Prior to the last round many positions were still undecided in the final standings, including both titles and also the third position of both championships. Traditionally the last race was held on the GP course of the Kyoto Ring, however the chicane where the drivers leave the oval has been changed to a narrow turn to add another overtaking possibility, which had been used by drivers multiple times.
Before the race started the qualifying sessions were held, where a reactivated OWRL veteran named Dave Southword took pole-position with a gap of more than six tenths of a second to Simon Cattell and 1.3 seconds to Michael Booth, the creator of the layout and like Cattell a driver for the team Meh Racing, that led to an early pit stop. The fourth starting position went to Isaac Price of the second Sonicrealms Racing team, newcomer Abdoulaye Diop and Sebastian Hutchinson, who joined the server prior to the race, started from the pits.
To the ones who are already missing some well-known names: With Wisniewski, Benoît, Wójcik and Raymond the top four of the Drivers’ Championship didn’t take part in this race, which results in the fact that Adam Wisniewski from Spdo Racing successfully defended his title. In the Teams’ Championship Redline Racing won the title in front of Spdo Racing. Although some speculations were made regarding the upcoming race, the spectators were watching an exciting race.
With the long way up to the first turn a good start was the key to improve his position. Cattell had a great start just like Price and both went past Southword respectively Booth until turn one. While Dominik Engel was too fast going into turn one and driving over the grass, Matt Maslen and Oscar Hardwick got into contact during the braking zone. This led to a spin of Maslen, who first hit Rafal Czarnecki and then spun his teammate Ian Maslen, but all drivers were able to continue their race. In the high-speed turn eight after the bridge Giovanni Coronin was sliding across the track and he already took Engel with him as he controlled his car again. Hardwick suffered from extreme understeering and was running straight into the wall, which led to his retirement a few moments later. Southword on second spun at the exit of the penultimate turn and fell down to ninth but he got back to eighth on the start-finish line after a battle with Czarnecki.
On this fast track the best concentration was required because every mistake has been punished. Next example was Michael Booth, who went on the grass after turn five and slid directly into the wall. Despite some damage he could continue, but he had to defend himself against Coronin and Czarnecki. Coronin squeezed past him but Czarnecki went into his slipstream, had therefore no downforce in turn eight and spun on the grass. Booth drove to the pits just like Isaac Price, who had to serve a Stop&Go penalty from a race earlier this season. But he didn’t serve the penalty correctly when he went to the pits the first time and therefore he had to stop a second time which put him closely to Booth at the end of the field.
Behind Cattell were Rob Logtenberg, Adrian Bakaj, Dominik Engel and Dave Southword, who was back on third after eight of forty-two laps, but already in lap ten he went to his first pit-stop. The regular pit stops started four laps later, and also, amongst others, the stops of Diop and Hutchinson, who were running on fifth and seventh at that time. Engel was also important as he was pitting two laps later than his direct opponents and when he rejoined the track he was in front of Logtenberg, Bakaj and Southword. Cattell was already leading by fifteen seconds at that time and the gap was getting bigger in the following laps.
At half-time Hutchinson and Diop came together again, who already had a battle when both started the race in the pit lane. This time Hutchinson was the winner and was on sixth position in front of Diop. Behind them Price overtook Lims Chebbi for eighth. Behind Cattell a trio consisting of Engel, Logtenberg and Southword formed himself. The latter passed Logtenberg just after half-time and was on his way to overtake Engel. However both made contact at the exit of turn four when it got too close between both of them and Southword was ending up in the barrier. He could continue his race, but Logtenberg was again in front of him. Two laps later Logtenberg overtook Engel on the oval, but Engel countered at the layout chicane and was back at the front. Logtenberg lost a bit of speed in that turn which gave Southword a chance to pass him and he did it. After his move Southword went straight to the pits again.
Logtenberg attacked Engel again a bit later and when he already was in front of him, Engel misjudged his braking point and drove straight into the back of Logtenberg what ended his race. Ian Maslen went into the gravel trap at turn four and had to retire as well when a safe recovery wasn’t possible. After clearing the track the second round of pit stops began. Engel again stayed out a few laps longer, but this time he couldn’t get rid of Southword and he rejoined just in front of him. Also Diop was back in front of Hutchinson, but now both were able to see Bakaj on fourth.
Cattell was leading with gap of half a lap and was heading towards the win, behind him Southword went past Engel, both had a big gap to Bakaj on fourth so they ended up on the podium as well. Behind them Hutchinson was the first to attack Bakaj. In lap thirty-four Bakaj went wide, so Hutchinson was trying to get past him on the inside. Both drove next to each other through the penultimate corner until they went out of space and spun. Diop said “Thanks” and was now on fourth. Hutchinson went past Bakaj a lap later and was then hunting Diop until five laps prior to the finish, when he went past Diop to take over fourth. That means that both drivers that started from the pits finished as fourth and fifth in front of Bakaj. Isaac Price saved the seventh spot after a kinky start of his race, Lims Chebbi, Rafal Czarnecki and Matt Maslen are on the remaining positions that will still see some points.
With the end of the season some anecdotes are suitable now: Lims Chebbi scored his first points since his debut inn last year, Adam Wisniewski is the only driver who scored two drivers’ championship until now and Dave Southword is the only driver in OWRL F1 history who stood on the podium in every year of OWRL F1 since 2007 at least once. Additionally three teams should be mentioned here: Maslen F1 Racing and Sonicrealms Racing were taking part unexceptional in every race of the last two season, also the 1stBFA Racing Team took part in all four years (48 races) 47 times. Great achievements that will hopefully improved in the upcoming years.
Even though the F1 season has finished, the OWRL doesn’t have a winter break. After the last regular season races with the FO8, the annual MRT Cup will start after Christmas. Both series are free for driver, a short sign-up at owrl.de and the event is all you need. More info: owrl.de
A big thank you goes out to all spectators and readers who followed the season and also thank you to all drivers and teams who took part this season!
See you on track.
Q1 | Q2 | Race
Standings (Clear your cache if necessary)
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Livestream On-Demand (Right Click to save)
Before the race started the qualifying sessions were held, where a reactivated OWRL veteran named Dave Southword took pole-position with a gap of more than six tenths of a second to Simon Cattell and 1.3 seconds to Michael Booth, the creator of the layout and like Cattell a driver for the team Meh Racing, that led to an early pit stop. The fourth starting position went to Isaac Price of the second Sonicrealms Racing team, newcomer Abdoulaye Diop and Sebastian Hutchinson, who joined the server prior to the race, started from the pits.
To the ones who are already missing some well-known names: With Wisniewski, Benoît, Wójcik and Raymond the top four of the Drivers’ Championship didn’t take part in this race, which results in the fact that Adam Wisniewski from Spdo Racing successfully defended his title. In the Teams’ Championship Redline Racing won the title in front of Spdo Racing. Although some speculations were made regarding the upcoming race, the spectators were watching an exciting race.
With the long way up to the first turn a good start was the key to improve his position. Cattell had a great start just like Price and both went past Southword respectively Booth until turn one. While Dominik Engel was too fast going into turn one and driving over the grass, Matt Maslen and Oscar Hardwick got into contact during the braking zone. This led to a spin of Maslen, who first hit Rafal Czarnecki and then spun his teammate Ian Maslen, but all drivers were able to continue their race. In the high-speed turn eight after the bridge Giovanni Coronin was sliding across the track and he already took Engel with him as he controlled his car again. Hardwick suffered from extreme understeering and was running straight into the wall, which led to his retirement a few moments later. Southword on second spun at the exit of the penultimate turn and fell down to ninth but he got back to eighth on the start-finish line after a battle with Czarnecki.
On this fast track the best concentration was required because every mistake has been punished. Next example was Michael Booth, who went on the grass after turn five and slid directly into the wall. Despite some damage he could continue, but he had to defend himself against Coronin and Czarnecki. Coronin squeezed past him but Czarnecki went into his slipstream, had therefore no downforce in turn eight and spun on the grass. Booth drove to the pits just like Isaac Price, who had to serve a Stop&Go penalty from a race earlier this season. But he didn’t serve the penalty correctly when he went to the pits the first time and therefore he had to stop a second time which put him closely to Booth at the end of the field.
Behind Cattell were Rob Logtenberg, Adrian Bakaj, Dominik Engel and Dave Southword, who was back on third after eight of forty-two laps, but already in lap ten he went to his first pit-stop. The regular pit stops started four laps later, and also, amongst others, the stops of Diop and Hutchinson, who were running on fifth and seventh at that time. Engel was also important as he was pitting two laps later than his direct opponents and when he rejoined the track he was in front of Logtenberg, Bakaj and Southword. Cattell was already leading by fifteen seconds at that time and the gap was getting bigger in the following laps.
At half-time Hutchinson and Diop came together again, who already had a battle when both started the race in the pit lane. This time Hutchinson was the winner and was on sixth position in front of Diop. Behind them Price overtook Lims Chebbi for eighth. Behind Cattell a trio consisting of Engel, Logtenberg and Southword formed himself. The latter passed Logtenberg just after half-time and was on his way to overtake Engel. However both made contact at the exit of turn four when it got too close between both of them and Southword was ending up in the barrier. He could continue his race, but Logtenberg was again in front of him. Two laps later Logtenberg overtook Engel on the oval, but Engel countered at the layout chicane and was back at the front. Logtenberg lost a bit of speed in that turn which gave Southword a chance to pass him and he did it. After his move Southword went straight to the pits again.
Logtenberg attacked Engel again a bit later and when he already was in front of him, Engel misjudged his braking point and drove straight into the back of Logtenberg what ended his race. Ian Maslen went into the gravel trap at turn four and had to retire as well when a safe recovery wasn’t possible. After clearing the track the second round of pit stops began. Engel again stayed out a few laps longer, but this time he couldn’t get rid of Southword and he rejoined just in front of him. Also Diop was back in front of Hutchinson, but now both were able to see Bakaj on fourth.
Cattell was leading with gap of half a lap and was heading towards the win, behind him Southword went past Engel, both had a big gap to Bakaj on fourth so they ended up on the podium as well. Behind them Hutchinson was the first to attack Bakaj. In lap thirty-four Bakaj went wide, so Hutchinson was trying to get past him on the inside. Both drove next to each other through the penultimate corner until they went out of space and spun. Diop said “Thanks” and was now on fourth. Hutchinson went past Bakaj a lap later and was then hunting Diop until five laps prior to the finish, when he went past Diop to take over fourth. That means that both drivers that started from the pits finished as fourth and fifth in front of Bakaj. Isaac Price saved the seventh spot after a kinky start of his race, Lims Chebbi, Rafal Czarnecki and Matt Maslen are on the remaining positions that will still see some points.
With the end of the season some anecdotes are suitable now: Lims Chebbi scored his first points since his debut inn last year, Adam Wisniewski is the only driver who scored two drivers’ championship until now and Dave Southword is the only driver in OWRL F1 history who stood on the podium in every year of OWRL F1 since 2007 at least once. Additionally three teams should be mentioned here: Maslen F1 Racing and Sonicrealms Racing were taking part unexceptional in every race of the last two season, also the 1stBFA Racing Team took part in all four years (48 races) 47 times. Great achievements that will hopefully improved in the upcoming years.
Even though the F1 season has finished, the OWRL doesn’t have a winter break. After the last regular season races with the FO8, the annual MRT Cup will start after Christmas. Both series are free for driver, a short sign-up at owrl.de and the event is all you need. More info: owrl.de
A big thank you goes out to all spectators and readers who followed the season and also thank you to all drivers and teams who took part this season!
See you on track.
Q1 | Q2 | Race
Standings (Clear your cache if necessary)
Replay Race (members only)
Livestream On-Demand (Right Click to save)
