Qualifying for the first race at the Snetterton 200 Circuit went with usual form, with the two Apex Racing drivers of Ellis and Peter Berryman and the two Red Bull drivers of Sebastian Job and Graham Carroll forming the front two rows.
This time it was Berryman leading the way, beating Brands Hatch polesitter Carroll to the line by 0.03s, ahead of Job and Ellis The front four started cleanly and seemed happy to keep station – something we often see in the first race of each round – but the battles were further back.
With a reverse top-six grid for the second race, fifth and sixth spots are crucial. Josh Thompson and William Chadwick – who started on row three – were keeping these places early on, but with half the race elapsed things changed. Chadwick’s poor run onto the Bentley Straight allowed Thompson to pounce. The tussle lasted through to Murrays; Chadwick ran wide, promoting Jack Sedgwick into that vital sixth spot. At the front though Berryman cruised home ahead of Carroll and Job to become the first repeat winner of the season, with Job taking the fastest lap point.
Sedgwick and Thompson formed the front row for the reverse grid race but it was Ellis who got the best start, nearly taking the lead twice on the opening lap. A lap later Ellis used a better run down the Bentley Straight to take the place through the Brundle/Nelson chicane.
The drama all came right behind this. Job had been held up behind Thompson, bringing Berryman into play. Job attempted the same pass as Eliis but caught the sausage kerb and made contact with Thompson, spinning him around right into the path of Berryman who t-boned him, flipping Thompson onto his roof and ending the race for both of them.
It’s the second time in two events that a Job/Berryman incident has ended with the latter coming off worse. The stewards and Brands Hatch penalised Job 10 seconds for that collision, but no decision has yet been announced for this crash.
That all allowed Ellis and Carroll, who somehow picked his way through the carnage, to sprint free at the front of the field. Carroll couldn’t find a way past his fellow Scot though, as Ellis took his own second win of the season and the fastest lap point.
Sedgwick came home third for his second podium of the year, with defending champion Job in fourth pending any time penalty. Ellis now leads the championship by 15 points from Carroll, with Job five points further back.
Reigning DTM Esports champion Moritz Lohner took the first win of the new season, as the championship got underway at Imola.
This season sees the debut of Ferrari in the championship, and the 488 immediately took pole position honours courtesy of Kevin Siggy. The Redline driver was a tenth of a second ahead of Leonard Krippner, just ahead of his Dorr Esports team-mate Lohner on the second row.
Krippner though got a woeful launch from the rolling start and nearly slipped behind Alessandro Ottaviani but just kept third running into Tamburello. Lohner passed his team-mate to stay on Siggy’s tail for the 15-minute sprint. Siggy looked to have things under control, but with five minutes left on the clock, the defending champion made his move. Using the straight line speed of the BMW, Lohner dragged past the Ferrari on the run from Rivazza to Tamburello. That dropped Siggy into Krippner’s clutches, and having to defend allowed Lohner to scamper off down the road for the win.
Qualifying for the feature race again saw Siggy on pole position, but Lohner was well down the order in seventh. Gianmarco Fiduci made it an all-Ferrari front row, with Florian Hasse – another Dorr Esports driver – and current ADAC Masters points leader Christopher Hogfeldt on the second row. Again, Siggy made the best of the early running, while Lohner was carving through the field behind, making his way up to third before the first pit stops happened. It was Hogfeldt who dived in first, with Siggy covering him off on the following lap, but Lohner ran far deeper into the race and stopped a full ten minutes later. Although Lohner emerged still in third, the far fresher rubber allowed him to catch and pass Hogfeldt in short order, and it wasn’t long until he caught Siggy too. It all came down to a frantic final two laps, but with Siggy running slow between the two apexes at Acque Minerali, Lohner had to back out to avoid contact and lost momentum.
The result puts Siggy at the top of the table on 80 points after the first round of six, just five ahead of Lohner.
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