CCYoshi's 'Don't Expect Many More, It's Finals Week' Race Report: Hockenheim
Looking Up:
Honda: Butler / Dubois 1-2, a very impressive race overall! Plus, both are right up there in the championship fight - Honda lies 2nd in the constructors...
Chang: Ahead of the 2 mentioned drivers, he keeps pace by scoring his 5th podium of the year. Maybe this time it IS the breakthrough season?
Juice: Finishing 5th in this race gives him 3 out of 4 point finishes in the last 4 races, a hard feat for struggling Midland.
Kawasie: Quadruples Midland's lap led total this year, leading his entire first stint of the race.
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On the Edge:
The Fairer Sex?: Increasing women domination in GTP F1 (or not) may be nothing to worry about as neither Rees nor Taylor finished in the last race. However, Rees has nailed 2 podiums so far this year, so don't count them out...
Horton: With Smith falling back with only 3 points in 3 races, 2nd-placed Horton can't afford to miss many more chances like he did at Hockenheim.
Haswell: Had a brief not-sucking period midseason but is going to have to return to scoring points in order to get back in the fight, finishing a dismal 16th in the last race. He lies 7th.
Kawasie: After leading 19 laps, fell back and failed to score, finishing 11th.
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Falling Down:
Ferrari: An extremely embarrassing season for the usually dominant constructor - it's drivers lie 17th and 22th, and it's dead last in the constructors! It should come to no surprise then that they scored a goose egg in Hockenheim.
Mason: After scoring nearly all year, racks up 2 bottom-10 finishes. He's down but don't count him out however, he's 'only' 25 out...
Kawasie: Another epic adventure from P2 to the lead to a failure to score, continuing his entirely miserable season in the back. Drops to 21st overall after Nikolakopoulos scored a point.
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Casualty Report:
Hutchinson (Lap 1): When backmarkers collide! Ran into Charkaoui and ended his day early to save Ferrari some agony.
Machiels (Lap 1): Or perhaps Charkaoui is the one at fault? On the same lap Charkaoui continued to drop down the order, yet wouldn't let Machiels pass, driving him into the barriers.
Rees (Lap 38): Driving an excellent race when the gearbox fell apart underneath her. Hockenheim without top gear isn't an option, apparently.
Taylor (Lap 60): Not running quite as well, but the car still went to pieces as she discovered at an inopportune time that the car would not steer. Safety Car had to clean up the mess.
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Defining Moment: Kawasie's Attention Whoring Ends, Lap 20
As soon as the Midland dived into the pits we would not see him again up in the front for the rest of the race. And so the keys to the race were turned over to Honda, with Dubois and Butler taking charge of most of the rest of the race. (with Chang nearby, of course)
Exercises in Futility Award: Kawasie and Hutchinson
Different effort, same result. Hutchinson retired from the start and Kawasie struggled hard to get in the points. Neither ended up scoring, rather unsurprisingly at this point in the season. Kawasie maintains a commanding 33% point lead over Hutchinson in the fight for 21st, however the tide may change at any moment...
Only 25 points until you are guaranteed the title 
