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Formula Sprint 2
Japanese Grand Prix
Suzuka International Racing Course
Tuesday 2nd of April 2024 19:00:00
More
April 12, 2018

 

Alex Siebel led from lights to flag with the race being as closely contested as the season opener in Melbourne as the Superleague takes the title sponsorship of WTF1.
In qualifying it was Siebel on pole, beating a suprise Ricardo Costa by only 0.021s, an even more impressive result considering the Valiant-engined cars still hold a tenth's worth of power advantage in qualifying.

Dennis Jordan continued to impress in third while championship leader Risto Kappet, polesitter last time out, could only manage fourth. Round one winner Geoffrey Fournier was fifth and 2016 champion David Fidock had his season best result in sixth. The drivers of the currently-second team, Edge Esports, were 11th and 12th having chosen to qualify on the Supersoft tyre.

As the red lights went out, it was obvious that Siebel had the edge on Costa in race trim and could pull away immediately as the Hawkeye driver struggled for tyre life, falling under the attacks of Jordan and Kappet close behind. The biggest winner of the start was Petar Brljak, who picked up places immediately on the supersoft while both Madcape cars tangled in the back of the grid.

First to pit on lap 8 was Costa, who pitted for the soft and successfully undercut Jordan going on to the mediums, despite having to navigate through hordes of traffic who had not yet pitted.

Both ACR Zakspeed drivers pitted on lap 10 with Kappet losing a few seconds stacking behind Siebel. This proved costly as Siebel got out in front of the fighting midpack but Kappet found himself now with seven cars between him and the leader.

After a whole race of juggling for positions with different drivers on different strategies, in the end Alex Siebel kept his distance from the racing and finished nine seconds ahead of Petar Brljak, the Croat benefitting from running the supersoft long in the first stint and coming back to the fast tyre in the end. Dennis Jordan and Ricardo Costa crossed the line wheel to wheel, with Costa just losing out having chosen an aggressive four-stop strategy amidst other three stoppers.

Geoffrey Fournier was also a climber in the end of the race, having overtaken Risto Kappet for fifth in the closing stages with the championship leader struggling for balance on the medium tyres. Borja Milan put the second Epic Racing car in seventh, just ahead of Tom Parker who climbed through the field on an opposite strategy to everyone else, having started on the mediums.

Jarl Teien was only ninth in an unsuccessful race but having the excuse of worn tyres and car down on upgrades for this round, while David Fidock rounded up the top 10, disappointingly not fulfilling his return to form that he found in qualifying.

In the drivers championship, Risto Kappet still leads after a mediocre performance but Geoffrey Fournier is only 19 points behind in second and Alex Siebel two points behind him as the German continues his relentless rise in the tables after bad luck in the opening two rounds.

ACR Zakspeed picked up the most team points once again and extend their lead to Edge Esports to 32 points while Evolution Motorsports overtake Hawkeye racing for fourth, owing to the former only scoring with one driver this round.

Full results: HERE.

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