-shipman. By this time,
Nilsemann had used fresh tyres to increase the gap to team Honda,
doc-shipman now 8 seconds behind the German.
Awmccabe had fallen off the back of
thunder-pigeon and with 10 mins to go, it looked to be nothing more than a formality of bringing the cars home in GR4.
GR3 cars were on the two stop which made for some clean air between both groups of cars for a large proportion of the race. The grid remained largely unchanged as the race ticked by,
Sota59 managing to hold
road2fury at bay for the majority of the second and then in to the third stint. As the clocked ticked in to the final minutes of the race all looked sewn up in Group 3, but alas that was not how it was to end… Fuel and the timing stewards were the main issues for
Sota59 in Brazil... He thought he had planned it perfectly, crossing the line in second as the timer hit 40 minutes, running practically no fuel - perfect! Or so he thought... expecting that to be it he breathed a sigh of relief, but the timing officials had other plans. He found himself in the position of having to complete another whole lap - with no fuel! This allowed
road2fury through to steal second off the Nissan driver. An unfortunate turn of events here when the race was largely a ‘done deal’ until those closing minutes. Some decisions go your way, and others do not;
Sota59 will need to put that behind him and turn his focus to Kyoto this week with hopes of utilising the pace he has clearly shown in the early races this season.
As the final 10 minutes went on a similar story unfolded in Group 4, until
Nilsemann’s early pit strategy began to haunt him. Doc was gaining on
Nilsemann who had dropped off the pace in order to save fuel, losing around 1-2 seconds a lap with everyone in Gr.4 realising how close a battle to the finish it would be.
Thunder-pigeon looked too far back to challenge
Nilsemann and had a 40 second gap to
awmccabe in 4th, so pitted for fresh rubber to attempt the fastest lap for a championship point.
Nilsemann had set the benchmark high for this, so it wasn't a guarantee. On the final lap,
Nilsemann encountered the back marker of
farin79 with
doc-shipman immediately behind him. With 5 corners to go,
Nilsemann ran out of fuel, allowing
doc-shipman into the GR4 lead. A bit of contact between the Audi and Alfa slowed everyone down, and suddenly the Honda of
thunder-pigeon, flying around on low fuel and fresh soft tyres, came across the slow moving Alfa of
Nilsemann and took second on the home straight.
Awmccabe was now pushing to try and steal an unlikely 3rd. Luckily for
Nilsemann, he crossed the line a few seconds ahead of the Mazda to take the final step on the podium; an incredibly tense end to an otherwise well driven race for
Nilsemann.
Next up is Kyoto, Japan. High tyre wear with the long left handers will cause trouble for our drivers if they're not careful.
xZePhyR96x will have another 5 weight ticks applied to add to his challenge. Will the additional weight allow one of the other drivers to take a win here? We are welcoming
GTS_DANGEROUSNIP into team BMW. A debut win could be on the cards here for this high speed track which should favour the M6.
The common theme of GR4 is a one stop strategy, but the Alfa looks like the car to beat on pure speed - will a two stop favour the thirsty Alfa with the short pit lane at Kyoto? With Honda a man down, and Mazda absent for the whole race, it could make for an interesting grid in Gr.4.
We’re not quite at the mid-point of the season just yet, but with the number of races left meaning that any weight ticks gained won’t clear before Le Mans, we are definitely at the point of no return for the front runners.
