Jason Bagley on form as Fulvio leads the points table.
Fulvio Fenix top scored in this double header but it was Jason Bagley who had a good drive in race two with a flag to finish win.
Qualifying was always going to be critical at Monaco with its tight turns and narrow streets making overtaking very difficult, but it was Fulvio who put down a very quick time early on. Last seasons champion Allard van den Hoeven left it until his last lap to get within 0.3s of Fulvio’s best time. Behind the top two it couldn't have been closer with Jason, Thomas Kimmich and Laurent Londes all within 0.03s of each other. The best of the rest were headed by Richard Barrett with Hank Belane hoping for better luck after his technical issues at Imola last week.
Race 1
At lights out it was Fulvio who made a good start ahead of Allard and Jason as the field funnelled into St Devote. Remarkably everyone got through without any incidents and again at the Lowes hairpin all drivers were very well behaved.
As the cars sped though the tunnel, Fulvio had already opened up a lead over Allard as Jason spun out at the Nouvelle chicane after clipping the tyre wall on the exit. Jason had to wait for the entire field to pass before he could spin his Alpine RSS around and set of after the Alfa’s of Omar and Taj.
Thomas and Laurent were battling for P3 as Thomas locked his brakes trying to slow down at St Devote. This allowed Laurent a run up the hill at Beau Rivage and challenge Thomas as the cars turned left into Casino square. But Thomas defended hard and kept his car in 3rd place.
Behind the leaders, Hank was busy keeping Richard and Steve at arms length while at the back, Jason was recovering from his earlier spin. Jason had a scare when he sped towards the Rascasse only to find a wall of smoke as Omar was having a major moment in 10th place.
Up front, Fulvio was 1.0s ahead of Allard with the battle for 3rd with Thomas and Laurent some 4.0s behind the leaders.
Fulvio had a sideways moment on the exit of the Rascasse and only just managed to gather it up as Allard got alongside but Fulvio had the line into the last corner and kept his position.
Lap 5 and Fulvio had gapped Allard who was falling back into the Thomas/Laurent battle and six laps later Allard had a huge slide in the fast left hander at Massenet and into into Casino square. Thomas clipped Allard’s car but survived as Laurent also got by Allard. Allard spent some time trying to get his car pointing in the right direction, something that was difficult between the barriers at Monaco.
Back in the pack, Steve was having an immense battle with Jason with Hank sitting behind waiting for a mistake. He didn’t have to wait long as Steve went wide at the swimming pool and Jason got through. Hank got passed Steve on lap 15 when Steve clipped the barrier, again at the swimming pool section.
Hank was lucky to avoid a major incident when he drove underneath a totally out of control Jason at the swimming pool as the race entered the final laps.
At the flag it was another win for Fulvio and the fastest lap too.
Race 2
As this was a double header sprint race, the grid was reversed in race 2 for the top 7 drivers. This meant that Jason was on pole with Hank and Richard starting in 2nd and 3rd.
There was some frantic racing going on behind with race one winner Fulvio side by side with Allard on the climb up Beau Rivage. Neither driver was giving anything away as they turned into Massenet but it was Fulvio who came out in front as they turned right into the Casino square to take P6.
Hank and Richard had made a good start and were hoping for a mistake from Jason up front while Fulvio was closing in on Laurent in P5. Allard spun out at the Rascasse while up ahead Fulvio got alongside Laurent as they exited the tunnel but locked his brakes at the chicane which allowed Allard through to take 6th place. But the battle for fourth was all about to change as on lap 6 when it all got a bit cosy as five cars entered the Rascasse line astern. Allard ran into the back of Laurent causing him to spin. Fulvio’s cat like reactions allowed him to jink to the left and avoid the roadblock.
At the front Jason had made to most of the clear track and lead every lap to the finish and did the fastest lap to add to his points total. While Richard was chasing hard, Hank managed to hang on to claim a well deserved P2 with Richard completing the podium and Thomas taking fourth place at the finish.
Race 1 podium
1. Fulvio Fenix
2. Thomas Kimmick
3. Laurent Londes
Race 2 podium
1. Jason Bagley
2. Hank Belane
3.Richard Barrett
Fulvio now leads the championship by 4 points from Jason on dropped scores with Thomas in third place. Next time we are off to Canada and the Gilles Villeneuve circuit in Montreal on June 6th. We are back to a full 60 minute race with pit stops. We had some great racing here, very high driving standards and behaviour. We look forward to continuing this standard next time out.
Finally, huge thanks to Allard for the pre-race set ups, many of the drivers found these very useful around this difficult circuit.
Championship positions (after dropped score)
| Pos | Driver | Pts | |
|---|
| 1 | Fulvio Fenix | 36 | |
| 2 | Jason Bagley | 32 | |
| 3 | Thomas Kimmich | 30 | |
| 4 | Hank Belane | 26 | |
| 5 | Richard Barratt | 25 | |
| 6 | Laurent Londes | 23 | |
| 7 | Allard van den Hoeven | 18 | |
| 8 | Steve Hayward | 12 | |
| 9 | Jorg Evers | 10 | |
| 10 | Paul Fairweather | 8 | |
| 11 | Rico Prins | 6 | |
| 12 | Omar Filippini | 4 | |
| 13 | Taj Johal | 1 | |
| 14 | Casper de Wit | 0 | |
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