The glamorous Monte Carlo race weekend was once again finished in style by Bono Huis with a dominating lights to flag finish on Sunday. The victory made it his third in as many races, and raised his lead in the championship to an admirable 28 points after four rounds. As the teams begin the long trip to Montreal, Canada, we take a look back at the Monaco race and analyse how things panned out in round four of the Formula SimRacing World Championship.
Precision Motorsports
Bono Huis, P1
Jack Keithley, P4
It was an impressive day all round for Precision, bringing home a fantastic 37 points, increasing their championship lead over ATR to a healthy margin of 45 points. Huis achieved a meticulous start; doing exactly what is required to win at Monaco, and if he didn't have it in the bag by turn two, then he certainly did after his first stint when Morand dropped out of the picture. Huis will know that he wasn't the fastest man on the day, however, and the threat of Morand certainly has not gone away. Further down the grid it was Jack Keithley who impressed; achieving six position gains to take a personal best result on a typically unforgiving track where gaining any track position is considered virtually impossible. Keithley may not be alongside Huis, but his result this week confirms his championship potential and sets the bar for the races to come.
GT Omega Racing
Rasmus Tali, P2
Dian Kostadinov, Retired lap 51, accident damage
It was a weekend of mixed fortunes for the Omega cars, with Tali saving the day with an excellent drive to second position, taking the fastest lap along the way. After his qualifying performance, there were high hopes for a race winning challenge from the Estonian. It was, however, not to be as a sub-par getaway and some unfortunate traffic in the form of his team-mate left him struggling to keep up with Huis, before an uncharacteristic loss of control had him make an unscheduled pitstop and fall almost a minute behind the leader. Tali's success will only make Kostadinov even more disappointed with his DNF. The pace was clearly in abundance for the Bulgarian, but a sequence of errors left him with a mountain to climb and eventually saw him climb out of the car unharmed after a big accident at La Piscine.
Mak-Corp Racing
Patrick De Wit, P3
A single-showing from Mak-Corp Racing will no doubt have disappointed the management, as De Wit proved that a big points haul was definitely on the cards this weekend. It was a race of frequent mistakes all the way down the grid, and De Wit was no exception; losing his car in a costly mistake at the pit exit. The Dutchman will praising his luck that it didn't cost him more positions. Nevertheless, it was a very strong showing and places him firmly into the battle for the third championship position. Mak-Corp should be impressed with the result achieved by De Wit; it could easily have been nothing.
NetRex Grand Prix
Gergo Baldi, P5
Peter Varga, P6
The Italian outfit will be more than content with their result this weekend, and no doubt team owner Ernesto De Angelis will be glad to see the team enter the battle for third place in the constructors championship. Both cars made excellent gains, minimising mistakes and achieving brilliant results after a lacklustre qualifying performance. Gergo Baldi came out on top after a relatively clean race, elevating himself to 4th in the championship and in prime position to challenge those above him. Behind him, Varga was able to achieve his first points of the season in a brilliantly fought race that saw him rise a mammoth eleven places from his grid slot.
RS EVO
Marcel vd Linden, P7
Raino Room, P15
Once more, it was a race of mixed fortunes and the team will no doubt be grateful to achieve any points at all in such a chaotic race. Marcel vd Linden made a valiant charge through the field from 13th on the grid, and will be disappointed with his messy end to what could have been an inspired run through the pack. The real disappointment, though, will be found with Raino Room who ended both his qualifying and race with nasty shunts into the Monaco Armco. Room had no issues with pace and will be ruing the missed opportunity that this weekend posed for him.
ATR Management
Morgan Morand, P8
Yannick Lapchin, Retired lap 37, accident damage
If there was one weekend that ATR needed to get right, it was Monaco. With Huis and Precision rapidly gaining momentum in the championship, this was the wrong race day for things to go wrong, and that is exactly what happened. Fans were left scratching their head when Morand was only able to put his car in third place on the grid after dominating Q1 and the first signs that something was amiss came to light. There is no doubt that Morand was the man to beat around the streets, and the ATR driver will know that it was his race to lose before he met with the Armco. It's not clear exactly what caused Morand's problems, but there it can be guaranteed that ATR will be striving to fix it before round 5. Frenchman Yannick Lapchin will be bitterly disappointed as well; stalling his car on the grid and falling prey to the minute long pitstop of Morgan Morand and finishing with zero points.
