The final race of the first half of the season will take place at the legendary and historic Silverstone Circuit, scene of the very first FF1M race in 1950 where Andy Racing’s Luigi Fagioli took a last gasp win from his teammate Piero Taruffi at the final corner. Two other venues have hosted the British Grand Prix on two separate occasions, but Silverstone is synonymous with some iconic moments in FF1M, such as Roberto Moreno’s shock win in 1990, Timo Glock demolishing Rubens Barrichello on his way to the chequered flag in 2005, and Jenson Button’s titanic scrap with teammate Giorgio Pantano in 2008.
Slippery Spielberg catches out many
If Road America was chaotic in parts, then Spielberg was mayhem virtually throughout with the first lap witnessing the end of Vaino Kimminen’s podium run after first being put into a spin by polesitter and compatriot Valtteri Bottas and then rejoining into the path of the other GRM. Further incidents ranged from bumps into the first corner with Jean-Eric Vergne and Catharina Caracciola beaching their cars in separate collisions with other drivers, heavy crashes at the exit of Würth for Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen, and multiple offs at Jochen Richt. One of those included Lewis Hamilton, who skidded off on oil dropped by Robert Kubica, whose engine had suffered a massive Hart attack.
Even the eventual top three weren’t immune to issues with Romain Grosjean attempting to throw away victory win after a spin at Jochen Rindt on lap 48. This resulted in him dropping behind Daniel Ricciardo after his final stop, although he quickly reasserted his position at the front, taking advantage of the ability to use higher ERS from his manufacturer Climax compared to the 50% limit that Andrew Racing can run from their customer unit. The Australian still had a good run to 2nd, his best result of the season, while Fernando Alonso worked hard for his 3rd place after a spin of his own at Jochen Rindt. Further back, two teams finally broke their duck as Willows and Pedersen scored their first points of the season. Max Verstappen in particular was noteworthy as he’d set the fifth fastest lap in the race, while Sebastian Vettel beat James Clark to the final point. Talking of Vettel…
Paddock News
The two-time champion made big news before the race when it was announced that he would be swapping seats with Cooper Lee from Silverstone onwards to make a formidable partnership with Lewis Hamilton at Mitchell. This certainly raised Tornado team boss Tobias Wolff’s eyebrows. They currently enjoy a 40-point lead in the teams championship, but the new Mitchell line-up is one to be feared with six drivers championship between them. Meanwhile, Lee will be looking to regain his mojo at Pedersen alongside the struggling Carlos Sainz.
Rumours of Ajay Motorsports’ line-up changing are starting to surface as their test driver Mattia Alfonsi has put in a request to use 93 as his race number. This is based on Riccardo Patrese’s final season in FF1M where he almost ended his career with perfection, missing out on the Drivers Championship by a single point to fellow Italian Alessandro Zanardi. If rumours are to be believed, then Alfonsi is likely to replace Robert Kubica and team up with James Clark, a driver whom the Italian press has unfairly lambasted during his time in the FF1M support series. Both Alfonsi and Clark were Gojira test drivers during 2015 and both developed a mutual respect for one another. Some drivers may not be so pleased to see Alfonsi in a race seat, particularly Caracciola as the two have shared a frosty relationship since their go-karting days, but also Kimminen, who lost an FF2M feature win at Monza last season thanks to teammate Alfonsi’s defensive driving.
Homecoming for many in the circus at Silverstone
Nine out of the 11 FF1M teams are based in the UK, so it is fairly likely that there will be a home team win. Last season saw the Yorkshire-based FJR team miss out on a dominant 1-2 finish, but still secured victory courtesy of Nico Hulkenberg. Team boss James Brickles wasn’t at all happy with the outcome of the previous race with some particularly harsh words reserved for Magnussen’s scruffy performance, so he’ll be hoping for some sort of revival. Meanwhile in Somerset, Tornado will be hoping that history won’t repeat itself as Silverstone last season was the start of a lean spell. With Grosjean back to his best and Kimminen still looking dangerous, a seventh British Grand Prix win looks on.
Elsewhere, a particularly special milestone is being celebrated as Kimi Raikkonen will become the first driver to start 300 FF1M races. The Finn began his career at MRD Racing in 2000 and instantly set the world alight with pole position in his debut race. Three more pole positions followed before his first win at the 2000 European Grand Prix, and he has been a constant presence ever since, coming close on a couple of occasions before finally reaching his championship dream in 2013 with Gojira. These days, he is with CBA Racing, but signs are that he won’t be staying there for much longer, but his popularity means that he probably won’t disappear from FF1M just yet.
Support Races
This is a bumper weekend with both FF2M and FF4M Euro Series supporting the FF1M circus.
In Austria’s FF2M round, Mason Taylor produced another superb display, earning the attention of the FF1M paddock. The New Zealand born driver will make his FF1M debut this weekend in practice for CBA Racing.
Meanwhile in FF4M Euro Series a fierce battle is developing between championship leading Frenchman Daniele Champres and Irishman Craig Rume.
Coverage Details
Race Highlights will drop at 16:00 on Sunday 16th October. We welcome back commentator James Brickles from Paternity Leave, and have the bleep machine ready as he’s joined in the box by Shake n Bake frontman Courtney Cass.
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