UF1 Series Round 4 - Monaco
December 18, 2016 at 3:46 pm,
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Qualifying was headed once again by Monster, who set a 1:15.65, 2 hundreths clear of closest title rival ltras. Hunter placed third with a time of 1:16.12, followed by new-comer Alex Doerfler and Marcus. Sean (8Roku) rounded off the top 6.
Gaz, Prasanth and S2KTS missed out on the event.
Sprint Race Results : 5 LAPS
iodine2 : 12th DNF (accident lap 4)
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The sprint race was a surprise for everyone, with Alex coming out on top of series leaders Monster and ltras to claim his first win on his debut.
The race start saw Monster passed by ltras while Hunter got tagged by Alex following a divebomb by Evo, sending the Hong Konger into a half spin.
Most of the field manouvered past Hunter except Evo and Sean, who both got caught up in the incident.
Spins by Dion and Renault at the chicane caused iodine to run into the latter, suffering damage that would end his race later on. MateCZ nearly turned turtle after a slight misjudgement on the final corner, and Dion suffered damage after running into the wall.
Monster was ran out wide by ltras into the swimming pool chicane, leaving the door open for Alex to take 2nd place.
For most of the race, the field was bunched into 2 groups, the leading 4 of ltras, Alex, Monster and Marcus, and midfield pack of Zonda, Hunter, Renault and Evo. Dion, iodine, Mate and Sean ran at the rear with damage and poor pace.
Battles were few and far between, with the battle for the lead and Evo versus Renaultguy being the only entertainment for the most part.
Sean pitted with 4 laps to go and called it quits after damage made his steering hard to handle.
With 1 lap remaining, the battle for the lead intensified with Alex throwing a dummy on ltras at turn 1, switching back to the inside for turn 2, taking the lead.
Hunter passed Zonda at turn 5 for 5th place.
But it was a great first win for Alex, proving his raw speed in these agile cars.
Feature Race Results : 8 LAPS
ltras : 11th DNF (accident lap 3)
Evo : 12th DNS
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It was back-to-back victories for new-comer Alex here at Monaco, once again proving he has the pace to challenge the front runners.
The feature race got underway, with Alex passing 4 cars into turn 1 after Zonda braked early, catching Marcus and ltras by surprise. A slight wall tap sent Marcus to the back of the field, behind Zonda.
Turn 2 saw reverse grid polesitter Iodine throwing his lead away after running wide into the barriers, gifting the lead to Sean. Down into turn 3 saw Mate spinning both Hunter and Iodine around, the latter whom which was collected by Zonda and Monster, with Marcus tangling up in the pile up.
Mate would receive a 5 second penalty for causing a collision, finishing 3rd ahead of Hunter by 1 second.
Braking down into turn 7, Alex broke late passing Renault for 2nd, and set chase for Sean in the lead. A lag spike saw Hunter punt ltras off, however no blame is to be issued. Because of this, ltras fell into 8th behind Marcus, with Monster right behind. Hunter and Dion made slight contact coming into the last few corners, with Marcus slipping by to take 6th from Hunter.
At the last corner of the first lap, Alex made a daring move up the inside for the lead, catching Sean by surprise. He had made his way from last to first, passing 10 cars in 1 lap. An astonishing feat that would see him hold and extend his lead to the finish.
Meanwhile, the mid field battle between 5th and 8th was heating up, with Dion, Marcus, ltras, Hunter and Monster all swapping paint as they battled.
However, it all came to tears, when Dion closed the door on Marcus just before the swimming pool, creating a bunching that saw ltras take to the runoff to avoid the mayhem, going head over heels and over the guardrail, putting an premature end to his race.
The onboard view from Monster was nothing short of terrifying
It looked like Renaultguy would hold down a podium, but as the laps counted down, Mate passed him, and he was slowly being caught by the pack behind.
Marcus was the first to get a taste of Renault's aggressive defending, with multiple weaving and blocks eventually spinning him around, dropping him behind Monster. Hunter was now attacking Renaultguy for 4th. Several attempts later and Hunter was up into 4th. Now Monster was given a face full of Renaultguy, and shortly dispatched of him, with a elegant and simple pass into turn 1. Two shoves from Renault didn't put Monster in bother, however.
Renault managed to keep Marcus behind, be it aggressively, to score a solitary point on his 2nd ever race.
But it was all Alex for his debut, taking both fastest laps and both wins, taking full points haul. An amazing debut and an amazing race.
We will see you in a week's time on Saturday where we visit Japan's Ebisu Racetrack for Round 5, the penultimate race for Season 1. Action will be guaranteed, with the largest grid since the beginning of the season.
See you then!
Penalties/Reprimands
MateCZ (Causing a collision) +5 Seconds (Final pos P3 +0:21.81), +1 Reprimand 1/3
renaultguy (Erratic driving behaviour) + 1 Reprimand 1/3
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Championship Standings as of Round 4, Monaco
1 Monster 30 ◄
2 ltras 29 (+ 1) ▼
3 Hunter 20 (+10) ▲1
4 Evo 17 (+13) ▼1
5 SeanLau 14 (+16) ▼2
6 Marcus.K 12 (+18) ▼2
-- Alex 12 ▲9
8 MateCZ 9 (+21) ▼2
9 Gaz 7 (+23) ▼4
-- S2KTS 7 ▼4
-- Prasanth 7 ▼4
12 Zonda 2 (+28) ▼5
13 RenaultGuy 1 (+29) ▼3
14 Iodine 0 (+30) ▼6
-- Dion 0 ◄
Genius.