2015 Italian Grand Prix

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  2015 Italian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 12 of the 2015 Superleague season
Date	13th August, 2015
Official name	2015 Italian Grand Prix
Location	Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza
Course	Permanent racing facility 3.6 mi / 5.794 km
Distance	53 laps, 190.800 mi / 307.062 km
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Agustin Canapino	Nordsjoen-Martex
Time	1:19.958
Fastest Lap
Driver	Agustin Canapino	Nordsjoen-Martex
Time	1:20.508 on lap 50
Podium
First	Philipp Puschke	Vod:Bul-Valiant
Second	Agustin Canapino	Nordsjoen-Martex
Third	David Fidock	Hawkeye-Potentia

The 2015 Italian Grand Prix was the twelfth round of the 2015 Superleague season and took place around the historic Autodromo Nazionale di Monza on the 13th August 2015. It was the fifteenth running of the Monza race as what remains the site of the very first Superleague Grand Prix, back in 2000.

The race saw championship leader Philipp Puschke complete a hat-trick of wins in his Vod:Bul, although it was Nordsjoen's Agustin Canapino who took pole at what was technically his team's home race.

The first few laps were full of drama. Canapino led away off the line, but Puschke and his closest championship rival Lewis Redshaw both squeezed by Canapino at the Retifillo at the start of lap 4.A great scrap for the top three became four when Fran Lopez muscled his way past Canapino going into the Parabolica at the end of the following lap. Lopez then made it 3-abreast with Lopez and Puschke heading into the Retifillo again, pushing Puschke off the road. Redshaw took the lead while Puschke just about kept ahead of Lopez, who just about avoided crashing into Canapino. Lopez passed Puschke for second at the start of lap 7 and set off after Redshaw, passing him at the same place the following lap. Redshaw retook the place with a dashing move around the outside of the Roggia chicane on lap 9 only to be bumped by Lopez going into the Lesmos; Lopez then took the lead back at the Ascari chicane. With Puschke keeping a watching brief, then occasionally sticking his nose in, behind them Canapino was fending off the Hawkeye of reigning champion David Fidock and the Red Archer of Jason Muscat. Similar tussles were occurring right throughout the field.

Redshaw repeated his Ascari manoeuvre to retake the lead on lap 11. Lopez then developed ping issues that allowed Puschke by but subsequently scared him off the road at the Roggia, sending him down to 4th behind Canapino. Then, at the start of lap 14, Lopez overtook Redshaw down the start/finish straight. The Spaniard went deep into the Retifillo and then clipped Redshaw as the Englishman was attempting to get by. The CSG was shunted out wide, and Redshaw lost the car as he tried to recover and slammed into the outside wall. It was the end of Redshaw's race; what was also not apparent at that point was that it was the end of Redshaw's season, the man second in the championship heading into the event then retiring from racing thereafter. With Redshaw's demise, Fidock emerged as Puschke's main challenger, turning the Driver's Championship into a two-horse race that would last to the very end of the season.

In the calamity, Canapino retook the lead and he would lead for much of the rest of the race. However, one last pit stop on lap 47 saw him relinquish the lead to Puschke. Canapino emerged just ahead of Lopez but was unable to stay ahead. Puschke won by 8 seconds but Lopez and Canapino were virtually attached as they crossed the line, with Fidock closing them down at the death. Lopez's driving was viewed unfavourably and he was penalised 10 seconds, dropping him down to fourth. His teammate Muscat came home fifth, which remained a great haul of points for Red Archer and saw them jump Midnight up to fifth in the championship. Florian Geier finished sixth in the race, which was a fantastic recovery drive, finding himself at the very back of the field after the first lap.

Redshaw was not the only big name to leave the series around the time of Italy. Nick Rowland, who had started the season at Midnight, retired, then came back with Hawkeye, retired again before the race. His place was taken by Wopke Hoekstra who had been previously driving in place of Kenney Lybeer at Nijo. Lybeer returned for Italy and saw out the rest of the season. Back at Midnight, Pedro Melim stood in for Tom van der Voort, in the Dutchman's last absence of the year. Melim, despite being penalised 10 seconds for a collision, came home a highly respectable eighth, just under half a minute, on the road, ahead of teammate Sandeep Chodha. Matthew Allington raced his second consecutive Grand Prix of the year for Kernow. Having stood in for Bart De Vos at Belgium, in Italy the Englishman stood in for the other Kernow driver, Mark Wicks, in what was Wicks' only absence of the year.

Mikko Jakonen returned for Phoenix F1 after his only absence of the year at Belgium, but there was still no #88 Torrent car. Meanwhile, the #69 Edonis car was occupied this race by Canadian Andrew Waring, though unfortunately technical issues forced his retirement, though he was still classified. At Woods, Terence Grech made a one-off appearance in place of Sven de Vries.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap	Grid
1	19	Agustin Canapino	Nordsjoen - Martex	1:19.958	—	1
2	14	Philipp Puschke	Vod:Bul - Valiant	1:20.007	+0.049	2
3	1	David Fidock	Hawkeye - Potentia	1:20.109	+0.151	3
4	24	Lewis Redshaw	CSG - Potentia	1:20.140	+0.182	4
5	13	Alex Cooper	CSG - Potentia	1:20.149	+0.191	10
6	21	Fran Lopez	Red Archer - Valiant	1:20.170	+0.211	5
7	27	Florian Geier	Nordsjoen - Martex	1:20.272	+0.314	6
8	6	Jason Muscat	Red Archer - Valiant	1:20.357	+0.399	7
9	4	Marcos Riffel	Edonis - Valiant	1:20.672	+0.714	8
10	25	Pedro Melim	Midnight - Potentia	1:20.732	+0.774	9
11	99	Mindaugas Klumbis	Torrent - Potentia	1:20.740	+0.782	11
12	7	Sandeep Chodha	Midnight - Potentia	1:20.783	+0.825	12
13	20	Dewald Nel	Green Stripes - Valiant	1:20.963	+1.005	13
14	83	Bart De Vos	Kernow - Trinity	1:21.381	+1.423	14
15	10	Mikael Tuomaala	Nijo - Trinity	1:21.465	+1.506	15
16	69	Andrew Waring	Edonis - Valiant	1:21.526	+1.568	16
17	5	Kenney Lybeer	Nijo - Trinity	1:21.540	+1.582	17
18	8	Terence Grech	Woods - Trinity	1:21.605	+1.647	18
19	45	Kieran Ryan	Phoenix - Trinity	1:21.905	+1.947	231
20	9	Roy Schroten	Woods - Trinity	1:21.968	+2.010	241
21	11	Ben Horrill	Green Stripes - Valiant	1:22.066	+2.108	19
22	46	Mikko Jakonen	Phoenix - Trinity	1:22.831	+2.873	20
23	12	Matthew Allington	Kernow - Trinity	1:23.476	+3.518	21
24	15	Jernej Simoncic	Vod:Bul - Valiant	no time	—	22
25	2	Wopke Hoekstra	Hawkeye - Potentia	no time	—	25

Notes:

• ¹ — Kieran Ryan and Roy Schroten both had 10-place grid penalties for causing avoidable contact at the previous round.

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts.
1	14	Philipp Puschke	Vod:Bul - Valiant	53	12:52.624	2	25
2	19	Agustin Canapino	Nordsjoen - Martex	53	+8.502	1	20
3	1	David Fidock	Hawkeye - Potentia	53	+8.819	3	16
41	21	Fran Lopez	Red Archer - Valiant	53	+18.444	5	13
5	6	Jason Muscat	Red Archer - Valiant	53	+21.059	7	11
6	27	Florian Geier	Nordsjoen - Martex	53	+22.594	6	10
7	15	Jernej Simoncic	Vod:Bul - Valiant	53	+33.279	22	9
82	25	Pedro Melim	Midnight - Potentia	53	+1:03.851	9	8
9	13	Alex Cooper	CSG - Potentia	53	+1:09.505	10	7
10	20	Dewald Nel	Green Stripes - Valiant	53	+1:20.772	13	6
11	7	Sandeep Chodha	Midnight - Potentia	53	+1:21.403	12	5
123	4	Marcos Riffel	Edonis - Valiant	53	+1:29.397	8	4
13	11	Ben Horrill	Green Stripes - Valiant	52	+1 Lap	19	3
142	10	Mikael Tuomaala	Nijo - Trinity	52	+1 Lap	15	2
15	9	Roy Schroten	Woods - Trinity	52	+1 Lap	24	1
16	5	Kenney Lybeer	Nijo - Trinity	52	+1 Lap	17
17	45	Kieran Ryan	Phoenix - Trinity	52	+1 Lap	23
18	2	Wopke Hoekstra	Hawkeye - Potentia	52	+1 Lap	25
19	12	Matthew Allington	Kernow - Trinity	51	+2 Laps	21
20	46	Mikko Jakonen	Phoenix - Trinity	51	+2 Laps	20
21	8	Terence Grech	Woods - Trinity	50	+3 Laps	18
224	83	Bart De Vos	Kernow - Trinity	49	Accident	14
234	69	Andrew Waring	Edonis - Valiant	41	Did not Finish	16
Ret	24	Lewis Redshaw	CSG - Potentia	13	Accident	4
Ret	99	Mindaugas Klumbis	Torrent - Potentia	2	Did not Finish	11

Notes:

• ¹ — Fran Lopez had 10 seconds added to race time for dangerous driving.
• ² — Pedro Melim and Mikael Tuomaala both had 10 seconds added to their race time for causing avoidable contact.
• ³ — Marcos Riffel had 10 seconds added to race time for rejoining the track in an unsafe manner.
• ⁴ — Bart De Vos and Andrew Waring were both classified as finishing having completed 75% of race distance.

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
	1	Philipp Puschke	227
1	2	David Fidock	180
1	3	Lewis Redshaw	176
	4	Agustin Canapino	151
1	5	Fran Lopez	114

Constructors' Championship standings

	Pos	Constructor	Points
	1	Vod:Bul-Valiant	314
	2	CSG Racing-Potentia	257
	3	Nordsjoen-Martex	251
	4	Hawkeye-Potentia	211
1	5	Red Archer-Potentia	180

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

External links

• Official results
• Broadcast replay

Preceded by: 2015 Belgian Grand Prix	GPVWC Superleague 2015 season	Succeeded by: 2015 Singapore Grand Prix
Preceded by: 2014 Italian Grand Prix	Italian Grand Prix	Succeeded by: 2016 Italian Grand Prix