Day One closed with the same drama as the round that preceded it - with collisions between cars created during zealous passing attempts shuffling the running order and giving new drivers a chance to reach the front of the pack. The drivers’ urgency didn’t always result in contact, however, with some racers executing brilliant passes to the delight of the crowd.
The first heat began with a breakaway by Juho Levanen, Freddy Sudhoff, and JJ Wang. Rheinard moved up from sixth on the grid to fourth by the end of lap one and reeled in Wang, and the two collided in the infield at the halfway mark with Wang getting the worst of it. The crash let Akio Sobue pass for third. With just 40 seconds to go, Sudhoff tried to pass Levanen in the first 180 and the two came together, leaving Sudhoff’s car broken. Sobue, Keven Hébert, and Rheinard moved into the top three.
“That was really good!” said Akio Sobue through a translator. The Japanese driver started seventh and put himself in a position to take advantage of the crashes ahead of him. “I didn’t have a strategy,” said the 20-year-old, who said he learned today from following his teammate Rheinard in previous races.
Viktor Wilck and Meen Vejrak collided in the first turn, which knocked the Swede to fifth but left the Thai driver in tenth. Meanwhile, another Swedish driver, Alexander Hagberg inherited a sizable lead. Wilck charged back to second just two laps later, maneuvering past Steven Weiss, EJ Evans, and then previous round winner Naoki Akiyama on his way toward the front. Wilck reeled in Hagberg and, with a minute to go, dove to the inside and out-braked Hagberg into the first 180 to take the lead with what was absolutely the pass of the day.
“I was pissed off after the start,” said Wilck, who said that Vejrak turned down on him in the first corner and caused them both to spin out. “After that I just punched it,” he added, suggesting a sense of urgency to race past as many drivers as possible. On the pass, Wilck said, “That’s the only corner you can pass, really, so I just tried to go for it.” Wilck had tried the pass earlier in the race but noticed he was particularly close on that lap. “We were both slowing down there so if we touched it wasn’t going to take him out,” said Wilck, who wasn’t happy with how Day One went overall. “I feel my car is really good but I haven’t had the best luck today,” said Wilck, “so tomorrow I hope to get some more wins.”
Charlee Phutiyotin had the front row to himself and held the lead for five laps with Nicholas Lee in tow, while Ronald Völker moved past last year’s Open winner Gonzalo Cortes on lap one. At 1:10 into the race, Phutiyotin went wide in the sweeper and dropped to third behind Lee and Völker. Three laps later, Christopher Krapp took advantage of a mix-up between Phutiyotin and Matsukura, moving the German driver to third. At 3:30 into the race, Völker got into Lee exiting the sweeper and Krapp passed both of them. Three laps later, Lee made a mistake and Völker got by.
“The start was really rough,” said Krapp, “I was last after the first lap and it was really frustrating.” Krapp, however, had an advantage: he had dropped out of the previous round after only two laps, so his tires were fresher than everyone else’s - and it showed on the track. After sweeping through the field into third in just seven laps, he reeled in Völker and then capitalized on the wreck ahead of him. “I had a pretty huge gap, so I just cruised it home,” he said.
Eng / Usd
Français
Deutsch
Italiano
Recent comments