US GP: Race Notebook
motorsport-live.com September 10th, 2017
An unexpected winner here in the desert as
Aki Lipponen put himself fourth in the WDC with 25 points, and gets his team 29 points behind
Panther for fourth in the Constructors. The Finn was visibly happy when he sprayed champagne all over the podium and into the face of their aerodynamic director, and he truly deserved this win.
"A good start, a little bit of luck after the first pit stop phase as all of his direct competitors got caught up in traffic, and a flawless strategy," said former Formula One World Champion Niki Lauda after the race.
Dangerous Moments:
This result was nearly overshadowed by three incidents that could've been catastrophic though.
Dieter Wexler described his moment this way: "So, I got away bad and then saw
Lipponen besides me suddenly. I react and weave a bit to the outside... and then my rear broke out... and I am flying towards the concrete wall. Luckily, I got it under control and could continue, but that was a rather stressful one," he said.
Former driver and BBC expert David Coulthard put to protocol that "if he hits the wall and rebounds into the pack, we are in for a massive crash."
Wexler's day continued that way as his tyres went away in the final lap and he lost two places on the rundown to the chequered flag.
Zoe Sharp's incident was eagerly similar, but at least, nobody was around her that time. "I tried to change the brake balance. We had a problem with the rear suspension for two laps now, and were trying different settings when the car started to move uncontrollable. Luckily, I got it onto the grass."
The final one happened between the Russian driver
Nikolai Surikov and
Lucía Flores in the last corner of the infield section. "Thought, she was further behind and not in my slipstream. Guess I pulled over in front of her when she tried to overtake. Very sorry for that," the
Panther pilot said. That one brought out the...
Controversial VSC:
Virtual Safety car. That one really made a difference here as the drivers on the banking lost a ton of time by slowing down to VSC speed, while the drivers in the infield section and in the pits gained massively.
"
Gonzalez and
Schmidt got basically a free pit stop," said
Lotus boss Dan Martinson, whose driver finished third. "All the drivers on the bankings drove with like 100 kph instead of 300 and lost so much time."
That also helped
Lipponen as he gained 10 seconds to
Chapman.
After Eleven Races:
This chaotic one let to
Chapman gaining 10 more points of cushion, meaning he now has a whole race win in the pocket, and with
Holtz 65 points behind, it is a straight up fight between those two.
On the Constructor's side, the battle between
Lotus Racing and
Van Dort Racing continues with
Van Dort narrowing the gap to two points again with a great drive by
Maria Gonzalez.
Race Result:
Standings: