F2 Spa

[el_cat]

Musical chairs for Spa.

Deletraz and de Vries swap seats.

Merhi takes second Rapax seat

[cds_uk]

Nice to see Merhi back, would love to see him pick up a point or two.

[Juntos]

Originally Posted by el_cat

Deletraz and de Vries swap seats.

Why was that? Get ready to find out what you’re made of Mr Deletraz.

[tux]

Another session where Leclercs car has smoke coming from the cockpit... I think it was just the extinguisher but this seems to be happening every session with him at the moment.

[Razzzor]

Originally Posted by Juntos

Why was that? Get ready to find out what you’re made of Mr Deletraz.

Yeah I'm curious too. Was it over money? De Vries has been on it all year, although has had a bit of bad luck especially with what 3 stalls on the grid now? But podiums in the last 2 races, 1st in Monaco, 2nd in Baku. Racing Engineering have been struggling big time with both drivers. Although Nato and King shared 4 wins for them last season, they don't seem to have that speed this year. Malja was good a few times last year, came really close to winning one race (was it Spa) - usually quicker in race pace than qualy. Then he moves to Racing Engineering and has struggled, apart from a podium at Monaco. So why on earth would De Vries want a reset and move to a new team mid-season that has been performing much worse than his current team? Especially Deletraz's side of the garage. Deletraz has looked like an above average driver in previous series, so one could wonder if it's the engineer and not Deletraz at all...

But it probably is Deletraz, so why on earth would Rapax want him? They might as well just park the car up, he's unlikely to get points. He's been the worst performer this year by far, and that's saying a lot with the way Fuoco's been getting cleaned up by Leclerc.

Anyway, I see in first qualifying: De Vries 6th (best start of the year for that car by far, Deletraz' best was 11th), meanwhile Deletraz 13th (worst start for that car, De Vries worst was 10th). Spa qualy was a bit unusual though with the rain so maybe it would have changed.

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by Razzzor

But it probably is Deletraz, so why on earth would Rapax want him? They might as well just park the car up, he's unlikely to get points.

F2 is about one thing. Money.

[tux]

So Leclerc put in a performance for the ages, winning the feature race by 26 seconds, markelov was 2nd after a great drive on the alternate strategy and rowland claimed 3rd after struggling with front wing damage from lap 1 contact with Leclerc.

What did everyone think about Markelov passing Rowland off the track out of the final corner on the last lap? Right? Wrong?

What about Rowlands defence from Markelov on the run down to Pouhon on the last lap? Too extreme or totally fair?

[cds_uk]

Surely that puts to bed any doubt over Leclerc and a unfair car advantage, he is clearly head and shoulders above anyone else in the field.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by cds_uk

Surely that puts to bed any doubt over Leclerc and a unfair car advantage, he is clearly head and shoulders above anyone else in the field.

I'm sorry it's just not possible for one driver to be that much quicker than his own teammate let alone the rest of the field in a one make series!!

Even Hamilton didn't destroy Premat to the same degree in 2006 when ART had a similar performance advantage.

Leclerc is a very talented driver (i have nothing at all against him) but there is so much more to this than we are led to believe.

As for this actual race Rowland was a bit naive exiting T1. He made a blinding start but got caught out by Leclerc and lost the endplate. Did well to do what he did for 3rd with the subsequent 'understeery' car.

Ghiotto v Markelov was good value.

Otherwise some pretty average performances out there.

[chunterer]

Race one was a Prema/leclerc fest!

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by cds_uk

Surely that puts to bed any doubt over Leclerc and a unfair car advantage, he is clearly head and shoulders above anyone else in the field.

Leclerc DQ again. Rideheight.

Rowland as well.

[Razzzor]

Yeah when Leclerc popped in that 1m58 that was 3.5secs faster than Rowland on 3 lap older tyres, that's ridiculous pace.

Hamilton vs Premat is a bit different as Premat is a far better driver than Fuoco. Fuoco had a decent drive though, nearly getting Ghiotto but didn't have the same confidence as Markelov at passing.

Hey maybe Hamilton isn't as fast as Leclerc?

But still even Fuoco's best lap was what 1.5-2s off Leclerc? That can't be all the driver. What's with the smoke always coming from that car as well? Plus caught cheating and disqualified again.

Markelov's move on Rowland was superb. Pity he had to run off track to do it (which makes it an illegal move) but I never got to see a replay so perhaps Rowland forced him off. Normally in F1/F2 they don't penalise the driver that forced the other driver off, but it looks like they did this time.

Both Leclerc and Rowland DQ'd. Ouch. That brings Markelov back into the picture. Another DQ or breakdown for Leclerc in a feature race and it could still be a very tight championship. Closer if Markelov didn't throw away 25 points at Hungary.

[tux]

How come Leclerc was DQ for ride height but not Fuoco, surely the cars would be the same?

[peebee2]

Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps his engineer didn't risk it so much.

Also likely Fuoco wasn't checked and possibly car was released before DQs decided on. Shouldn't happen that way, but wouldn't be the first time.

Sadly some teams also have the default position to lie and cheat in everything they do, big or however small, and eventually you realise you can't trust a single thing they say. Even down to the tiniest thing.

[tux]

im baffled, is Leclerc genuinely this much better than everyone else or what? Guys driving around the outside of guys through places like the pif paf, pouhon. Driving through the field literally at will. Hell of a performance

Matsushita had a massive accident, hes okay though. Sette Camara WINS!

[Razzzor]

Latifi had caught back up to Rowland in the end, somehow, might have been faster. Last time I looked he was like 5 positions behind him (after the turn 1 incident with Leclerc put him last), then suddenly he was next in line behind Rowland like just a couple of laps later. Must have been one epic battle mid field that the video director missed.

Didn't get to watch the times though, live timing seemed to be down on the website. So I wasn't sure if Leclerc was going to catch Nato at the end.

Surprising to see Camara take the win. I thought for sure De Vries or Nato would have got him, and before the start one of the RT's. Where did their pace go? I predicted Leclerc 3rd at best (probably optimistic), but boy he wasn't far off! What a performance. Rowland I predicted 9th, ended up 8th he put in some very aggressive moves. I don't think he had a chance in hell of catching Fuoco and Mehri though, he was 7 secs behind with 4 laps to go.

Another good gp2 race, F1 will probably be a snorer.

[cds_uk]

Well, Leclerc again on another level, have to see if they can find anything else wrong with his car. Another high point for me was Merhi scoring in both races, top stuff.