Season 9, Round 2 - Le Mans (FRA)
Following a fairly big turnout for Round 1, Round 2 lacked in this and created a field of only 6 drivers. But by no means was the racing worse than what it was before! Le Mans offered the drivers a great variety of slow and fast corner to test their skills on in the second round of this intense OKC Season!
Making it 2 pole positions out of 2, Alessandro Ceronetti with a 53.114. A great laptime, with Lukas Thomsen only managing a 53.518 behind him, with AMG CV Performance teammate Leon Rullit with a 53.562. A close one between the two German entries.
The Pre-Final was led by Alessandro Ceronetti in the early stages, before he made contact with Lukas Thomsen, which sent the German into a spin, and promoted Rullit into 1st Place. A lap later, an over-defending Rullit allowed Ceronetti to find a gap and get back past into the lead, attracting the likes of Sam Bailey and Bill Wright into the fight for the lead. Soon enough, Bill wright managed to get the better of Bailey and moved himself up to 3rd Place.
Further up in front, Rullit managed to get past Ceronetti again, and closed every door he could possibly close, knowing of Ceronetti's pace, but soon over did it and sent himself into a spin, demoting him into P4, behind a charging Lukas Thomsen. In the meantime, Bill Wright was completing an epic race in P2, being top amateur! Soon enough, Thomsen and Rullit sensibly worked together to try catch Wright up, and eventually did promoting the AMG pair onto the podium. It was too late though, Ceronetti had managed to extend his lead and take the win of the Pre-Final ahead of Rullit and Thomsen. Further back, Bailey and Wright contended against eachother to take the 2nd row of the grid with Thomsen.
In the final Ceronetti, Rullit and Thomsen traded positions continously. It looked to be trend to defend if you were in the lead though, to not let anyone pull away. On lap 8, it looked like Rullit would have been able to pull away, having got a near to comfortable gap to Ceronetti and Thomsen, but the two worked together and caught Rullit quickly enough. Ceronetti had some minor contact with Rullit, which caught Thomsen out, and sent him into a spin which forced him to a retirement. A large gap behind, was Bill Wright who cruised his way into P3 after the collision in front of him.
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In the meantime, Ceronetti and Rullit weren't done yet, as they brawled for the rest of the race, trading positions. Until the last few laps, of course. The two had another minor collision which allowed Rullit to take a comfortable enough gap to reach the chequered flag in 1st! A very deserved first ever win in OKC for the German, who also takes the lead of the championship in the process! Ceronetti took another podium, and stays in 2nd Place in the championship. Bill Wright took the top Amateur honours, and with it, a solid 3rd Place in the championship too!
On the other side of the table, Heathman and De Tullio have used their drop round, and still in full contention for the championship! Back for some more racing in a few weeks time at La Conca (ITA)! The fight continues!