By ghost_726
The second round of the F1 CRL season saw the grid on track at the historic Paul Ricard Circuit in Le Castellet. The combination of high speeds, low downforce, turn 1 chaos and late race rain proved challenging for the grid, with the drivers accumulating 2 DNFs and 139 seconds in penalties while only 13 drivers finished on the lead lap. Through this madness, two things remained consistent, as sayayines4ever and fivesix2KING finished 1-2 again, with ghost_726 rounding out the podium on his return to action.
In the race for the drivers’ championship, sayayines4ever and fivesix2KING extended their lead on the chasing pack, with a total of 50 and 36 points respectively. Aston Martin ace isiboy23 maintained his hold on P3 after securing a P6 finish. McLaren teammates PCC-Godly and KENNYHITMANHART
flipped positions to round out the top 5, while ghost_726’s 15 points catapulted him to P6 in the standings. Two more first time scorers, guitarhero1234 and SSPoTs saw sharp rises in the standings to P7 and P10 after scoring 12 and 5 points.
In the Constructors battle, sayayines4ever’s second win was enough for Alfa Romeo to overtake Haas, and build a healthy 10 point lead. While Haas and McLaren kept their gap the same, Aston Martin took 4 points out of McLaren thanks to strong drives from both guitarhero1234 and isiboy23. Red Bull catapulted themselves into the top half battle thanks to fivesix2KING’s P2 finish, while Williams picked up 5 points, and two spots in the championship due to SSPoTs strong drive.
For the second week in a row, Haas-McLaren collected the most points of any super constructor with all four drivers putting their cars in the points. Alfa Romeo-Ferrari remains second, thanks to the strength and durability of sayayines4ever’s backpack, as he’s collected 50 of the team’s 52 points. Aston Martin-Alpine held onto P3 thanks to a season
best 20 points from the Aston Martin boys. At the bottom of the table, Red Bull-AlphaTauri was able to slide by Mercedes-Williams thanks to reserve fivesix2KING’s podium.
Driver Power Rankings
Aston Martin man isiboy23 takes the fifth spot in the power rankings after another strong performance saw him finish P6 at Le Castellet. The result brings his point total to 23 on the season, good enough for P3 in the standings. Isiboy23’s success has largely been due to his strong qualifying performances, which have averaged 4.5 on the season. If he can maintain that single lap pace, he could hold onto P3 in the standings.
PCC-Godly racked up another P5 in France, his second of the season, despite early contact that caused him to spin, and a two stop strategy. Another driver that’s excelling at qualifying, PCC-Godly has qualified P3 and P6 on the season, and has largely carried that pace over to race day. If he can avoid unlucky incidents, he will be competing for podiums and wins.
Bigryeguy98 missed his second race of the season, but is a favorite to challenge for podiums once he returns, assumedly in Hungary.
Sporting a new livery, fivesix2KING brought a similar result in France. After picking up the pole position, he was involved in an early incident, but recovered to finish P2. fivesix2KING has shown he has the pace to compete with sayayines4ever if he can avoid incidents.
Not a whole lot to write here; sayayines4ever has picked up right where he left off in F2, winning 2 races in 2 tries, and never qualifying worse than second place. He’s been fast, and perhaps more impressively, consistent. If he can hold that consistency over the course of the season, this championship is likely decided already.
Team Power Rankings
Unfortunately it was a rough day at the office for the AlphaTauri boys. After qualifying P11 and P16, RecklezzXV and bode95 were unable to convert their qualifying positions into points, with RecklezzXV DNF’ing and bode95 improving, but only to P14. But its too early to count out this duo. Bode95 has been solid on race day, improving an average of 4 positions per race, while RecklezzXV has had solid qualifying pace, lining up P11 in both races. Both could be primed for a breakout race.
Alpine currently sits P9 in the standings after a rough day in France. Wizbang02 and stevenaj1125 qualified P17 and P18 before finishing P18 and P19. While the pace wasn’t there in qualifying or the race, the Alpine duo will set their sights on Hungary and look to bounce back to their point scoring ways.
Williams had a decent, albeit unlucky outing at Le Castellet. SSPoTs had phenomenal pace, as evidenced by his P4 grid slot, and his fastest lap point, but would have to settle for P8. Meanwhile ChrisKYU62 qualified a respectable P14, but after accumulating a fair number of penalties, slid back to P16. Both had their strategy interrupted by the rain, which resulted in both being on two stop strategies, while the majority of the field was on a one stop strategy. Now that Williams has proved they have points-worthy pace, can they string a couple results together?
For the second week in a row, Ferrari has lined up without team principal Bigryeguy98 in the lineup. And again, they narrowly missed out on their first points of the season, with Aleixcucco27 finishing P11 and Quothraven44 finishing P13. With the principal returning this week, and Aleixcucco27 continually knocking on the door of the top 10, we could see Ferrari’s return in Hungary.
Mercedes had a day to forget in France with HAL9100 finishing in P15, and jmtitan10 finishing P17. But Mercedes has no reason to despair yet, with the team sitting in P6 currently despite bad luck in both races. HAL9100 and jmtitan10 have both looked solid on race day, but they may need a boon in their qualifying performance to get back into the points.
Red Bull shot up the standings this week following an 18 point performance from reserve driver fivesix2KING. Moosemtz15 put in a solid drive as well, gaining 7 positions to finish P12 after starting P19. With juzzzyb assumedly returning in Hungary, and coming off of points his last time out in Jeddah, Red Bull could be poised to grow their lead on the bottom half of the table.
Despite missing out on the podium due to track limit penalties, Aston Martin had their best week since the fifth round of season 2, grabbing 20 points. Guitarhero1234, who started P9, battled for P3 throughout the race, grabbing the position in the damp conditions, but was relegated to P4 due to track limits. Meanwhile isiboy23 picked up 8 valuable points after a steady drive saw him hold onto his starting position of P6. Only 3 points off of P3, Aston Martin is looking like a valid contender at the top of the table.
McLaren had another double points finish in France, due in large part to a strong qualifying performance. PCC-Godly lined up third, a mere three tenths off pole, while KENNYHITMANHART qualified eighth, giving McLaren two cars in the first four rows. Unfortunately, both drivers were involved in separate incidents that sent them pirouetting off track. Both would put together strong recovery drives to finish P5 and P7 respectively.
Haas continued their trend of consistently scoring solid points in France, buoyed largely by ghost_726’s return to the lineup. After a disappointing qualifying, ghost_726 picked up 7 spots during the race to finish P3 and grab his first points of the season. xINCIDENTx fared better in qualifying, lining up seventh, but an early spin, compounded by dense traffic, saw him unable to pick his way through the field. While he’ll be disappointed to pick up only one point, he extended his point scoring streak, which stretches all the way back to the second race of season 2.
Alfa Romeo had a bit of a mixed weekend, but will walk away from France with 27 points and the team race win. Sayayines4ever continued his strong start to the season, qualifying on pole before cruising to a 7.6 second victory, his second in a row. Meanwhile, KB-0_07 crossed the line in P5, but found himself relegated to P9 after penalties were applied for causing a collision and an unsafe re-entry. At this point it is pretty clear both drivers have the pace, but composure under pressure is the remaining question mark