IS1 S6 R1: Barnes wins in Bahrain!
Season 6 kicks off in the desert, making it the only season where Toban has not hosted the season opener.
To the grid and it was Joe Ethier who seized the initiative, taking his first pole position of the season. Just behind him was the rookie, Ted Enston putting in a fantastic performance for MRT. Row 2 was clash of the champions and the two season 4 rivals, Barnes and Nyerges.
In 5th was Ricardo Martins who just knocked Ron Squire out of Q1 at the last minute. In 7th was the second Squire car of Jack Ellis, followed by the remaining Sim Sport car of Tom Alcock, and finally Lorenzo De Ciutiis for MRT rounding up the back of the grid.
To the race start and both cars on the front row got an equal launch. Just behind them, a cautious start for Will Barnes dropped him down to 5th and behind Ricardo Martins, who soon ran wide at turn 4, allowing both Barnes and Squire to make up ground.
As the train hurtled down past the 1st sector for the first time, Enston ran extremely deep, allowing Nyerges to close right up onto his rear wing. As they plunged through turns 9 and 10, Ted ran deep allowing Tyler to jump from 4th to 2nd in half a lap. He was soon followed by Will Barnes, with the Relentless driver pulling off a move down the inside heading down into turn 11.
Ted’s woes continued as he ran off the track at the penultimate corner, allowing Ricardo martins and Ron Squire to make their way past. But it was just a matter of time until the Welshman closed up on the Brazilian Sim Sport driver, and soon enough he was all over the back end of the Martini rear wing. Enston tried a daring move around the outside, but as the track tightened up at turns 2 and 3, Enston banged wheels with the Sim Sport car and spun out as a consequence.
Having suffered damage on lap 1, Alcock and Ellis both made their way into the pits for an unscheduled stop. As Tom made his way down the pit lane, the Squire team released Ellis and the pair went wheel to wheel towards the pit exit. As they re-joined the track and headed down into turn 1, Ellis made light contact with the Brit but fortunately no major damage was done.
For the first time in league history, DRS was available. But due to the dirty air effect, Will was unable to capitalize on the straight line speed advantage in the given DRS zones. However, come lap 8 the Relentless driver decided to follow Nyerges into the pit lane. A decision which paid off handsomely as a slow stop for the season 4 WC meant that Barnes exited ahead. Despite some slight contact in the pit lane, the pair remained intact with Ron Squire just ahead of them.
Ron had not yet stopped having started on the harder compound of tyre, but with much greater tyre wear he was running wide all over the place. Will assumed the Squire car was trying to get out of the way and made a late lunge at turn 10. But with no mirrors and some bad communication between the pair, Barnes made light contact and spun, handing the position back to Tyler. Come the end of the lap, Tyler got alongside and eventually eased past the Squire car into turn 1 on the next lap.
Meanwhile, Ricardo Martins spun off the track, causing Ted Enston to take evasive action. Martins and Enston both pitted at the end of the lap, but due to a slow stop, the MRT car then lost out on the place he had just made up.
With the aid of DRS, Ted made a bold move at turn 11 before Ricardo ran wide. But then onto the next lap the pendulum swung back in Ricardo’s favour, and with the help of DRS, the Sim Sport driver slingshot his way past Enston, who would soon have to retire due to other commitments.
Will had taken a huge amount of time out of Tyler on his second stint, despite being on the harder tyres. However, when Tyler stopped some laps earlier he began rapidly closing on the Relentless car. Just when Tyler was ready to pounce, Will dived into the pitlane for his second of three stops. Now was the time for him to push, and he had to swiftly make his way through traffic in order to keep his hopes of re-passing Tyler alive. Despite some dramatic mistakes, Will just edged ahead of the Australian. But being on cold tyres, Tyler prepared to launch a skilfully attack on Barnes around the outside of turn 11. But as Will ran onto the kerb and Tyler lagged, the two made contact causing Tyler to half-spin his ZERO Simracing car.
Unfortunately, some laps later Tyler’s charge was halted as an engine problem forced him to park up. Just a lap or so later, Ron Squire darted to the inside of Tom Alcock down the start/finish straight to take 4th.
Joe was in a league of his own, around a minute ahead of anyone until connection issues cruelly ended a dominant race. This then meant that Will Barnes took an unlikely victory, ahead of Ricardo Martins and Ron Squire rounding out the podium.
So the drivers’ championship shapes up with Barnes on top, with his main rivals Ethier, Nyerges and Enston all retiring and finishing in 4th, 6th and 8th respectively. In the constructors’, Sim Sport have 3 point cushion ahead of Squire motorsports. Just behind them is Relentless on 12 points, then it’s a sizeable gap back to Force Canada and MRT who are both tied on 7 points. Last but not least is ZERO Sim Racing, the three-time World Champions suffering a torrid result despite showing encouraging pace.
That’s all here from Bahrain, we’ll see you next time in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix on the 9th of August.
