2016 Challenge Monaco Grand Prix

From GPVWC Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Flag of Monaco.png   2016 Challenge Monaco Grand Prix
Race details
Round 6 of the 2016 Formula Challenge season
Circuit de Monaco - 2003 Layout.png
Date 3rd May, 2016
Event 2016 Challenge Monaco Grand Prix
Location Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo
Course Road Course
2.075 mi / 3.34 km
Distance 20 laps, 41.5 mi / 66.8 km (each race)
Weather Dry
Pole position
Driver Netherlands Stephane Rouault Deltec Racing Team
Time 1:22.702
Race One Podium
First Netherlands Stephane Rouault Deltec Racing Team
Second England James Johnson MadCape Racing Team
Third England Jonathan Holmes Arrow International Racing
Race One Fastest Lap
Driver England James Johnson MadCape Racing Team
Time 1:23.479
Race Two Podium
First Netherlands Stephane Rouault Deltec Racing Team
Second England Jonathan Holmes Arrow International Racing
Third Netherlands Hansko Mebius YTF1
Race Two Fastest Lap
Driver Netherlands Stephane Rouault Deltec Racing Team
Time 1:23.660


The 2016 Challenge Monaco Grand Prix - the Sixth round of the season - took place at the Circuit de Monaco course in Monte Carlo, Monaco on the 3rd of May.

Report

Background

The previous round of the season, taking place at Istanbul in Turkey, saw James Johnson extend his championship lead with a win and a third place, being the only driver to finish on the podium in both races. Stephane Rouault took the race two victory, moving himself up to second in the standings whilst both Jonathan Holmes (sixth & fourth) and Geoffrey Fournier (second & tenth) secured a good points haul to keep in contention.

MadCape left Turkey in a secure lead of the championship after having both cars finish in the top five in both races.

Qualifying

Qualifying was dominated by three familiar faces, Stephane Rouault, James Johnson and Carlos Fernandez, however it was the Dutchman Rouault who secured his second pole position of the year, joining Johnson as the only multiple pole position winners so far this season. The Deltec driver finished nearly two tenths ahead of Johnson with Fernandez a further hundredth off the pace. After that a large gap of close to half a second separated the top three from fourth placed Jonathan Holmes with Philipp Konig hot on his tail in fifth for Cosmo.

Race One

Stephane Rouault took home his third win of the year, the first to do so this year, after a close battle with James Johnson, Rouault taking the chequered flag only two seconds ahead of the Englishman. Jonathan Holmes was able to make the most of other's misfortune to return to the podium, his first since the first race of the third round of the season. Niranjan Kumar took home his best result of his short GPVWC career with a superb fourth after what turned out to be a rather lonely race, whilst Patrick Wannemuller took only his second top five result of the year despite starting outside the top ten.

It was a race to forget for Fanatec Draig's Cameron Brewster who was relegated to the also-rans after a collision with Epic Racing's Geoffrey Fournier caused him to have to pit for a new front wing. The Frenchman was later declared at fault and received a five-place grid penalty for the next event in Canada.

Johnson set the fastest lap, timed at 1:23.479.

Race Two

The top 12 from race one were drawn to be reversed for the race two grid, meaning Scuderia Basilea manager David Jundt would line up on pole position for his own team. However it was Stephane Rouault who once again took victory, his fourth for the season and third in a row. It was an even more impressive feat considering his start position of twelfth on easily the most difficult track to overtake on. His winning margin of ten seconds demonstrated his dominance of the race meet, leaving Jonathan Holmes to ponder what he needs to do to get his first win of 2016. None the less, a second place after starting tenth, paired with his podium for race one meant the Arrow driver registered his strongest race meet of the season. Finally, there was a new face on the podium with YTF1's Hansko Mebius maintaining his grid position of third for both his and the team's first podium finish of the year.

Only 19 of the 31 cars that started managed to finish the race, notable retirements included Geoffrey Fournier, Carlos Fernandez, Michel de Jong and Antonio Hreljanovic whilst Championship leader James Johnson could only recover to fifth after having to make a pit stop for damage early on in the race.

Rouault posted the fastest lap of the race, 1:23.660, meaning he almost completed the perfect event of pole, both race wins and both fastest laps, however he misses out due to not setting the race one fastest lap.

Post-race

James Johnson left Monaco still in the lead of the championship, however the gap between himself and Stephan Rouault was shortened to only 18 points after the Dutchman's heroics on the principality. Johnathan Holmes consolidated third place after a fantastic double podium coupled with Geoffrey Fournier's meet to forget. Cameron Brewster moved up to fifth after a fine fourth place finish in race two.

MadCape continued to lead the team's standings but it was Deltec that made the major move, going from fifth all the way up two second, albeit 71 points off their fellow South African rivals. Fanatec sat in third despite a quiet round whilst Arrow took advantage of Epic's troublesome round to jump into the fourth.

After the event, and following the Supercup and Superleague events, on the GPVWC forum the question was raised whether the Monaco round should still remain on the calendar in future seasons due to the high possibility of collisions and disconnections encounter in recent years.

Results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 England James Johnson 182
2 Netherlands Stephane Rouault 164
3 England Jonathan Holmes 147
4 France Geoffrey Fournier 118
5 England Cameron Brewster 96

Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 South Africa MadCape Racing Team 251
2 South Africa Deltec Racing Team 180
3 Wales Fanatec Draig Racing 173
4 England Arrow International Racing 169
5 England Epic Racing 166

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

Image Gallery

External links

Preceded by:
2016 Challenge Turkish Grand Prix
GPVWC Formula Challenge season
2016
Succeeded by:
2016 Challenge Canadian Grand Prix