Following a brilliant Season opener at Macau, Essay was looking to be just AS good following a practice session with the top 15 separated by just half a second!

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The qualifying session went the way of Alessandro Ceronetti who took pole by less than a tenth over fellow FPR teammate and reigning champion Aaron Heathman. He was followed by newbie to series, Alex Cutillas in the KR Motorsport machine. The spaniard was a mere tenth off pole position. Very impressive! Jesse Doorgeest in a good 4th place and another new comer, Lluc Ibanez showed his pace to qualify 5th overall! Macau pole sitter Corrie Hiatt, only managed a 10th place. 

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Heat 1 was won by Alessandro Ceronetti who lead from lights to flag but was challenged by Heathman, Ibanez and Doorgeest in the opening stages which seemed to have more pace than the polesitter. In the meantime the battle for 5th place was igniting with Corrie Hiatt, Frank Mossman, Bryce Stevens and Leon Rullit were swapping places to fight it out for the last spot in the top 5. Hiatt eventually got the better and pulled away in 5th place. A few laps later, Ibanez and Doorgeest collided. Ceronetti and Heathman managed to pull away on a solid 5 second gap on Hiatt who was now promoted to 3rd place after starting on the inside of row 3. Stevens and Hiatt battled it out on the last lap and saw Stevens come out on top, only to be awarded a 1 Place Penalty for wreckless driving. Dani Casas finished 5th, despite his 5 second penalty.

 

The second heat which saw BvC rubbing wheels, featured a battenberg on the first lap, lead by Heathman, Ibanez  and Paul Rieberer in that order. After the restart, Heathman took an immediate advantage over Ibanez and Alex Cutillas who demoted Paul Rieberer to 4th place. The top 3 managed to pull a comfortable gap over the others, and the two spaniards started setting some blistering lap times to catch back up to FPR driver Heathman. It was very clear the three were going to have a battle to the flag and did. Ibanez managed to take the lead with an outstanding move over defending Heathman on the last lap to take the win! Cutillas had to settle for third. Further back, Alex Lahoz managed to make a comeback fight and finish in 4th place after starting 9th! Paul Rieberer managed to achieve a good 5th place to start his 'campaign' for the Pre-Final grid.

 

 Heat 3 also featured a battenberg on the first lap after seeing a 3-man collision on the start/finish straight. Following a cleaner re-start, Ceronetti managed to take an advantage over Rieberer and a fast Adrian Schimpf whom managed to climb to third following a grid start from 8th place. The KR Motorsport driver gave Rieberer a hard time to maintain his 2nd place, as thr two battled for many laps along with Corrie Hiatt and Doorgeest who joined the battle a bit later on. Joel Oswick managed to have a quick smell of this fight after starting dead last! In the end, Doorgeest emerged top out of the battle for P2. Schimpf followed up in third place, with Hiatt and Joe Innes rounding up the top 5! Joel Oswick was a man on the move, having gained 9 places!

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The B Final featured a few surprises. Rowan Gill was on pole, after not having the best day in the office. He currently leads the rookie championship and third overall! Last seasons 4th place finisher and rookie champion Daniel Fellows qualifies 2nd for this B Final. Very arguably, this B Final was not such a B Final, and it did not let down in terms of race action! At the start, it was Fellows who took the lead over Gill and Ethan Lampe whom also was not having a great day at the office. Lampe quickly had a move over Gill and pushed to catch up Fellows. This happened quickly, and they started jossling position. Mossman quickly caught the top 3 group up, and capitalised on them battling by promoting himself to P2 temporarily. Lampe made his way quickly into P2 and demoted Mossman back to P4. In the meantime, this allowed Fellows to create a gap over Lampe, who was still pushing as hard as he could. Gill also had a lot of pace and challenged Lampe on 4 laps to go where they tried to catch up to Fellows. The FPG driver did indeed maintain his lead, with Lampe and Gill rounding up who would qualify for the final.

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The Pre-Final featured an FPR front row lockout with Ceronetti and Heathman, Hiatt and Ibanez followed behind them. Hiatt managed to get the better over Heathman on the start and pulled a gap over him. Heathman quickly caught this gap back up, and Hiatt allowed him to come past to try and push to catch their fellow teammate who had pulled a dominative gap over the two. Doorgeest followed behind close to the two FPR teammates, and did eventually collide with Hiatt for 3rd spot. Hiatt dropped back to well outside the top 5! This allowed for Stevens and Oswick to close back up to Doorgeest. Oswick who was on another comeback drive! Lampe who was in the B Final had the better of Bryce who fell back to P6. The two RPD drivers pushed to catch back up to Oswick and Doorgeest. Oswick noticed this and made the move to promote himself to P3. Incredible considering he had to start last in every heat! The two battling allowed the RPD driver Lampe to have a go at Doorgeest, whom valiantly kept his position and kept the pressure on Oswick. Soon enough in the closing stages Oswick and Lampe who were both on a comeback drive tangled and dropped them back into P6 and P13, Oswick once again coming out worst. Because of this Hiatt, Fellows and Stevens were able to finish P4, P5 and P6. An impressive drive by Hiatt who had dropped back outside the top 8 at one point to finish P5! Fellows had a good drive too after winning the B Final.

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Another front row lockout for FPR in the second final of the season. The final saw another battenberg on the opening stages, on an incident involving Stevens who has had a nightmare of a round. Following the restart, Ceronetti fell back into the clutches of Heathman and Doorgeest who demoted him to P4, behind Hiatt. Ceronetti quickly got past Hiatt and set some blistering laptimes to catch up to the leading duo made of Doorgeest and Heathman. Soon enough, Ceronetti tangled with Doorgeest, giving Heathman some breathing space between him and Doorgeest. Ceronetti dropped back to P8. Heathman managed to run away with his lead and left Doorgeest and Hiatt to fight it out between them. Meanwhile, further back, Fellows managed to claim P4 and a big gap between himself and his rivals in the B Final, Lampe and Gill who were fighting for P5. Schimpf was in this battle too and managed to give Lampe a good challenge. Lampe did get the better of Schimpf in the end and the duo finished P5 and P6 in  that order. Doorgeest soon was awarded a place penalty which promoted Hiatt into 2nd place after what he explained to be 'a tough evening' A few words from him were: 'It was a challenging race, I was defenitely down on pace over everyone else, but with the help of everybody in FPR, (Hiatt Designs by the way), we really managed to make it work.' Winner Aaron Heathman: 'I just tried to keep pace and keep away from Jesse, and following the contact between Alessandro and Jesse it made it easier for me to maintain that lead. I would like to thank Cory, from FPR for helping out for my setup. I would also like to thank Corrie Hiatt from Hiatt Designs because champions do indeed wear Hiatt Designs. Finally everyone who helped me through my KRP Career and being so sucessful.'

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Following Heathman's brilliant performance here at Essay, he takes the championship lead by a strong 8 points over his rival Alessandro Ceronetti. Here is his view on it: 'At this point is just more so of trying to keep my head down to try and keep it on track. I will work on finding more pace for the coming tracks to be able to maintain my lead!'. Hiatt now leads the rookie championship over Rowan Gill by 7 points! Hiatt also stands in P3 overall, in front of Bryce Stevens, and Gill to round up the top 5. 

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Next round is Sarno... we are expecting to see just as much if not more race action than in Essay. Sarno features a really fast track and the longest straight of the Season 7 calendar. The championship fight will continue on the 16th of May 2020!