Qatar GP: Race Ticker
motorsport-live.com March 20th, 2016
Welcome to the race live ticker for the Qatar GP. It will be a interesting race for sure. Who has the race pace, who will get reliability problems, will there be safety cars. Can
Steinmann win the race after locking out the front row, and can some team surprise and collect big points early to ensure survival in the WMC and the first WMC win in history is up for grabs.
Lap 1:
The cars form up for the start with
Holtz and
Chapman in the front row and
Ana Oliveira in the
Windsor and
Niilo Saarinen in the
Ferrari... uhh...
Rossini behind.
Everyone is ready and the red lights are lighting up... one.. two... three... four... five...
AND IT'S LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY WE GO!
HOLTZ WITH A MONSTER START, SHE IS AWAY CLEAN,
OLIVEIRA BESIDES
CHAPMAN IN THE FIRST CORNER... AND THEY COLLIDE!
CHAPMAN IS WIDE AND ON THE ASTROTURF!
Surikov in the
Panther jumped the inside and is second, MAKING A MILLION PLACES WITH A BRILLIANT START,
Saarinen down to fifth!
Chapman is at the back of the field behind everyone! And where is
Wexler coming from? From seventh on the grid to third, great stuff here!
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +2.3 3.
Wexler +4.8
Woodford P15 +13.3
Vidal P20 +15.1
Lap 2:
Holtz is pulling out quite a gap here and her teammate
Harry Chapman is FLYING through the field into P13
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +4.8 3.
Wexler +6.2
Woodford P17 +24.4
Vidal P18 +25.6
Lap 3:
Oh no there is some debris on the field!
Flores and
Lipponen in 11 and 12 were fighting over the same piece of tarmac and
Flores crashed into the back of the
Windsor. Both go in the pits to repair their damaged wings, and they come back out in P19 and P20.
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +5.0 3.
Wexler +6.3
Woodford P16 +28.9
Vidal P17 +29.6
Lap 4:
And it is a drive through penalty for causing an avoidable accident for
Lucía Flores. Her day just went from bad to worse and she will be fuming in that car.
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +4.6 3.
Wexler +6.2
Woodford P14 +33.5
Vidal P17 +36.7
Lap 5:
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +4.9 3.
Wexler +6.4
Woodford P14 +35.9
Vidal P17 +39.7
Lap 6:
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +5.6 3.
Wexler +6.4
Woodford P14 +40.8
Vidal P19 +46.3
Lap 7:
There is the first pit stop for
Lotus.
Woodford comes in after seven for new soft tyres, falling back into P20. He had a couple of lock ups.
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +5.6 3.
Wexler +6.4
Vidal P19 +51.3
Woodford P20 +58.5
Lap 8:
And
Oliveira dives into the corner from a long way back... the LATEST OF LATE BREAKERS AND SHE THROUGH INTO P3!
Wexler made a mistake and went on the astroturf a corner before and payed for that!
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +6.4 3.
Oliveira +10.5
Vidal P18 +55.0
Woodford P20 +58.6
Lap 9:
And here come the first pitstops from the front
Schmidt,
Saarinen,
DeGraaf.
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +7.2 3.
Oliveira +11.5
Vidal P18 +58.6
Woodford P20 +59.9
Lap 10:
And comes the rest,
Holtz,
Wexler and co.... and
Holtz keeps the lead and exits on the soft compount,
Wexler overtakes
Oliveira in the pit, nifty pitwork by
Rossini, and here pits the
Lotus of
Vidal from P18... he exits on the hardest tyre and wants to finish this race on it.
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +6.8 3.
Sharp +10.6
Woodford P18 +47.5
Vidal P20 +60.3
Lap 11:
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +7.8 3.
Sharp +12.2
Woodford P18 +48.8
Vidal P20 +61.7
Lap 12:
Sharp, who tried to get every last bit out of her tyre, is in and loses P3.
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +9.2 3.
Sharp +14.4
Woodford P18 +50.8
Vidal P20 +63.9
Lap 13:
Holtz extends the lead and she has to as everyone else is on the hard compound chasing her.
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +14.1 3.
Wexler +17.6
Woodford P18 +59.2
Vidal P20 +75.4
Lap 14:
Chapman's progress has stopped as he stays P14 despite being on the soft tyre,
Holtz delievers magic lap in the lead, takes a big chunck out of the rest.
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +17.3 3.
Wexler +19.9
Woodford P18 +63.8
Vidal P20 +80.4
Lap 15:
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +19.8 3.
Wexler +21.2
Woodford P18 +68
Vidal P20 +83.7
Lap 16:
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +20.3 3.
Wexler +23.1
Woodford P17 +71.2
Vidal P20 +87.8
Lap 17:
Lipponen pits from P11 with some kind of problem and old tyres and
Woodford fives in for medium tyres... and to duke out the race for 19th and 20th with his teammate.
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +20.6 3.
Wexler +25.2
Woodford P19 +87.4
Vidal P20 +91.4
Lap 18:
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +20.5 3.
Wexler +25.6
Woodford P19 +89.8
Vidal P20 +94.4
Lap 19:
Critical laps for
Nina Holtz and she does not get the laptime in. The gap could be close enough for
Surikov to overtake her when she pits the last time.
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +20.1 3.
Wexler +25.6
Woodford P19 +91.6
Vidal P20 +96.2
Lap 20:
When will she pit? Those soft tyres look old and she is losing time...
1.
Holtz 2.
Surikov +19.2 3.
Wexler +25.4
Woodford P19 +93.9
Vidal P20 +97.8
Lap 21:
THERE SHE COMES AT THE END OF 21... and something is wrong. They had to repair something at the back of the car!
Holtz falls back... back... way back she exits in P6 and the dream of winning is gone!
1.
Surikov 2.
Wexler +6.7 3.
Oliveira +8.5
Woodford P19 +77.2
Vidal P20 +81.0
Lap 22:
1.
Surikov 2.
Wexler +6.5 3.
Oliveira +8.2
Woodford P19 +79.1
Vidal P20 +83.2
Lap 23:
The
Steinmann of
Holtz goes past
Saarinen with the faster tyre, can she come back and catch the drivers on the hard compound?
1.
Surikov 2.
Wexler +6.1 3.
Oliveira +8.0
Woodford P18 +79.3
Vidal P19 +85.4
Lap 24:
1.
Surikov 2.
Wexler +6.1 3.
Oliveira +7.6
Woodford P18 +79.4
Vidal P19 +88.3
Lap 25:
1.
Surikov 2.
Wexler +5.9 3.
Oliveira +7.5
Woodford P18 +81.9
Vidal P19 +91.4
Lap 26:
Oliveira blinks and throws the towel, pits from third for new tyres and is down to P6!
1.
Surikov 2.
Wexler +6.6 3.
Sharp +14.6
Woodford P18 +84.4
Vidal P19 +94.1
Lap 27:
1.
Surikov 2.
Wexler +6.8 3.
Sharp +13.3
Woodford P18 +87.1
Vidal P19 +96.9
Final Lap:
And the fresh, soft tyres do the trick! The
Steinmann has way more grip than the
Panther of
Zoe Sharp and goes around the outside in turn 6 for P3 for
Holtz. But that is it for
Holtz as
Nikolai Surikov becomes the first ever winner in the WMC for
Panther Racing,
Wexler P2,
Holtz P3.
The two
Lotus finish 18th and 19th in front of
Luca Flores in the
Rezzato Corsa.