2012 British Grand Prix

25px **2012 British GP Grand Prix**
Race details
Race {{{Race_No}}} of the 2012 Superleague season

Date	July 12th, 2012
Official name	2012 Supercup British Grand Prix
Location	Silverstone Circuit, Northamptonshire
Course	Road Course 3.667 mi / 5.901 km
Distance	52 laps, 190.68 mi / 306.85 km
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Lukas Euler	Midnight Motorsports
Time	1:27.986
Fastest Lap
Driver	Dave Carr-Smith	Green Stripes Racing
Time	1:28.655
Podium
First	Lukas Euler	Midnight Motorsport
Second	Jamez Shepherd	Hawkeye Racing
Third	Nick Rowland	Midnight Motorsport

The 2012 Superleague British Grand Prix - the 10th race of the season - took place on the Silverstone Circuit in England, on the 12th of July.

Report

Lukas Euler's remarkable debut season in the GPVWC Superleague continues, with victory in the British Grand Prix, ahead of Jamez Shepherd and Nick Rowland.

The Silverstone Circuit remains one of the most iconic racing venues in many eyes, and is a popular track for many of the GPVWC drivers. With plenty of home crowd support, the likes of Dave Carr-Smith, Nick Rowland and Lee Morris were no doubt aiming to try and end the dominance of Lukas Euler. Once again, the talk of the paddock was Nordsjoen Racing, who for the second race in succession fielded just one car in the form of Pavel Loknovski. Joe Consiglio's replacement Jarl Teien has made just two appearances for the team, and has now missed the last two races, with no explanation from the team as of yet. More surprising news also surfaced with the immediate withdrawal of Red 5 Racing, who despite being handed over to new ownership in the form of Jamez Shepherd from the Korean Grand Prix onwards, continued on racing, but a decision has now been made to withdraw the team. Shepherd has now taken over the seat at Hawkeye Racing that was previously occupied by Bart De Vos.

Unsurprisingly, Euler took another pole position for Midnight Motorsport, and also no surprise to see his teammate Nick Rowland line up alongside him. Dave Carr-Smith lined up 3rd, ahead of Shepherd, giving Hawkeye their best qualifying finish so far. Lee Morris took 5th on the grid. Ojay Clark, Ruud Heesterbeek, David Jundt, Lewis Redshaw and Tom Parker rounded out the top 10.

Seven wins in ten attempts is an incredible return for a 'rookie' driver, and Euler duly delivered on that, with a convincing 48 second gap over his teammate Rowland, with Jamez Shepherd just behind him. However, Rowland was awarded a 10 second time penalty after going into the pitlane on the very last lap and crossing the line whilst in the pits, regaining track position from Shepherd. While no set rule is in place to prevent this from happening, the Disciplinary Committee felt the move was poor sportsmanship, thus moving Shepherd back into 2nd and giving Hawkeye Racing their first ever podium in the Superleague, and Shepherd's impressive start to life in the big league continues. Rowland still took an excellent 3rd.

Ruud Heesterbeek is another rookie who has mightily impressed this season for Nijo Racing, and after an enthralling race long battle with Ojay Clark finished an excellent 4th place, with Clark in 5th. Dave-Carr Smith was looking very much in contention for 2nd place, but was involved in a couple of incidents, firstly with Rowland, and then with Shepherd, resulting in car damage and a front left tyre puncture. All of this resulted in a disappointing 6th place finish for Carr-Smith, who won this race back in 2009. Simon Cattell had a solid run to 7th place in a relatively underdeveloped Kernow Sport car, not far ahead of Tom Parker for Woods Racing, and Lewis Redshaw for Hawkeye Racing.

The retirement of Lee Morris saw Mark Stanton take the final point in 10th place for Constant Racing, scoring the team's first points finish since Monaco. Much of the post-race talk has involved the continued loss of motivation to continue competing for Morris, unhappy with having an uncompetitive car and not really being able to challenge for a race win since his only win of the season so far at Monaco. Whether Morris will continue on or step down remains to be soon.

Euler's seventh win sees his championship lead increase to six points ahead of teammate Rowland. 3rd placed Morris now finds himself 31 points behind Rowland. Carr-Smith had hoped for much more, but still makes some inroads into the gap between himself and Morris. Heesterbeek's 4th place sees him move into the top 5 ahead of the retired Consiglio who is 6th. Cattell moves into 7th ahead of the 'other' retired driver in the form of Janne Tanskanen. Shepherd is looming large behind Cattell though, just one point behind. Despite finishing out of the points for only the second time this season, Pavel Loknovski still rounds out the top 10.

In the Constructors championship, Midnight continue their complete dominance, with 238 points. Draig Racing remain in 2nd with 88. Nordsjoen Racing stay in 3rd despite fielding only one car, but now have Red Archer, Green Stripes Racing and Nijo Racing on the prowl for that position. Kernow Sport remain in 7th, but will be looking over their shoulders at the ever improving Hawkeye Racing. The now defunct Red 5 Racing team are 9th, but will likely be leapfrogged by Woods Racing in the coming few races.