Simrace title fight gets more and more exciting
Michal Smidl wins the third race of the season in the Racing Unleashed competition. Title fight becomes more exciting.
Sanchez with two penalties - luck for Smidl
Although Smidl missed out on the first race, he decided races two and three in his favor. But it wasn't as clear-cut as it seems at first glance. The Czech benefited from two penalties against Alejandro Sanchez. In qualifying, he lost his pole position to Smidl because he obstructed Dominik Dedic on a fast lap.
In the race, he caused a collision and received a five-second time penalty. After an overtaking maneuver against Smidl with six laps to go, Sanchez crossed the finish line first but was unable to gain a five-second advantage. At least, however, he was still classified second.
Drivers in Cham extremely unlucky
Michael Smidl shoots against Sanchez: "It wasn't that hard. I knew he was going to get a penalty. So I just had to stay within the five-second window. We filed a protest because there has to be more than a five-second penalty for driving like that." Still, he's happy about the competition: "It's even more fun that way, of course."
Vojtech Polesny and Alvaro Aznar finished behind. Aznar leads the standings with 52 points, ahead of Smidl (50) and Sanchez (44).
All the drivers of the Lounge in Cham were unlucky: Due to a fire, there was a power failure in the city. This meant that they were unable to finish the race. But they were not in the top 5 positions anyway.
Exciting duel in the Challenger League
The Challenger League saw an exciting battle between the two Spaniards Coque Lopez and David Cid. Most of the time the gap stayed at around one second, but in the end Cid really put the pressure on Lopez. But overtaking is not easy on the Imola track.
Two laps from the end, a misunderstanding during lapping led to a duel. Both collided and spun through the gravel. But: Both came back on the track in the same order - and stayed in front. Third-placed Gian Teufen was around 20 seconds behind in the end. So Lopez celebrates his first victory ahead of Cid.
Lopez vs. Cid
"That was a close fight with David. We fought until the end. I'm extremely pleased that I prevailed in the end," explains the winner Lopez. He doesn't want to overstate the collision: "We just talked to each other and don't have any bad feelings for each other. It's just that the track is narrow, so things like that happen."
David Cid sees it similarly: "I missed a few chances to take the win. But I'm still satisfied. I'll prepare even more for the next race."
Championship leader Javier Loro didn't get past fifth place because he fell far behind at the start due to a mistake. Nevertheless, after the spectacular recovery he remains leader of the standings with 53 points after three events ahead of Marcos Valverde (42 points, fourth today) and David Cid (36 points).