Formula 2 - Rounds 9 & 10, Donington...

[gomick]

Any of our British fans going to this round? Seems interesting that they put it up against BF3 & the BTCC - doesnt leave much for a support category does it?

Anyway - Hegewald & Jousse got the poles for Sunday's races...

Qualifying Race 1...

1. Tobias Hegewald 1:23.116
2. Mikhail Aleshin 1:23.429
3. Andy Soucek 1:23.437
4. Julien Jousse 1:23.460
5. Milos Pavlovic 1:23.542

13. Jack Clarke 1:24.275
14. Jason Moore 1:24.339
16. Jolyon Palmer 1:24.391
18. Alex Brundle 1:24.435
20. Tom Gladdis 1:24.515

Qualifying Race 2...

1. Julien Jousse 1:23.507
2. Sebastian Hohenthal 1:23.635
3. Mirko Bortolotti 1:23.681
4. Kazim Vasiliauskas 1:23.709
5. Edoardo Piscopo 1:23.714

15. Jason Moore 1:24.354
16. Tom Gladdis 1:24.446
17. Jolyon Palmer 1:24.472
20. Jack Clarke 1:24.718
21. Alex Brundle 1:24.739

Seems like a Formula Palmer Audi benefit - though, gotta give Dr Jonathan some credit, he does very well ...

[Peat]

Yeah, i couldnt decide whether to go to Silverstone or Donington, or stay in and watch BTCC.

So i decided to screw them all and enter a 3hr kart enduro instead......

[gomick]

That sounds like more fun for sure - how'd ya go Peat?

[ghinzani]

Originally Posted by gomick

Any of our British fans going to this round?
17. Jolyon Palmer 1:24.472
20. Jack Clarke 1:24.718
21. Alex Brundle 1:24.739

Seems like a Formula Palmer Audi benefit - though, gotta give Dr Jonathan some credit, he does very well ...

In race 1 I counted about 20 actual spectators on the TV, the guy Souceck who won was head and shoulders above the rest, and I believe he is a GP2 reject. As for the three above named sons of English F1 drivers, only Baileys step-son Clarke looked halfway decent. The engines, like the wheel tethers, seem suspect too judging by the amount of failures/plumes of smoke.

To be honest to call this series F2 is an insult to the name of an iconic series, I see no Rindt's, Cevert's, Arnoux's or Thackwell's in this field, only Dacco's, Bertuzzi's, Ballabio's and Lienhard's.

[Peat]

Originally Posted by gomick

That sounds like more fun for sure - how'd ya go Peat?

Not so good. I clipped a kerb badly at the start of my second stint and bruised my ribs (I bruised them badly back in May in a simular kerb-jumping moment). I had to pit early, 20mins later, as i thought i was gonna pass out from the pain, 2mins before the refuel window opened. I was not popular with my team-mates, but they soon saw i was in pain as i had to be helped from kart and checked over in the ambulance. Rocking the ibruprofen now so i can actually breath!!! Yay. I think we finished up 16th of 32 (feild was covered by 9 tenths in qualy - lots of fast boys out there today)

ON topic:

Looking forward to the highlights, sounds like some decent action today.

[JamesRamone]

I need a programme if possible

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=117725

Just got home, It was VERY quiet, which i prefer and whilst the field is not very strong i still enjoyed the meeting very much.

I just wanted to say Jonathan Palmer is a spot on guy, he spoke to me for 5 minutes, and i was only asking for his autograph.

And in response to the wheel tethers comments, I dont agree. Williams make these cars as far as im aware, and they will not have cut corners. Wheel tethers have never been 100% reliable.

If the series can attract a stronger field next season I belive it will do well

[grantp]

MSV may have some spare programmes.

There was a 2 for one advanced ticket offer on this. If no one turned up that is really bad news.

I decided against going for family reasons and because August is looking like a busy month anyway. There are limits to the number of weekend one can commit to motor sport I guess.

However I could hear some of the events and it was interesting to see comments form one of the drivers about a strategy of surviving the expected events of the first few laps.

As far as I could tell both races went back under safety car after incidents on the first lap. Even the BTCC does not manage that very often.

Still, it is year one. Presumably JP's outfit does OK out of the repair bills.

There seems to ba a lot of events with rather small fields at the moment. Maybe next year we will find activity cut back all round whilst we await recovery.

From what I have read the financial model for F2 may be more viable that F3 from a competitor's point of view. That said I can't quite see where the sponsors gain, the trade off being Europe wide rather than relatively local coverage.

[runshaw]

I went today, it was pretty good considering the 2 for 1 deal. Much quieter than BF3/BTCC events though which is surprising considering it was so cheap. Race 1 was quite exciting, but overall nothing great happened. Soucek looked solid all the time, I reckon he could walk away with it now! Wickens had a 'mare, he wasn't firing on all cylinders in race 2 and managed to cause an accident at Coppice by going so slowly which left Brundle stranded momentarily, pretty poor driving. The Historic F2's sounded exceptional, which was the highlight of the day.

[Mekola]

Originally Posted by ghinzani

the guy Souceck who won was head and shoulders above the rest, and I believe he is a GP2 reject.

As is Iaconelli. But Soucek is making what was expected to him in the season: being in the front based on his better experience than the most of his rivals.

[gomick]

What where the support categories?

[Mekola]

It seems Historic F2 is the support category to F2, as F2 is the support category of WTCC, indeed.

BTW: Did you note that Julien Jousse's helmet has the same design as François Cevert's one? Very curious caming from last race winner.

[GroupOfOne]

Originally Posted by grantp

As far as I could tell both races went back under safety car after incidents on the first lap. Even the BTCC does not manage that very often.

Only race two went to safety car, no SC at all in race one. Much better racing than at Brands Hatch (in terms of them not all falling off repeatedly), but I have to say I preferred the Historic F2!

In the programme Jousse said his racing idol is Cevert, so presumably that's the reason for his helmet design. Not sure if it's a new design or not though.

Support races were:
- GT Cup
- Lotus Elise
- Heritage GT (with bizarrely some distinctly un-historic cars mixed in - Civic, MR2, Focus...)
- CSCC Inter Series
- aformentioned Historic F2 (very friendly competitors, let us have a wander around their pit box in the morning)

As others have said, not many people there, we estimated about 3,000 - 5,000 tops, mostly congregated at Redgate, Hollywood and the Old Hairpin. Walking round the back of the circuit there was hardly anyone.

Afraid Donington is looking very tired, some alarming lack of fencing in places, very tatty fencing in others (big holes, trampled down etc), and as for the building work....yes, enough said on that subject I think.

Was interesting in the F2 Autograph session the differing attitudes or persona of the drivers, with some looking like they'd distinctly rather be anywhere else but there

[Dave 455]

I agree but I think tired is an understatement, I've never seen a track look in such a bad way, I'm suprised it has a safety licence the amount of fences knocked down and destroyed. Childeren were playing near the tyrewall at the infield side of the craners, the fence is down neraly all the way along. How do they get away with this. Also why only 1 access gate open? Why no grandstands anymore, there was 3 good grandstands at the Superleague meeting?
How come the extra grand prix section of the track was closed? There was no access to that part of the track on Sunday?

[GroupOfOne]

Totally agree Dave, all the fencing on the inside of Redgate and down the Craners was trampled down, so much so that could just step over it had you wanted to. The fencing running along the top (pit straight side) of the wooded area on the infield was also trampled down in places, a bit concerning as there are also signs saying 'Deep Water'! There was also a rather large hole in the safety fencing on the exit of the Melbourne Hairpin at the back of the paddock.

Also as Dave says, no access to the outside of the GP loop (except right at the bottom of the hairpin) plus the majority of catering outlets (certainly on the infield) were closed (even the mobile vans).

[Dave 455]

Yes that's right, most food outlets were closed!, there was only 2 sets of toliets covering the whole infield, one without toilet seats or locks!
I'm also suprised the circuit would run the risk running the meeting with so many safety issues with fencing, but it looks like they have been down a while! Surely there's a big claim risk if anything was to happen.
With the Motorsport Vision 2 for 1 offer, I would have thought the circuit would have been all out to impress new visitors and potential new customers!
The whole grand prix loop area being closed was stupid because this is the best area at the venue to take photograph's, and I know there was a lot of people complaining. The gate at the Melbourne hairpin was closed and locked as was the gate at the esses, meaning the only area accessible was the small grass bank overlooking the gravel trap! I have never know the loop to be closed before, don't know what they were thinking of

[JamesRamone]

This article indicates the event was well attended.

http://www.formulatwo.com/news/fans-...2-signing.aspx

Wishful thinking

[ghinzani]

Originally Posted by JamesRamone

This article indicates the event was well attended.

http://www.formulatwo.com/news/fans-...2-signing.aspx

Wishful thinking

F*** me they are even trying to link this shambles with the real F2 of yore on their site by offering links to videos of classic F2 of old. The cheeky b***ards!

[GroupOfOne]

Hmmm they've done quite well to make that pitlane look crowded!

"Thousands attended"...well yes, but 2,000 could be described as "thousands"! Wouldn't really say the pitlane was "flooded" however, in fact there was no queue for some drivers autographs (ie the non-British ones).

As another point, I was quite surprised at how short (in time) the pit lane walk was. The gates had only been open about 5-10mins and the tannoy was saying that the pit lane would close in 3 minutes!

[Go_For_Pole]

At least those that were there got to see some aggressive and very entertaining racing by Soucek in the 2nd race. But honestly having such events with no profile does not make any good to the series.

[JamesRamone]

Why do we think it was so poorly attended? Poor quality of drivers? bad promotion? Other things going off in the UK on the same day?

[strider]

Donington's had some shocking publicity lately. The BF3 teams were so disgusted with the place that they were advising SRO not to pay for it. However, I expect the terms were that the money had to be paid in advance.

It's a real shame because Donington used to be one of my favourite circuits. I hope it's not too late to save the day, but rather doubt it.

[Rob29]

Thought it was quite well promoted-2 for one offer,etc.Much bigger crowd at the much more remote Knockhill.6hrs TV from there I guess was a better attraction? I am inclined to agree that I see no future for Donington-spectator viewing has got worse since it opened.