Lola Heritage

14/04/12 - CAMPANA BEATS QUAIFE-HOBBS TO RACE 1 WIN AT MARRAKESH

Sergio Campana is the fourth different winner of the Auto GP 2012 season. The Italian F3 Champion took an amazing success crossing the line with an advantage of just two tenths on championship leader Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, after a glowing-hot fight in the last five laps of the Race.

The duel for the win was the last act of an action-packed Race 1 that proved to be eventful right from the start: poleman Sergey Sirotkin nearly stalled when the lights went off and dropped to P9, while Pål Varhaug clinched a perfect start and took the lead ahead of Campana, Quaife-Hobbs, Giancarlo Serenelli, Chris Van Der Drift, Facu Regalia and Daniel de Jong.

Despite some big pressure from Campana in the first few laps, Varhaug held the lead quite comfortably ahead of the MLR71 driver, while Quaife-Hobbs already seemed to struggle with tyres and had to defend his 3rd place by some well placed attacks by Serenelli.

On lap 4 the Briton stopped to change tyres with an early pit-stop strategy, followed by Van der Drift, Victor Guerin and Max Snegirev. Behind the leaders, the very first laps also saw some action: after his bad start Sirotkin gave his best to recover and went past Ricci on the first lap, then doing the same with de Jong one lap later; in the meantime Regalia was putting pressure on Van der Drift for fifth place but on lap 3 the Argentinian driver of Campos Racing spun at the second chicane and went into the wall, luckily with damages for the car alone.

At half race Varhaug started stretching his lead on Campana, who stopped for his mandatory tyre change on lap 10. Varhaug did the same at the end of lap 12, and that was a key moment of the race: the Norwegian, who seemed headed for an easy win, stalled his Virtuosi UK car at the restart and lost a lot of time, exiting the pits in third place 10" adrift from Quaife-Hobbs.

So the fight for the win became a matter between Campana and the talented Briton of SuperNova: Sergio had just a 1" gap on Adrian after the pit-stop and managed to control the situation until 3 laps to go, when the grip of his rear tyres really started fading.

Quaife-Hobbs tried to make the most of his rival's traction struggles, but Campana used the layout of the Moulay El Hassan circuit and the Overboost he had left in the best possible way, boasting a stunning defensive drive. The two went side by side many times but Campana managed to keep the inside line at every chicane and eventually crossed the line first, giving newcomer MLR71 their first win in the Championship.

A disappointed Varhaug closed the race in third place followed by Van der Drift, with Ricci 5th ahead of Sirotkin. De Jong was 7th, while Antonio Spavone took P8 and hence will start from pole on tomorrow's reversed grid. The Italian got a penalty for cutting a chicane while he was fighting with Quaife-Hobbs, but despite that he managed to finish well into the top ten, boasting another convincing performance.

9th place went to Ombra's Yann Cunha, while Series returnee Francesco Dracone got the last available point with P10.

Marrakesh, Race 1, 14 April 2012

1 Sergio CAMPANA MLR 71 19 laps in 29:34.199, avg 175.22kph
2 Adrian QUAIFE-HOBBS Supernova International +0.186
3 Pal VARHAUG Virtuosi UK +5.951
4 Chris VAN DER DRIFT Manor MP Motorsport +36.677
5 Giacomo RICCI Zele Racing +38.902
6 Sergey SIROTKIN Euronova Racing +40.169
7 Daniel DE JONG Manor MP Motorsport +59.207
8 Antonio SPAVONE Euronova Racing +59.324
9 Yann CUNHA Ombra Racing +1:07.767
10 Francesco DRACONE Virtuosi UK +1:08.838
11 Giancarlo SERENELLI Ombra Racing +1:08.888
12 Michele LA ROSA MLR 71 +1:16.185
13 Max SNEGIREV Campos Racing +1 LAP
NC Victor GUERIN BRA Supernova International
NC Facu REGALIA ARG Campos Racing
NC Giuseppe CIPRIANI ITA Campos Racing

FASTEST LAP Lap 5 by Sergio CAMPANA in 1:29.830, avg 182.14kph

Drivers Standings:
1. Quaife-Hobbs 95; 2. Varhaug 71; 3. Sirotkin 60; 4. Van der Drift 49; 5. De Jong 43; 6. Campana 39; 7. Regalia 35; 8. Snegirev 22; 9. Ricci e Spavone 18; 11. Guerin 8; 12. Serenelli 5; 13. Fong 4; 14. Pentus e Cunha 2; 16. Cipriani e Dracone 1.

Under 21 Standings: 1. Quaife-Hobbs 105; 2. Varhaug e Sirotkin 77; 4. De Jong 49; 5. Regalia 45; 6. Spavone 42; 7. Guerin 24; 8. Cunha 14; 9. Beretta 9.

Team Standings: 1. SuperNova International 103; 2. Manor MP Motorsport 92; 3. Euronova Racing 78; 4. Virtuosi UK 73; 5. Campos Racing 57; 6. MLR71 39; 7. Zele Racing 18; 8. Ombra Racing 11.

Photos Auto GP.