A short and fast track with long straights followed by some slow corners, good ingredients for a entertaining show. In Q2 Eros Masciulli took pole position in front of Godek, Ragusa and championship leader Kiss. Q1 showed different results, but Q2 single-shot lap provided surprises.
Not a good race start by the pole sitter. Godek overtook Masciulli at the first corner.
Meanwhile Twister drivers switched their positions with Klop and Kiss occupying fourth and sixth place. Hoyer was eighth and the first driver using the harder compound seemingly targeting a strong second half of the grand prix. Klop showed his skills with a nice save after a big slide at last corner but that loss of momentum allowed Gobbi to jump him. The top three remained very close. Godek and Masciulli pitted for another set of softer tires on lap 16 but the Italian lost time and positions without an apparent reason.
On the same lap while trying to resist to Klop attacks, Gobbi crashed and ruined his changes of good result. Satherlay, Seventh on the grid and running a one – stop strategy pitted very late so inherited the lead for a time. Unfortunately for him he rejoined track tenth and in traffic.
Probably most exciting part of the race was lap 27; a three wide stage with Hodas, Hoyer and Lappala fighting for Sixth. Of course this slowed them down as they fought and left space for each other so Prieto managed to catch and join the battle! Multiple and slide contacts caused a Hodas spin losing some positions. When the leader Godek inaugurated the second pit stop sequence he had to defend from Hoyer.
An accident left the ACR driver Tenth managing a close call with Heesterbeek with fair play. Masciulli's ambition of a top 5 result ended when he missed his box damaging a front wing end-plate and losing time. He rejoined track ninth. With all strategies done and 15 laps to go it was a close top 5 comprising Godek, Satherlay, Ragusa, Kiss and Klop. Ragusa started to attack Satherlay with much fresher tires, but the GhostSpeed driver managed to resist making Kiss game; after an entertaining duel the Italian went into second place. The final laps showed an amazing pace by Kiss, almost a second faster than anyone else with softer compound!
He overtook Satherlay for the last podium spot and then attacked Ragusa, but he out-braked himself twice and lost the momentum. Klop finished Fifth and very close to Satherlay, meanwhile Heesterbeek slowly crossed the line Tenth out of fuel!
Godek, who was trying to make this race his turning point of the season lost his first FSR victory after post race checks because of Hoyer accident dropping back to Fifth. However, FSR has a new winner anyway: Ragusa celebrated this achievement after only 6 grand prixs, occupying third position in championship standings and the first after the Twister Racing drivers.
22 drivers started this race, 16 finished it.
1) Giuseppe Ragusa (ITA)
BBR Life4Racing
1h05m44.216
2) Daniel Kiss (HUN)
Twister Racing Team
+0.303
3) Thomas Satherley (NEZ)
GhostSpeed Racing Team
+3.255
4) Rens Klop (NED)
Twister Racing Team
+3.619
5) Marek Godek (SKV)
GhostSpeed Racing Team
+5.916 (10 seconds time penalty imposed: incident)
6) Michi Hoyer (GER)
Avid Chronic Racing Team
+21.182 (5 seconds time penaly imposed: incident)
7) Guillermo Prieto (SPA)
Faster Than Speed Ace
+21.438 (10 second time penalty imposed: incident)
8) Martin Hodás (SKV)
Lovell-Eventa Simracing
+29.105
9) Eros Masciulli (ITA)
Eventa by Pescara SHS Ace
+30.082
10) Ruud Heesterbeek (NED)
GS Engineering
+34.063
11) Michael Francesconi (ITA)
Eventa by Pescara SHS Ace
+35.026
12) Pashalis Gergis (GRI)
Avid Chronic Racing - Blue Team
+38.138
13) Teemu Valkeejärvi (FIN)
Avid Chronic Racing - Blue Team
1 lap down
14) Fabrizio Gobbi (ITA)
BBR Life4Racing
1 lap down
15) Argenis Riera (VEN)
Comunidad JDT Team
1 lap down
16) Alessio Campus (ITA)
TrinesNX Exclusive
2 laps down
Race standings: http://gpcos.formula-simracing.net/results.php?eventid=752&leagueid=5&menu=season&menuoption=2
Championship standings: http://gpcos.formula-simracing.net/league.php?leagueid=5&type=introduction&menu=season
Press conference
Giuseppe Ragusa (BBR Life4Racing)
Welcome Giuseppe. The first victory for you after only six FSR races. Your Austrian performance showed speed, consistency and pressure management. We would like to know your sim-racing background and how do you feel about this achievement, even considering Godek penalty.
A big surprise for me to climb one more step to the top of the podium. But also we deserved it as we were going really strong on this track. Too bad for my team-mate who has had some problems further back. Daniel Kiss has pushed hard in the last laps. But its hard to pass even if you have 1 second in pace here so I managed to hold him off. The team is working hard and we are becoming more and more competitive, we hope to continue until we are running at the front.
Thomas Satherlay (GhostSpeed Racing Team)
Welcome Thomas. Your one stop strategy was quite unusual; do you see yourself as a tire whisperer? You were in traffic after your pit stop; do you think it compromised your victory chances or that Third was the best possible result?
I try to look after the tires as much as possible. It seems to be quite important with this mod. I think coming out in traffic was always going to happen. Maybe if the field was a bit more spread out and I had clear air, I may have finished the race 5 seconds earlier.
Pashalis Gergis (Avid Chronic Racing - Blue Team)
Welcome Pashalis. Considering even your team-mate pace you started eleventh with chances of a good race but we saw you pitting in the very early stage of the grand prix, compromising your result. Can you tell us what happened? And why we are not seeing ACR fighting again for the victory as in China?
Once again I underperformed in the qualifying session and my pace was so bad that I was left out by a few thousands again. The pace is there but I surely need to get some composure when it matters. I started OK however I touched the curb on t8 turn entry and I spun back to the pit lane. After that I knew my race was over and decided to one stop with Mediums. I want to believe that the China race wasn't a one off, we really need to step it up because we don't belong fighting for top 10 but for more. It'll be interesting in Hockenheim due to the high tyre wear, something we like because we feel we can manage the tyre well but we all hope first to have a good race and then try to bring the best result for the team. ACR will be back fighting for wins.
Next Ace round will be at Hockenheim on 27th June
Alessio Campus, David O'Reilly and Pashalis Gergis (FSR Media Group)
