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Monza Italy Round 9 World Championship Review

Circuit
5.793 km  53 laps
Tyres Primes - Soft
Options - Super Soft

For round Nine of the Formula Sim Racing World Championships  the Autodromo Nazionale Monza also known as the temple of speed just near the city of Monza, north of Milan, in Italy welcomed the drivers fresh from their long summer break.

One of the worlds most iconic circuits Monza is also unique in the set of challenges it provides the teams and drivers. With its utra high speed straights it demands low aero settings.
However with low aero the braking is trickier and the drivers face massive braking loads into slow speed chicanes at Turn 1-2  “Variante del Retifilo”  and 4-5 “Variante della Roggia”.  In addition Turns 6 and 7 The curva de Lesmo 1and 2 look simple enough but the combination of the high speed approach, low aero, low apex speed and limited run off mean the the Lesmos can quickly become a trap.
Turn 8-9-10 The Variante Ascari requires great car balance and a lot of commitment to get a good exit in the run up to the Curva Parabolica. It's deceptive in that its a medium speed entry to a corner that takes the car through a full 180 degrees and requires accuracy for a good exit onto the fastest straight of the circuit.
Monza isn't hard on tyres but it is hard on brakes.   

Qualifying

The top ten qualifiers were:
1)    Brzezinski
2)    Simon
3)    Patel
4)    Parisis
5)    Kostadinov
6)    Disley
7)    Simoncic
8)    Kiss
9)    Brljak (no time set)
10)  Satherley (no time set)

Race

Brzezinski and Simon fought hard but kept it close and clean and the front row held position through the first chicane and the opening lap.
Parisis had a slight excursion after Turn 1-2  “Variante del Retifilo” dropping some places but appeared not to suffer damage. Overall the start was pretty clean for Monza and its unique challenges.
Australian Ghostspeed driver Jonny Simon was doing his best to use his speed here to pile the pressure on Brzezinski. Patel was in third.

By lap 10 the gap had not grown beyond .5 sec but Brzezinski was showing no signs of cracking.
Patel in third was only 2.4 sec adrift so ready to seize on any opportunity.

Eventa Simracing  chief and FSR veteran Dian Kostadinov was holding a solid fourth. Petar Brljak having withdrawn his option shod qualifying lap resulting in a ninth placed start felt he could change tyre strategy and was making a great fist of opening his account on primes by making it to fifth place and only 5.5 sec adrift.
Kiss held sixth and was + 8.3 sec.
Eventa Simracing's Francesco Bigazzi was seventh +9.5 sec.
Simoncic in eighth had an issue into turn 1 after lap 1 which cost him some time and front wing damage. It appeared to put his plans for the race under a lot of pressure and he would fight hard to try to win back some places. 
After a hard fought opening few laps ninth was held by Spanish driver Carlos Martin.
Tenth was Englishman Dan Brewer.
Eleventh David Greco
Twelfth Thomas Satherly
In thirteenth Blair Disley + 19 sec.

One lap later at lap 11 Brzezinski and Simon were still in very close formation. The Polish Origin Sim Racing driver tried something clever. He lit up his pit stop notice and did a little "fakie" heading for the pits but continued on to start another lap.

Lap 13 From third place Patel made a radical pit approach seeming keen to lower the gap to the front two anyway possible. He recovered from a somewhat sideways approach to the limiter line unscathed and without penalty. Taking options again he rejoined in P12 and +25 sec. This would reduce to 9 sec one lap later when the lead pair pit together and impressively manage to rejoin, both on options again, in clear air still in first and second.

The next half dozen laps were electric.
Michele D Alessandro collided with the pit wall near the entry to the pits on lap 13 unfortunately ending the Italian drivers race.           
On lap 14 Brjak attacked Blair Disley at Lesmo 1 and managed a great pass.
Lap 15 a rampaging Simoncic puts the squeeze on Trines Netrex's Danny van der Niet and contact resulted in retirement for the Netrex driver. Worse was that his team mate Carlos Martin then unable to avoid the wreckage ploughed into Danny’s car causing severe damage to his own. Both team mate retired as a result.

Lap 16 and Brzezinski has not only resisted the pressure he has a small but helpful 4 sec gap to Simon.  Patel in third is + 7 sec. 
Simon is pushing it and has a lose between Lesmo one and two, the off costing him second place but he lives to fight on in third.

By lap 20 Brzezinski had 8.5 sec in hand to Patel in second but a real dog fight was forming up for the positions third through to seventh. It included: Simon, Kostadinov, Brljak, Kiss and Bigazzi. The five train was 1.7 seconds long and something had to give soon!
Brljak's attack on Kostadinov appeared blunted somewhat by his 7th gear ratio.

On lap 23 his chance came he entered the Lesmos in fifth place and exited then in third place after a very skilful and opportunistic pass on two cars.

Lap 24 Patel chooses to pit for fresh rubber and an advantage, temporarily handing second place to Brljak. Patel exits however behind Dan Brewer the Origin Front Row Racing team mate of Kuba Brzezinski. Dan knows what he has to do. The Englishman might be in 11th but he is a man with real world open wheeler experience and is no slouch at race craft. Brewer holds off Patel for a full lap blunting his undercut onto options and handing a vital couple of seconds to Brzezinski.

Lap 26 Patel is second and + 32 sec.
Lap 28 Brzezinski pits for Primes and manages to rejoin still in  the lead with Patel + 9.5 sec.
Simon pits for options and despite his off is still in good shape (exiting on fresh rubber in ninth and only + 25 sec ) until the pit stop coats him a drive through.

Jonny would do himself proud this time though and fight on for good points.
Lap 33 and Simon has his head down. He arrives into a fight with Brewer. The fight is harder than Jonny might have expected for eighth and it lasts 3 laps. There is some contact in the ultimate pass but both cars continue undamaged. Eight place is worth a fight, you never know.

Lap 41 Brzezinski makes his final stop from a prime stint and takes options. He has a 12 second lead.
Over the remaining laps the two Twister team mates of Patel and Brljak fight with less than half a second separation. We are used to that but not used to having a green Origin Front Row Racing car 12 seconds up the road.

Lap 44 Simoncic attacks Daniel Kiss under brakes at turn one for ninth. There is contact and Kiss sadly has to retire with no rear wing.      
Brzezinski has a low fuel issue and has to start managing fuel. His margin starts to shrink ever so slightly.

Finish

                        
Kuba's gap falls to 4.5 seconds as he manages fuel but he hangs on to score his maiden World Championship victory in an imperious pole to flag victory. His race held it all, pace strategy. Congratulations to Kuba!

Patel took second with a great drive. His pace kept the pressure on the two front runners. 
Championship leader Brljak was third on the road and only .2 sec behind his team mate Patel but the race director was left with no option to but to disqualify him for not starting on the same compound as his timed qualifying lap.
The same happened to James Satherly. The drivers apparently misunderstood the impact on tyre regulations of a timed lap later being withdrawn.
This promoted several drivers not the least of which were the Eventa Simracing driver duo of Francesco Bigazzi who climbed from outside the top ten in qualifying to claim a podium. His team mate Dian Kostadinov claiming fourth. A great day for Eventa.

The results after penalties were applied
Race (Qualifying) Positions gained/lost
1.(1) Kuba Brzezinski Origin Front Row Racing POL 

2. (4) +2 Muhammed Patel Twister 2Fast4You +4.342
 
3. (12) +9 Francesco Bigazzi Eventa Simracing +13.172
 
4. (6) +2 Dian Kostadinov Eventa Simracing +18.402         

5. (7) +2 Blair Disley GS Engineering +28.990            

6. (3) -4  Jonny Simon  GhostSpeed Racing Team +29.800
         
7. (8) +1 Jernej Simoncic GhostSpeed Racing Team +41.547
 
8. (17) +9 Daniel Brewer Origin Front Row Racing +54.849
 
9. (16) +7 Fabrizio Gobbi BBR Life4Racing +56.400
 
10. (11) +1 Victor Ivanov Faster Than Speed +1m02.553         

The minor honours