2011 Spanish Grand Prix

25px   2011 Spanish Grand Prix

Race details
Race {{{Race_No}}} of the 2011 Superleague season
Date	September 29th, 2011
Official name	2011 Spanish Grand Prix
Location	Circuit de Catalunya Barcelona, Spain
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.875 mi / 4.655 km
Distance	66 laps, 190.872 mi / 307.230 km
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Joe Consiglio	Nordsjoen-Mercedes
Time	1:15.334
Fastest Lap
Driver	Joe Consiglio	Nordsjoen-Mercedes
Time	1:16.479
Podium
First	Joe Consiglio	Nordsjoen-Mercedes
Second	David Jundt	Red Archer-Renault
Third	Gregg Lawson	Red Archer-Renault

The 2011 Spanish Grand Prix for the Superleague - the 17th race of the season - took place at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain on the 29th of September.

Report

Joe Consiglio made the most of Lee Morris's absence and jumped to the top of the Drivers' World Championship standings with a dominant victory in Catalunya, as David Jundt and Gregg Lawson increased Red Archer's advantage in the Constructors.

Qualifying

Nordsjoen Racing's dominance in Spain was evident from qualifying, when Consiglio led stand-in teammate Tom Parker; the pole-sitter's 1:15.334 was more than a second faster than anyone else on the grid. Jundt was 3rd in a Red Archer lockout of row two, with Dave Carr-Smith the first of those who drive cars and not spaceships. Mark Wicks, who celebrated his 100th GPVWC race in Barcelona, lined up 6th on the grid in his Woods - a qualifying highlight for the Cornish driver who struggled to make an impact in the two-part session this year. Late replacements meant William Tringas of Australia and Matt Clipp of England were drafted in for their Superleague bow, but their lack of experience with the car showed as they lined up in 18th and 19th respectively.

Race

The race recorded one of the cleanest starts of the season, with only Bart De Vos taking to the run-off area after a small tap from Wicks - the Belgian driver's race destined to end within a matter of seconds due to disconnection. Ahead, Consiglio was able to make the most of Parker's defence and open a sizeable gap right from the start, his teammate fighting with the Red Archers for position until a spin put him behind his rivals.

What seemed to be a likely three-man fight for the second spot on the podium was cut short by Parker's retirement, caused by a sub-standard connection issue on his Nordsjoen - a problem, it appeared to be, caused by a twentieth-century solution unsuited for modern racing cars. The retirement of the #0 car meant the Red Archers finished on the podium with little trouble, followed by Carr-Smith and Wicks. Mark Stanton got to the scoreboard again with a fine 6th position, followed by Tommi Koivunen (who scored Nijo's best ever result), Phil Perkins and David Stanton. Debutant Clipp got the last point-scoring position.

Consiglio's run to the flag, however, wasn't untroubled. Just as he seemed to have the race under control, a misunderstanding with Ryan Walker saw the lapped TDR collide with the race leader, sending Consiglio into the barriers. Miraculously, the Nordsjoen didn't suffer any big damage and Consiglio was able to pit for repairs, emerging only 4 seconds ahead of David Jundt but managing to hold on to the flag.

Consiglio's win, paired with Lee Morris's inability to take part, allowed the Maltese ace to leapfrog the Draig Racing driver at the top of the Driver's Championship, completing a comeback which started after disappointment in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. With David Jundt not winning the race, Consiglio and Morris became the only two drivers with a chance to win the World Champion crown. In the Constructors' Championship, Red Archer managed to reverse the recent trend and increase their gap on Nordsjoen. With two drivers finally scoring for the Greek leaders, the gap over their rivals is now seven points - with a mere three races left in the season.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Lap	Gap
1	2	Joe Consiglio	Nordsjoen-Mercedes	01:15.334	—
2	0	Tom Parker	Nordsjoen-Mercedes	01:16.423	+1.089s
3	6	David Jundt	Red Archer-Renault	01:16.783	+1.449s
4	5	Gregg Lawson	Red Archer-Renault	01:16.984	+1.650s
5	24	Dave Carr-Smith	Midnight-Renault	01:17.563	+2.229s
6	3	Mark Wicks	Woods-Mercedes	01:17.588	+2.254s
7	23	Bart De Vos	TDR-Toyota	01:18.426	+3.092s
8	15	Ryan Walker	TDR-Toyota	01:18.561	+3.227s
9	17	David Stanton	ST-BMW	01:18.801	+3.467s
10	7	Mark Stanton	Constant-Renault	01:18.943	+3.609s
11	21	Abdel Damghi	Nijo-Toyota	01:19.315	+3.981s
12	22	Phil Perkins	Draig-Ferrari	01:19.393	+4.059s
13	11	Gavin Thomas	Computrac-BMW	01:20.201	+4.867s
14	20	Tommi Koivunen	Nijo-Toyota	01:20.672	+5.338s
15	4	Kieran Ryan	Woods-Mercedes	01:20.745	+5.411s
16	16	Mark Fuller	ST-BMW	01:20.746	+5.412s
17	8	William Ponissi	Constant-Renault	01:20.942	+5.608s
18	12	William Tringas	Computrac-BMW	01:21.979	+6.645s
19	14	Matt Clipp	Draig-Ferrari	01:25.744	+10.410s

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pitstops	Fastlap	Controller	Points
1	2	Joe Consiglio	Nordsjoen-Mercedes	66	1:26:21.866	1	3	01:16.479		15
2	6	David Jundt	Red Archer-Renault	66	+15.179s	3	2	01:17.388		12
3	5	Gregg Lawson	Red Archer-Renault	66	+1:02.657	4	2	01:17.418		10
4	24	Dave Carr-Smith	Midnight-Renault	65	+1 Lap	5	3	01:17.316		8
5	3	Mark Wicks	Woods-Mercedes	65	+1 Lap	6	3	01:18.631		6
6	7	Mark Stanton	Constant-Renault	63	+3 Laps	10	3	01:19.635		5
7	20	Tommi Koivunen	Nijo-Toyota	63	+3 Laps	14	4	01:19.908		4
8	22	Phil Perkins	Draig-Ferrari	63	+3 Laps	12	3	01:19.898		3
9	17	David Stanton	ST-BMW	63	+3 Laps	9	4	01:19.533		2
10	14	Matt Clipp	Draig-Ferrari	61	+5 Laps	19	4	01:22.255		1
11	8	William Ponissi	Constant-Renault	60	+6 Laps	17	5	01:21.175		0
Ret	15	Ryan Walker	TDR-Toyota	45	DNF	8	2	01:19.098		0
Ret	12	William Tringas	Computrac-BMW	37	DNF	18	2	01:22.067		0
Ret	16	Mark Fuller	ST-BMW	31	DNF	16	3	01:21.628		0
Ret	0	Tom Parker	Nordsjoen-Mercedes	28	DNF	2	1	01:17.035		0
Ret	11	Gavin Thomas	Computrac-Toyota	24	DNF	13	4	01:22.841		0
Ret	4	Kieran Ryan	Woods-Mercedes	11	DNF	15	0	01:19.940		0
Ret	21	Abdel Damghi	Nijo-Toyota	4	DNF	11	0	01:20.423		0
Ret	23	Bart De Vos	TDR-Toyota	0	DNF	7	0	-		0

Standings after the Race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Joe Consiglio	185
2	Lee Morris	181
3	David Jundt	135
4	Jason Muscat	100
5	Dave Carr-Smith	90
6	Ojay Clark	52
7	Mark Wicks	51
8	Pavel Loknovski	46
9	Nick Rowland	40
10	Bart De Vos	34
11	Sam Millar	33
12	Kieran Ryan	28
13	Mark Stanton	26
14	Christoph Lichtenstein	23
15	Ryan Walker	22
=	Adam Rouse	22
17	Phil Perkins	12
18	Gregg Lawson	10
19	David Stanton	9
20	Jyri Lylykorpi	6
21	Ben Morgan	4
=	Tommi Koivunen	4
23	Petter Kaasa	3
24	Mark Fuller	2
25	Abdel Damghi	1
=	Gavin Thomas	1
=	William Ponissi	1
=	Matt Clipp	1

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Red Archer-Renault	245
2	Nordsjoen-Mercedes	237
3	Draig-Ferrari	205
4	Midnight-Renault	133
5	Woods-Mercedes	79
6	TDR-Toyota	67
7	Synergetic-Ferrari	56
8	Williamson-Mercedes	52
9	Constant-Renault	27
10	ST-BMW	11
11	Computrac-BMW	5
=	Nijo-Toyota	5

External Links

Preceded by: 2011 Italian Grand Prix

2011 Spanish Grand Prix 2011

Succeeded by: 2011 Belgian Grand Prix