THE GTP F1 SEASON 3 RECAP IS HERE!
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Bahrain
The first quali of the season began with Blake Haswell's first of no less than TWELVE pole positions in his Ferrari. Rookie Yuuji Kawasie of BMW pulled off a surprising 2nd in his first GTP F1 run ever, and Marc Pianelli was third in the Honda.
As the lights went off, Blake lit up the tires like a fireworks show and Kawasie and Pianelli got past. The aforementioned two promptly drove into each other, costing Pianelli some time and damaging a crucial (yet mysteriously unrepairable) piece of Kawasie's vehicle. This would start a vicious feud that ended a couple races later when Pianelli mysterious dissapeared from the face of the earth.
Ashley Butler was first out of the gates, and by gates I mean race, as he made a driver error on the seventh lap and beached himself.
The race took another turn for the garage when polesitter Haswell finally parked it next to Butler in the sand, ending a pretty dismal race. Meanwhile, Steve Travis of Williams also wrecked, somehow.
Lap 26 was interesting in that Super Aguri's Brett Edwards managed to explodify a tire, breaking some of the bodywork. Everyone likes explosions. He continued on, albeit slower.
Meanwhile in the front it was a battle all the way between Ferrari's Simon Trendell, Nathan Soyfu of Midland, and Lee Davidson of Honda. Due to excellent pit strategy and an overall faster package, Trendell took the first race of the year by 9.152 seconds over Soyfu and Davidson. 4th through 8th were Pianelli (Honda), Horton (Midland), Richards (Red Bull), Beyens (Renault), and Owens (McLaren)
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Sepang
Let there be rain, said the heavens, and so it was. All throughout the weekend it rained, with Haswell taking a pole in the wet, followed by Horton and Chang.
On the grid Davidson stalled from 6th and the entire field left him for dead. The pit crews began rolling out tires once the light went off, signaling the start of a very pit-stoppy race. No less than 7 cars came in on the second lap, on all sorts of different tires.
On lap 13 Haswell was running away with it while his teammate Trendell fought with Soyfu and Adams in a heated 2nd-place battle. Then Travis's rear wing disassembled itself, leaving him on the sidelines again and bringing out the safety car. Many cars dived to the pits, although most of them forgot a team could only bring in one car at a time. As a result, one each of the Ferrari, Aguri, and Midland drivers - the 3 top teams - were left stranded, shuffling BMW to the front, on a different pit strategy.
Lap 22 saw Horton retire after a good opening run, a medicore second stint, and a spin into the wall.
It continued to rain harder and harder still, turning to treacherous spray on lap 32, causing many drivers to bobble corners, but luckily no retirements occured for many laps.
It turned to monsoon on lap 49, forcing leader Kawasie to the pits late, ruining a BMW 1-2. Meanwhile, on lap 51 Beyens hydroplaned off the road from 10th place and wrecked.
Chang still led though, and barely held off a charging Soyfu and Kawasie for his first win. Following them were the 2 Ferraris, and the 2 Aguris split by Richards' Red Bull.
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Melbourne
Haswell made it 3 straight poles in 3 races in a close qualifying, with 10 drivers within a second. Beyens was 2nd and Davidson 3rd.
As usual Haswell fell asleep during the start and dropped 9 spots, while 4 other drivers forgot to take the wet tires off and promptly dived into the pits. To even up the difference Toyota's Charkaoui did something wrong and wiped the face off his car, among other things.
As the SC pulled in it started to get wet a little bit. Would this be an omen for the rest of the race?
On lap 8, Soyfu, having a poor road, drove off the road at turn three. On the next lap the gas pedal simply stopped functioning, ending his race.
It got slightly damp on lap 11 and Kawasie was the first to pit. It sprinkled on lap 13, causing leader Davidson to switch to Inters, with many of the top runners following.
By lap 21 only the Renaults were left on dry tires as it was raining pretty hard. In other lap 21 news Trendell drilled it into the wall and retired.
Then on lap 23 it rained even harder and the Renaults changed to inters. Again when I speak about the Renaults someone retires as Davidson and Richards collide, sending the Honda to the garage.
Lap 28 saw Travis make it 3 R's in a row and the Safety Car came out.
Kawasie had been having a miserable race all around, pitting multiple times. He noticed a problem with the rear wing on lap 42 and turned around to check it. Of course, not paying attention to the road, he drove off it and into the wall, ending his day.
The retirements continued as Adams was next to make a mistake on lap 44.
2 laps later Ramos followed suit and wrecked out of a points position, brings out the safety car again. When it pulled in 8 laps were left for a shoot-out. But Richards ran away from the field as Horton came home second and Edwards 3rd. Chang and Allman came together on the lap, forcing Chang to a frustrating retirement. Allman limped home 4th before being jumped by the BMW crew. 5th thru 8th were Haswell, Hutchinson, Owens, and Pianelli.
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Imola
Blake got pole again, to the sheer and utter sarcastic shock of the pit paddock. Consistent top qualifiers Chang and Beyens rounded out the top 3.
The first lap for once was amazing boring as the top 3 ditched the rest of the field and dashed away. The shuffling for the lead continued for a while until Horton broke free, at which point it was a shuffle for 2nd place. Then on lap 13 Pianelli shuffled into Chang and he was the first retirement of the day. Pianelli limped back to the pits to get repaired.
Edwards botched it on lap 19 at Tamburello chicane and the Safety Car came out, sending many to the pits. When the dust cleared the top 3 were Beyens, Kawasie and Horton. Davidson was in fourth when the safety car went away and took his rear wing with it. Then he was in the garage in 18th, shaking his head.
On lap 41 Richards crashed out of boredom and the Safety Car came out again. Pit stops went around and now Horton, Beyens and Pianelli were the top 3. In one lap Beyens went around Horton and didn't look back.
The Mercedes Safety Car continued to lead the most laps as Pianelli's front wing lodged under the tires on lap 50, locking them up and sending him on an exciting sand adventure. Next lap Horton discovered rather abruptly that his fuel had ceased to exist and he too dropped from a podium position.
On lap 55 the SC finally went away and the positions pretty much stayed the same until the checkered on lap 62. Beyens got his first win, with Kawasie pulling a 2nd podium and Taylor in 3rd. Trendell was 4th, Hutchison 5th, and Owens, Soyfu and Adams rounded out the top 8.
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Nurburgring
At the Green Hell, Horton stopped the press by being the first person not named Blake Haswell to win pole, with Blake down with his teammate in 5th. Chang and Beyens continued to qualify strong in 2nd and 3rd.
The lights went out and the pole position curse struck again, causing Horton to drop to 8th. Chang managed to lead the first lap over Trendell, up from 6th. Ramos retired on the first lap due to a collision with Charkaoui.
Trendell took the lead on lap 7, and then the following lap Edwards used the power of the Aguri to Sato into Allman, retiring the Toyota driver but leaving the Aguri unscathed. The SC came out.
It shortly went away and Trendell began to drive away from the field, until 2 laps later when Horton broke his car against a very stiff barrier from 6th, bringing out the SC again. During the resulting period of boredom, Taylor mistook the clutch for the brake and terminated his car.
Green flag pitstops took Trendell out of the lead and shuffled up the field until Charkoui had a throttle failure on lap 23, forcing the SC out and causing yellow flag pitstops to shuffle up the field again. When it went away on lap 27 Owens led Beyens and Richard to the restart.
Pitstops continued and Trendell was leading the 2 BMWs until his pitstop on lap 40. During the stop mechanics noticed a strange black fluid under the car but ignored it. They were entirely baffled when Trendell's vehicle ground to a halt one lap later.
Lap 47 saw Pianelli retire from bouncing over one too many rumble strips.
After Trendell's retirement it was essentially a BMW run to the flag. However on lap 54 Chang's car laid a black turd on the track and promptly complained it was out of oil, ending his day from a points position yet again.
Kawasie however, went on to lead Davidson and Haswell to the checkered. Richards, Owens, Travis, Soyfu, and Edwards rounded out the points.
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Barcelona
At Barcelona it was all old news as Haswell destroyed the field in quali by half a second over Beyens and Soyfu.
On race day it was stupidly wet and Soyfu stalled it from the start, dropping to next-to-last from 3rd. Lap 2 saw Kawasie send Owens on an trip to meet his friend the wall, ending Owens's day.
2 laps later Taylor thought it was a good idea also and he saw Butler off to the wall and yet another retirement for him.
Things were looking good for Trendell. It was raining, like he predicted. All he needed was a safety car to catch up to the field. And a SC he got, as his suspension ate itself and sent him flying all over the place. Horton pitted from second, leaving Haswell in the middle of a Renault sandwich with Beyens leading.
It began drying up and a revolving door of pitstops stretched from lap 40 to 47, eventually leaving Haswell leading Horton and the 2 BMWs.
Davidson went new places on lap 50, such as the wall, the sand trap, and the grass before eventually ending up in the garage.
Soyfu revitalized the hitman concept on lap 56 and nailed Taylor a good one, sending him out of a points position and into a retirement.
3 laps later Allman's wing fell off for no apparent reason, sending his car into convlusions (and the wall). He too retired.
After that the field settled down and Haswell ran away by 30 seconds to become the 6th winner in 6 races. 2nd-placed Kawasie escaped a charging Horton, who overtook Chang in the last lap. Also in the points were Beyens, Soyfu, Huchinson, and Adams.
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Monaco
At the glitzy and glamourous circuit Beyens made a name for himself by stealing pole by 0.040 over surprising contender Butler and Hutchinson.
As usual the leaders messed up the start and Hutchison dashed out to the lead, with Chang jumping 2 spots to second. A whopping 6 seconds back was the rest of the field.
Charkaoui stole the spotlight by wrecking early at the Nouvelle chicane on the 2nd lap. Richards also retired early on lap 5 with his suspension failing in a most entertaining manner.
Butler took the lead for a bit before pit stops again moved cars around the order. Settled down and halfway through Butler continued to lead Beyens in a close battle, with Chang in a distant 3rd.
Lap 40 saw Butler make a critical error, damaging his car. He was able to continue, although his pace was never the same again.
Pit stops came again 2/3 through the race, with Adams missing the pit exit and wrecking in the middle of it all.
On lap 63 Beyens finally overtook Butler for the lead, and pulled away to a slim 1.5 second lead.
Kawasie had a divorce with his rear wing on lap 76, ending his day just 2 laps from the end, denying him a possible 2 points.
And yet Butler was closing in on Beyens in the end...but he just couldn't make it and Beyens took a very exciting win. Hutchinson was 3rd, Chang 4th, Haswell 5th, Horton 6th, Davidson 7th and Trendell 8th.
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Silverstone
The British crowd had a lot to cheer about as they had 6 drivers in F1 this season and 2 of them were in the front row - Butler and Beyens, with Haswell in third.
As the race started Beyens bursted into the front in front of Trendell and Butler to the tune of 2.3 seconds. Meanwhile heartbreak was in the air already for Davidson, as he had a run-in with Taylor and could not turn one lap in front of his fans. Taylor's vehicle was damaged, but continued on.
Beyens, Trendell, and Butler. 3 home race heroes had burst out of the pack and were leading the race in storming fashion. But only on lap 4 Butler made a move on Trendell and got slapped in the face hard. And of course by face we mean the left front tire, ripping it off completely. Trendell also suffered terminal damage as the race ended in tears for the two of them.
Teams began to wonder just what leader Beyens was laying down on the track after Horton slid off the track and into the wall on lap 6. 4 cars out in 6 laps, and no safety car.
Travis of Williams continued to have a junk season when his exhaust ate itself and burped out some considerable fumes, grounding him to a halt on lap 50.
Pit stops shuffled the order around but the leader at any given time was probably Beyens with a commanding Renault domination of the race with Beyens 1st and Hutchinson 2nd, although 18 seconds back. The podium was all British with Taylor rounding out the top 3. Kawasie finished 4th, Owens 5th, Richards 6th, Haswell 7th, and Allman 8th.
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Montreal
The qualifying at Montreal was all Ferrari, with Haswell and Trendell on the front row. It was another 0.6 seconds back to Kawasie on the all BMW 2nd row.
It wouldn't be a Blake pole without him falling back at the start and so he dropped to 5th after the first lap. Trendell assumed the lead ahead of Beyens and Horton, both up more than 3 positions already.
Once again Travis assumed the familiar position in the garage as his front wing failed him on lap 16. Meanwhile, the top 5 were within 8 seconds, with Trendell leading Kawasie. 6th was 28 back.
Haswell, who was sitting along in 5th really not close to anybody at all, nailed the wall on lap 39 and retired in a dissapointing manner.
Other than that it was a pretty clean and spaced-out race. Despite Haswell's retirement it was still all Ferrari as Trendell came to the checkers more than 27 seconds clear of 2nd placed Kawasie. Soyfu in third was 63 back of Haswell and everyone else was already lapped. 4th-8th were Davidson, Horton, Butler, Beyens, and Edwards.
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Indianapolis
It was a surprising and close quali as Haswell took pole over Ramos of Williams by 0.056 seconds. Equally close was Hutchinson in 3rd. Meanwhile championship contenders Beyens and Kawasie were in the back, unable to complete a lap.
As the lights went green Hutchinson and Davidson dashed in front of Haswell and the three of them ran off.
In the other points positions 5th-place Chang nailed a falling Ramos and ruined his own race, while Ramos was forced to the pits next lap. Trying to avoid this incident Trendell in 6th accidentally parked his car and Butler rear-ended him, damaging his hopes of winning. Trendell was able to restart, although in dead last.
Meanwhile Beyens kicked in the afterburners from the back and shoved Charkaoui out of the way on the way to gaining 4 places.
On lap 4 things continued to drive into Ferraris as Soyfu and Haswell had a run-in over the final podium spot. There was negligable damage to both cars.
Lap 10 saw Trendell d
rive into Pianelli for a change, dropping his track postion but leaving the Ferrari unharmed.
Butler had a dissapointing end to a good start as on lap 18 Soyfu crashed into him, disabling Butler and slowing Soyfu.
At midrace Beyens and Kawasie had made their way up to midpack, at which point Beyens lost the rear end on lap 32, slid into the wall and ceased to have a rear end on his car, ending his race.
The pit stops following shuffled the order like a deck of cars but eventually it cleared as Hutchinson held a 5-second lead over Davidson and Trendell until his engine coughed on lap 60, dropping Hutchinson to 3rd.
After that Trendell attempted to close in but ultimately Davidson would drive away to a 2.8 second win. Trendell barely beat Hutchinson in a side-by-side finish for 2nd. The rest of points placers were Edwards, Haswell, Horton, Travis, and Taylor.
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Magny Cours
The qualifying was close but in the end all Ferrari as Trendell beat his teammate by 0.075 seconds for pole. Chris Taylor was third.
The lights went off and the Ferraris stayed together as they dropped behind the BMW team to 4th and 5th, with Taylor leading the first lap.
His fun was short lived as the BMW team sweeped past him to a 2.6 second lead on lap 2.
On lap 5 Travis's Williams dropped all but first gear and he was forced to be the first DNF yet again.
The rest of the race was much of the same as BMW was 1-2 for the first 60 laps over Taylor and the 2 Ferraris.
Taylor got around Kawasie on lap 61 and was chasing Chang, but couldn't quite catch him. Chang took the win by 4.6 seconds. Haswell was 4th, Soyfu 5th, Trendell 6th, Butler 7th, and Horton 8th.
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Hockenheim
In Germany Haswell was on pole again by 0.26 seconds over Beyens and Chang, coming off a strong win.
At the start the back got shuffled around quite a bit but it was boring at the front as Haswell and Beyens made a clean break, while Davidson jumped 3 to third.
Lap 2 saw the first retirement as Owens's exhaust digested itself rather messily. Not one lap later Pianelli overshot a corner and highsided himself, ending the race.
Pit stops went round and round. On lap 32 the SC came out as Davidson played flip-a-Ferrari and gave Haswell a good shunt, retiring him. As it went away Beyens led Chang and Davidson to the flag.
Very soon Chang got around Beyens, but not for long. Beyens wouldn't stand for it and made a daring move on Chang which didn't pan out. Beyens spun and lost time while Chang was forced to pit, losing more time.
Lap 44 continued to be eventful as Ramos dived to the inside of Allman before remembering that there was no inside, only a wall there. He retired from 6th position.
Meanwhile, Beyens made a spectacular 26-second pitstop and dropped to last, visibly frustrated.
Home race driver Chang was having a tough time recovering from a shunt with Beyens when he made a mistake on lap 45 and retired, rather annoyed.
It was a close race as leader Kawasie was overtaken with 17 to go by Trendell. But then Taylor made a thrilling pass on the outside and drove away on lap 60 of 67 to take the win by 3.346 seconds over Trendell. Edwards would get the podium. 4th was Kawasie, 5th Davidson, 6th Richards, 7th Beyens, and 8th Soyfu.
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Hungaroring
At Hungary it was more of the same as Haswell barely beat Butler to a pole by 0.062, with Horton 3rd.
Almost nothing happened on the first lap as Haswell led from pole while Horton jumped up to 2nd.
Davidson was having a wild race as first he had a collision with Edwards, forcing the Aguri to pit, and then he crashed Hutchinson out of 8th place for the Renault driver's first retirement of the year.
Haswell and Ramos found they were linked by a common thread on lap 16, and that was their brakes, with both having problems. However, only 2nd-place Haswell was forced out of the race, and left shaking his head.
Davidson missed a shift on lap 28 and grinded his gearbox into subatomic particles, forcing him out of the race. Meanwhile, pitstops shufled Butler to the front over Taylor and Beyens.
Unfortunately 2 laps later Butler selected reverse instead of 6th gear and was left in the garage wondering why his mechanics installed a H-Gate instead of paddle shifters.
Taylor assumed a large lead until lap 33 where Charkaoui made a mistake and brought out the Safety Car. The leader pitted and so Trendell was in front when the green came back out, over Richards and Kawasie.
Adams retired from 13th on lap 46 because the Aguri sucks. No, just kidding, he made a driver error.
When Trendell pitted Richards took the lead and didn't look back, taking a 7.5 second lead over the Aguri of Edwards and Beyens. 4th-8th consisted of Trendell, Soyfu, Chang, Taylor, and Kawasie.
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Istanbul (not Constantinople)
(from here on it's archived)
Once again Blake took a dominating pole by 4 tenths of a second over an all-Renault row 2 led by Beyens.
The retirements came fast and furious from the start as Trendell was first to go in a lap 1 accident. Lap 2 saw Chang's gas pedal, and subsequently his car, stop working. Finishing the chain Richards of Red Bull found his steering to not be working on lap 3, which led to comical, if not worrysome, results.
It cooled down for a bit until lap 30 where Ramos wrecked due to a driver mistake.
7 laps later Soyfu's rear-side brakes convienently failed around a corner and he went on an trip to meet the wall.
Lap 41 saw Davidson and Allman both crash, although somehow in seperate incidents.
From there on out it was pretty smooth sailing for Butler as he pulled out a win by 2.4 seconds over Haswell and Butler. Rounding out the points were Taylor, Travis, Horton, Edwards, and Hutchinson.
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Monza
To no one's surprise Haswell was on pole again. To everyone's surprise Taylor of Red Bull was second, with Davidson 3rd.
When the lights went green Butler was ran into and promptly retired, ending any chance of continuing his momentum from Istanbul.
Not to be outdone, Chang retired on lap 14 due to an on-track mistake, keeping pace with Butler in a heating up DNF race.
2 laps later Richards fell to the same fate as Chang and was visibly frustrated.
And on lap 35 Davidson continued his run of bad luck by being the loser in the duel of structual integrity between his car and another. That is to say, he ran into something.
Meanwhile at the front, Haswell faced little opposition and ran to victory by 6.5 seconds over Taylor, mounting a Red Bull charge. Kawasie was just barely 3rd ahead of Beyens in a heated points battle. Meanwhile, the rest of the points were Edwards, Hutchinson, Travis, and Soyfu.
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Shanghai
It was an interesting qualifying as Haswell had scarfed down one too many chow meins the night before quali and was stuck in 13th for once. Meanwhile, Horton took an extremely close pole race by 0.074 seconds over Chang, who was only 0.026 seconds over Davidson. Even back to 5th-place Beyens the gap was only 0.137 from pole.
Meanwhile when the lights went out the skies opened up and poured rain like never before, tossing many teams' strategies out the window.
But still the race was rather clean up to lap 27 when Taylor and Beyens had an incident and both retired. They wasted no time and headed straight to the local bar to settle this.
In other retirement news with only 4 laps to go Horton had a disspointing DNF when something burned through something else in his exhaust, resulting in a cloud that would make any smoke grenade proud.
But as the checkered flag waved it was to be none of the top 5 qualifiers that took the win. Rather it was another Red Bull of Richards in a close finish. Chang and Haswell were both a second back and raced to the flag in an exciting conclusion. The rest of the points were Soyfu, Kawasie, Hutchinson, Edwards, and Travis.
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Suzuka
Going into the penultimate race 2nd-place Haswell was 4 points behind Kawasie, and needed a strong finish here. However, this was Kawasie's home race, a factor that he hoped would tip the scales in his favor...
And in quali it did, with Horton taking pole but the BMW team on the second row, only 0.079 and 0.087 away.
Once again the lights went green and things got messy as Soyfu made a daring pass around 130R that simply did not work and he subsequently retired.
Lap 6 saw Butler tie Davidson and Chang for most retirements with a solo wreck. One lap later Pianelli made the same mistake and crashed also.
On lap 16 Travis found that the mechanics forgot to put in enough fuel and was stuck out on the race track with another DNF.
The final retirement was on lap 44 where Richard's tire failed explosively and he went on a dizzy teacup ride to the barriers. Luckily, he was OK.
In the front though, the other Red Bull of Taylor was having no problems and took a 2nd victoy by 2.6 seconds over Kawasie, who achieved the strong finish he needed. Horton took the last podium spot. Beyens was 4th, Edwards 5th, Haswell 6th, Chang 7th, and Hutchinson 8th.
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Interlagos
Going into the final race of the season it seemed like Kawasie's championship was a virtual lock, with the only contender being Haswell who was 9 points back.
However in an extremely messy and wet quali Haswell proved otherwise by taking the last pole of the season by nearly half a second over a Midland Row 2 of Soyfu and Horton. Haswell had no less than 12 poles over the entire season. Meanwhile, Kawasie was back in 17th, a whopping 14.4 seconds off of pole.
The reigning champ (Haswell) vs. the newbie (Kawasie). Who would win?
The lights turned green one final time for season 3 and for once the first lap was clean.
However on lap 3 Davidson took the Golden Seatbelt award by trying to pass someone somewhere where that just doesn't work and wrecking.
Meanwhile Haswell was stumbling up in the front, he had developed a mechanical problem which forced him to pit an extra time. Remember, he had to win and have Kawasie out of the points to win the championship.
Trendell, his teammate and a contender for the championship at one points, dissapointingly retired on lap 33 after an off-roading journey.
The final retirement of the year was Charkaoui who ran out of fuel (or at least the car said he did) on lap 41.
Up in the points positions Kawasie was working his way up, not content with letting Haswell control the championship fate.
And so the 71 laps were up and who came to the line first...?
It was neither Haswell nor Kawasie. Rather, Beyens finished the season with a season-leading 3 wins with a strong victory over Owens by 3.2 seconds. The rest of the field was standing still as Edwards was 17.8 back in third.
Hutchinson was in 4th, Haswell was in 5th, Chang 6th, Kawasie 7th, and Allman 8th (although 1 lap back).
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And that was a wrap for season 3. Kawasie triumphantly claimed the title with 77 points over Beyens with 72, and Haswell with 70. Yes, Beyens leapfrogged Haswell in the last race.
Taylor was 4th with 56 points, Trendell 5th with 55. Edwards was 6th with 48, and Richards beat Chang in a tiebreaker for 7th, both having 46 points.
Soyfu had 44 points, good for 9th and Hutchinson rounded out the top 10 and a rather close fight for position with 42 points.
The rest of the standings went: Horton (38), Davidson (35), Butler (23), Owens (22), Travis (12), Allman (7), Pianelli (6), Adams (3). Ramos and Charkaoui scored a goose egg.
In constructors' land Ferrari again was king in a close fight with 125 points. BMW just fell short with 123 and Renault was 3rd with 114.
Red Bull made a charge at the end but settled for 4th with 102. Midland rounded out the top half with 82.
Super Aguri took a surprisingly 6th with 51 points over the 4th of McLaren and the 41 of Honda. Williams had 12 points and Toyota had an embarassing 7 points.
Still, Kawasie's win was by no means a dominant one (he has reported seeing winning totals of 106 points before), only aided by rivals' retirements and lucky breaks. So how will next season turn out, with many new contenders? Wait and see...
On my own turf!
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