The race was hard fought
Courtesy of Peugeot
With three rounds remaining before the end of the season, Dino Lunardi (RBA) has followed in the footsteps of Maxime Dubrulle (JSB Compétition), Grégory Guilvert (Lompech Sport) and Julien Schell (Pegassus Racing) by taking the lead in the 207 Spider Cup standings thanks to his win in the first race at Silverstone.
The fierce scrap for pole was won by championship leader Grégory Guilvert and provided a foretaste of what was to come during the first race today. The dash to the first corner saw four drivers side-by-side, namely Guilvert, Julien Briché (JSB Compétition), Dino Lunardi and Maxime Dubrulle and, inevitably, there was a little coming together of bodywork! All four stayed on the track, however, with Dubrulle emerging in front before being passed by Lunardi, then Briché and finally Guilvert who eased into third place on Lap 3. He then seemed to be lining up to challenge Lunardi for top spot when a rear left puncture forced him out of contention and into the pits. After a quick stop, he continued to battle hard and ultimately crossed the line in 13th place to salvage one extra point.
Meanwhile, Lunardi continued to pull clear of Briché and succeeded in leading all the way to the flag to collect his third win of the season, as well as the fastest race lap which gave him sufficient points to move to the top of the leaderboard. He will also start tomorrow’s race from pole-position ahead of Guilvert who will be eager to make up for today’s setback. Briché took second place ahead of Benoît Lison who was unchallenged on his way to third. Having started sixth on the grid, the RBA driver managed to slip in behind the early pace-setters and eventually profited from a mistake by Dubrulle to grab fourth before Guilvert’s puncture handed him a podium finish. Dubrulle ended up fourth but was chased across the line by the particularly on-form Marcel Sciabbarrasi (Sciabbarrasi Compétition) who won his personal fight with Julien Schell and Peugeot UK’s guest driver Chris Harris. The other Briton on the grid, Simon Moulton (Southgate Motorsport), was less fortunate since he was forced to start from the back of the grid following a gearbox problem during qualifying. He put his local knowledge to good use, however, to figure seventh by the end of the first lap and was up to fifth two laps later before his charge was halted by a spin. In the German camp, Oliver Freymuth (AKF Motorsport) finished eighth and will be left to ponder on what might have been had it not been for an early spin. Top Spaniard Alvaro Espinosa (Drivex) was ninth after a long scrap with Marlène Broggi (Lompech Sport), who failed to finish for the first time this year, while newcomer Jorge Baeza (14th, Drivex) harvested welcome additional Nations Cup points for Spain. The classification in this competition is still topped by Belgium despite engine problems at Boutsen Energy Racing. This time it was a new face, Maxime Martin, Maxime Soulet’s replacement, out defending his country’s colours but he met with little success.
Quotes
Dino LUNARDI: "At this point in the season, it’s important to be consistent and not make any mistakes. That’s going to be the key to the title chase. I’m obviously delighted to have scored my third win of the year which is an excellent result because I was a little concerned by how fast Grégory Guilvert was going here. The first few laps were very difficult but his problem enabled me to build up a cushion and then look after my tyres with tomorrow’s race in mind."
Julien BRICHE: "I got off to a poor start but I still thought I would be able to challenge for a good finish. Unfortunately, I had to work on my car right up to the last moment and I forgot to secure the fusebox which worked loose and kept hitting my accelerator pedal. After that, I had to drive really carefully and it turned out to be quite a stressful race."
Benoît LISON: "It’s my second podium of the year. I got away well and then based my pace on that of the guys ahead of me. I suddenly felt very tired, however, and I was unable to stay on their tail, so I decided not to take any risks..."
Silverstone - final positions, Race 1:
1, D. Lunardi, 12 laps in 24m 49.412s (average: 149.113kph). 2, J. Briché (+8.560s). 3, B. Lison (+12.029s). 4, M. Dubrulle (+15.795s). 5, M. Sciabbarrasi (+16.041s). 6, C. Harris (+32.010s). 7, J. Schell (+38.418s). 8, O. Freymuth (+49.283s). 9, A. Espinosa (+50.910s). 10, F. Bry (+1m 3.402s). Etc. Fastest race lap: D. Lunardi, 2m 2.316s (average: 151.310kph) / Pole: G. Guilvert, 2m 0.940s.
Championship standings after Race 1 (Silverstone): 1, D. Lunardi (142 points). 2, J. Briché (137). 3, G. Guilvert (133). 4, J. Schell (121). 5, M. Dubrulle (94). 6, B. Lison (81). 7, M. Soulet (66). 8, M. Sciabbarrasi (59). 9, T. Accary (57). 10, S. Moulton (52). Etc.
RACE 2: Sunday, September 16, 10.15am (local time)