Round 11 of the Championship takes place in Germany, around the Tilke re-designed Hockenheimring. An almost completely flat circuit located in the Rhine Valley, the track features just 13 corners.
Qualifying saw Ronny Hähnel take the first pole position of his career, just ahead of Bruno Marques in second. Fredrick Nilsson produced his best qualifying result to start in 3rd, along side of Agustín Canapino in 4th. Bono Huis could only manage 5th on the grid, and Lee Morris again qualified in 6th.
Off the line, Hähnel had no problem keeping his first place with a clean launch, and despite having the inside line Marques easily managed to stay in front of Nilsson. Huis ran wide off turn 1, but kept his momentum and only lost a place to Morris. Never one to pass up an opportunity Morris then made a daring pass up the inside of Canapino into the following corner, moving up into 4th place.
With a condensed field of 23 cars braking from 300 to just 50 km/h, the hairpin was always going to produce some fireworks. While Morand went for the inside, Huis stayed on the outside and Canapino lost out to both drivers. Light contact from Poniatowski caused Tali to half spin, and the resulting bottleneck caused Prévot to lose his front wing after lightly hitting the back of Hirrle’s car.
After gaining 5 places from the start, on over excited Morgan Morand locked up into turn 6, dropping him back into 8th place. Huis quickly hunted down and passed Morris into the hairpin, and several laps later he overtook Nilsson on the same corner.
1st placed Hähnel was now creating a gap back to Marques, who was being chased by Huis. Fredrick Nilsson was comfortably ahead of Morris in 5th, and WC debutant Jeffrey Rietveld was battling with Canapino for 6th position. After losing out to Rietveld, Canapino then fell into the hands of Morand, and after a brief fight with both drivers swapping positions twice, Morand eventually came unstuck after an over ambitious passing attempt.
With both the SB Motorsports cars now inside the top eight, Poniatowski engaged Rietveld in a scrap for 6th place, and while he initially managed to get in front of Rietveld, the inexperienced Dutchman was in no way intimidated as he fought back to retake his position around the hairpin.
As Hähnel continued to impress his home crowd in 1st position, Huis was soon on the rear of 2nd placed Marques. Huis made an uneventful pass on his main championship rival, and then immediately began his pursuit of Hähnel. Hähnel pitted first, but it almost turned into a disaster, as he emerged right behind a dueling Rietveld and Puumalainen. Keeping his cool, Hähnel dispensed of both drivers at once around the inside of the hairpin, minimizing his time loss.
Rasmus Tali and Mikko Puumalainen were now in the mix - unbeknownst to their rivals both were on a one stop strategy. And while Puumalainen struggled with his tires, Tali held on to his 4th place all the way to the half way point of the race.
Huis was clearly faster than his team mate Hähnel, and he eventually found a way pass into the hairpin to take the lead. Marques also closed in on the two Precision cars, but a small mistake in the stadium section cost him a vital second. However, Marques’ early second stop allowed him to leap both drivers to move up into first place.
His lead was short lived though, as Huis beat him to the hairpin on the following lap, there was little Marques could do. Battling an injury to his right knee, Marques struggled to stay close to Huis, and eventually lost out to Hähnel with 17 laps to go.
Further behind, Fredrik Nilsson was continuing his lonely race in 4th place, but he lost out to the one stopping Rasmus Tali, dropping him into 5th. Jaakko Mikkonen had been on a charge all day after a poor qualifying session, and had now moved all the way up into 6th position, leaping Lee Morris through the stops.
It now looked like the finishing order had been more or less decided, but Hähnel was not yet willing to settle for 2nd place. With 10 laps to go, Hähnel had caught right up to the back of Huis’ car, and it began to look like the championship leader was on the ropes.
On the penultimate lap, the fireworks began. Hähnel got a great run on his team mate and beat him to the hairpin, but a determined Huis immediately came back at him on the following corner with a bold pass. With the spectators on the edge of their seats, the final lap was only going to get better. Hähnel again drafted behind Huis and held him off in the braking zone of the hairpin, but Huis again made an aggressive pass into the following corner forcing his team mate wide.
Desperate to become the first driver of the season to win his home Grand Prix, Hähnel pulled out all the stops, and put a dangerous move on Huis which sent both cars off the track and into the gravel. While both managed to keep their cars from spinning, Hähnel got back to the track in 1st position, and with no more overtaking opportunities, he held it all the way to the finish line, to take his second career victory.
Knowing that the Precision managers would not allow a formal protest, Huis vented his frustration on his team mate pass the finish line, sending a clear signal of his anger. Marques finished on the podium for the third time in succession, but the race was marred by controversy when 5 drivers were disqualified for failing to drive within the track limits. Fredrik Nilsson & Lee Morris were amongst those disqualified and Rasmus Tali was also penalized 30 seconds for a smaller infraction of the cutting rules.
This moved Mikkonen up into 4th place, ahead of Puumalainen in 5th. Tali was effectively relegated to 6th just in front of John-Eric Saxén.
Huis has again increased his lead in the championship over Marques, the gap now up to 29 points. Tali remains in 3rd place, but close behind, Mikkonen has now jumped up into 4th position. Hähnel’s victory and Greco’s absence has placed both drivers on equal points in 5th place.
With another one-two result for the team, Precision Motorsports are now well on top of the Constructors Championship standings, with Twister Racing trailing by 51 points. Further behind, Mak-Corp have increased their lead over SB Motorsports in the fight for 3rd place.
The next race will be the Hungarian Grand Prix. Tune in at 5:25pm GMT on 15th August for the Multibc broadcast!
