Vasiliauskas wins the race as Soucek takes the title
Lithuanian scores maiden win ahead of Bortolotti and Soucek
Kazim Vasiliauskas scored a
sublime maiden victory of the season in the opening
F2 race at Imola, whilst Andy Soucek clinched the 2009 FIA
Formula Two Championship with a third place finish.
Vasiliauskas led from start to finish after making a clean
getaway from the line, although he did have an anxious moment on
the run down to Tamburello for the first time when he ran wide and
caught the gravel. He managed to rejoin just in front of
second place Mirko Bortolotti to maintain the lead, although he
came under intense pressure.
There was trouble further down the field as Julien
Jousse, Tobias Hegewald and Nicola De Marco all made contact
as they came through the second chicane - the result was
a spectacular barrel roll for Hegewald, whilst De Marco ended in
the barriers. Jousse was able to continue after a brief trip to the
pitlane.
The safety car was deployed to retrieve the stricken cars and
Vasiliauskas was again under pressure from a gaggle of drivers at
the restart. Bortolotti had Wickens all over him, who in turn had a
fast starting Soucek behind.
Vasiliauskas soon found his rhythm and the youngster pulled away
from the rest of the field to take a phenomenal victory by more
than seven seconds. It is Kazim's first full season of single
seater racing and he becomes the first Lithuanian to take an
international race victory.
"I am really proud of this win," Vasiliauskas declared. "It was
a really good race, and I finished with a seven second gap as I was
able to maintain my times throughout the race - in fact my last lap
was the fastest of the race. It was a really good race, and I
kept pushing right until the end."
Bortolotti maintained second, but there was action behind as
Soucek made his move through the field - the Spaniard needing only
to finish ahead of Wickens and Aleshin to absolutely guarantee
taking the title. Aleshin was already out of the picture after the
Russian got a terrible start and also spun later in the race. Now
Soucek was chasing down Wickens and the Spaniard got his man with a
stunning move on the run down the back straight. Wickens had no
answer and Soucek went on to pressure Bortolotti until the finish,
taking his eighth podium of the season and with it, the
championship.
Bortolotti said: "I had a good start today, although I had to
avoid Kazim as he came back onto the circuit, which was quite
dangerous. After that he closed the door a few times, so it was
hard to get past. In the end second position and eight points is
good, and now we are looking forward to tomorrow."
A jubillant Andy Soucek, who becomes the first F2 champion for
25 years, said: "I'm really, really happy. I wanted to win the
championship with a podium at least, so I'm thrilled to have
finished third. I was starting sixth which was not the best
position, but I made my places off the track - it was not people
having problems. It was an amazing race, possibly the best of my
season so far. Now I am just going to try and win as many races as
possible, and just try and enjoy it."
Wickens took fourth ahead of Philipp Eng and Miloš
Pavlović, and the recovering Aleshin was some way back in
seventh.
Germán Sánchez continued with his impressive
weekend and deservedly scored his first points of the season
after fighting off Sebastian Hohenthal. The Spaniard also made a
stellar pass on Natacha Gachnang early in the race, who was also
fighting for her maiden points finish.
Julien Jousse rounded out the top ten after making a superb
comeback from near the back of the field. Behind him Jolyon Palmer
was involved in some fantastic duels as the Briton came through
from 19th on the grid to finish 12th. Edoardo Piscopo finished
fractions behind in 13th.
Tom Gladdis and Jack Clarke both recovered from an off-track
moment, whilst Jens Höing crashed out on lap four. Ollie
Hancock's race was ruined on the first lap after a poor start was
added to when Pietro Gandolfi spun into the Englishman - both
drivers were immediately out on the spot.
Imola - Race 1 - Provisional
Classification:
1. Kazim Vasiliauskas, 21 laps
2. Mirko Bortolotti, +7.503s
3. Andy Soucek, +8.178s
4. Robert Wickens, +8.899s
5. Philipp Eng, +9.526s
6. Milos Pavlovic, +11.940s
7. Mikhail Aleshin, +18.292s
8. German Sanchez, +22.781s
9. Sebastian Hohenthal, +23.582s
10. Julien Jousse, +23.875s