Jeddah Corniche Circuit

SAUDI ARABIAN GRAND PRIX

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April 07, 2010
Published on tags: Supercup
Round 3 of this year's Supercup saw the Formula Nippon cars on home ground at the fast sweeping Suzuka circuit. There was a some rather chaotic scenes early in the race and a gripping race to the flag which saw Finn Tommi Koivunen score a win on his GPVWC debut.

In qualifying the field was fairly spread with Sam Millar taking pole in his Williamson Dynamics car, one second clear of Koivunen's Nordsjeon. A close midpick battle saw Lichtenstein 3rd on the grid ahead of Williamson, Thomas, Bennett and Ponissi.

As the race started, Millar held the lead into turn 1 followed by Koivunen and the fast starting Thomas. However as the leaders approached Degner Millar ran wide and consequently rejoined in the middle of the pack. Gavin Thomas made a mistake there the following lap allowing the PB of Chris Williamson into 2nd place.

Chaos ensued on Lap 3 as several cars collided at Turns 6 & 7. At first Lichtenstein ran wide, brushed the barrier and rejoined the track, seemingly distracting his Red 5 teammate causing him to spin infront of Millar. This then sparked a chain reaction which resembled pinball more than racing. As a result it saw the retirement of Lichtenstein, Thomas & Millar and emergency pitstops for Ponissi, Bennett and Manrique.

As the race developed, Koivunen stretched his lead to 20 seconds ahead of Williamson and Robert Rose. In the battle for 3rd Bennett managed to stretch his fuel & tyres to the end and overtook Rose who pitted mid-race.

In closing laps Koivunen looked assured of a maiden GPVWC win until he ran wide at Degner on lap 22 and damaged his suspension. In the remaining laps Williamson quickly closed the gap, but Koivunen did just enough to take the win by just over a second at the line.