An excellent weekend at Paul Ricard sets up the title finale for the next round.
Qualifying
Oscar Williams and Maxi Junger head an early pole and second place as qualifying starts both Vermin drivers looking very quick this round, with newly promoted to Vermin, Dave Southword just that little further back on qualifying pace. Jaap Wagenvoort is looking around the same pace as Dave in qualifying trim on the early time sheet. It's not long before Arttu Nieminen puts in a good lap and pips ahead of Maxi, splitting the Vermin cars. Tim Om loo's first lap is good enough for 5th with still over 10 minutes to go it places the young driver ahead of Sammy Salem and Wagenvoort at this stage. Martijn Van T Land's lap slots him in just behind Maxi into 4th as his team-mate looks to be struggling, Wagenvoort down to 11th. Karlis Skirmanis having a stronger weekend than previous rounds sitting around 12th place. Tim Draper sets an identical time to Dave Southword as they sit nicely in 8th and 9th respectively. With less than 5 minutes on the clock to set a time, Oscar's 1:18.783 is the benchmark with his nearest rival at 1:19.074. Salem is able to jump ahead of Maxi for 3rd but is the only noticeable improvement in the final minutes. So Oscar with another pole, from Nieminen and Salem.
Race 1
Too much wheel spin from Oscar allowed Nieminen to take the lead into turn 1 with Maxi all over the gearbox of Salem in 3rd. Almost everyone manages to cleanly get through, a tangle between Karlis and David Bull at the back cost the pair a bit of time, but they are soon within striking distance of the pack as they bunch up around Paul Ricard. Maxi is quick to make a move on Salem which promotes him into 3rd. As the leading pair pull away from the pack over the next couple of laps there are several close battles forming on the track with a very close train of cars behind Salem, consisting of Tim, Jansen, Van T Land, Wagenvoort, Dave and Draper.
Karlis was making good ground in the early stages just by attrition as cars in front made mistakes. Oscar lost a little time after having to back out of a move into turn 1 but was soon latched back onto the gearbox of his rival and harassing him constantly. Tim tried to overtake Salem for 4th after spotting a gap, unfortunately it was a gap that was always going close on him and the pair make contact sending Tim off from 5th and down into 9th, whilst a very lucky Salem continues on in 4th, now with Van T Land breathing down hard on him.
Nieminen and Oscar are maintaining around a 1-second gap to each other as the race goes on, however a mistake from Nieminen allows Oscar to attack. As the pair duel side by side some fantastic defensive driving from Nieminen, battling for another lap, it's an amazingly brave move around the outside from Oscar that seals the overtake for the lead. Nieminen defends excellent but as soon as Oscar is past, Nieminen can't latch back onto the Vermin driver and settles for 2nd place in race 1. But it's a Vermin 1st and 3rd as Maxi crosses the line on the podium quite comfortably. Oscar's win now puts him in 10th for Race 2's start.
Race 2
Mex Jansen is the first to the opening corner just ahead of Tim and with Dave slotting into 4th. However Nieminen is caught up in a first turn incident and finds himself pointing the wrong way. Oscar carefully works up through on lap 1 up to 5th by the end of it. Wagenvoort manages to breeze past Maxi down the straight for 7th place. A promising start for Karl is who managed to avoid other people tripping up and running 9th. Maxi makes a huge mistake and slides his way out of the top 10, with Nieminen narrowly avoiding the sliding car but now up into 10th behind Van T Land.
Salem found himself inside a Vermin sandwich, as he looked for a way past Dave with Oscar adding pressure from behind, forcing Salem to go defensive, but he maintains the position. Karlis loses a spot to Draper dropping briefly to 8th before a small twitch of over steer costs him 2 more places as Van T Land and Nieminen slip past, leaving Karlis to defend from Jodi Lowijs who holds the inside line and snatches away 10th. Tim had been slowly catching Jansen and was now lining up an opportunity as Oscar prepared to do the same to Salem as the top 7 hammered down the straight all posting very similar times. Oscar overtaking Salem into Turn 1. Nieminen and Draper swap positions putting him into 7th, whilst Dave and Oscar also swap positions putting Oscar into 3rd.
Tim makes a brilliant overtake reminiscent of Oscar's move on Nieminen in Race 1, Tim going around the outside of Jansen. Dave has to defend from Salem but retains the position. It's not long before Oscar is on the back end of Jansen and past before quickly catching Tim, Tim defends the inside line perfectly keeping Oscar behind a little longer, but again Oscar finds the outside line for the overtake and in a carbon copy of the move from Race 1 for the lead, gains the lead in the same way. Tim tries hard to regain the position almost getting a run on Oscar but can't quite get close enough but is close enough to pressure the senior driver.
Sadly Dave has a spin dropping him to 7th and allowing Nieminen into 6th after a good recovery drive. Draper and Lowijs have a tangle for 11th place. Nieminen soon past Wagenvoort and tucked up behind Salem, who lets his team-mate past for 4th. But it's triumph for Oscar who takes the double victory, Tim takes second place and in doing so becomes the youngest every podium finisher in Trout League history. An excellent drive from Jansen garners him a well-deserved 3rd with Nieminen's recovery drive to 4th being very impressive. Wagenvoort quietly taking 5th away from Salem after an excellent final lap battle.
The season closes at Nurburgring next round and both Driver and Team Championships are still up for grabs. Whoever wins this season is a deserving champion, in what has been one of the most exciting championships for this league.
Watch the replay of the weekend here:
See you next round.
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