Worlds Final is GO – Live Coverage

Warmup has begun, 4 minutes to race start.

Cars have been called to the grid.

Final is GO!

Lap 1 – Groskamp leads from Tironi. Tosolini spins out and last
1 minute – Balestri gets Stop & Go for hitting Leino
2 minutes – Groskamp clear lead from Lemieux
3 minutes – Top 4 – Groskamp, Lemieux, Leino and Tironi. Tosolini up to 6th.
3:30 minutes – Tosolini hits Bertin. Gets Stop & Go.
4:30 minutes – Groskamp still leads from Lemieux.
5:30 minutes – After first Pitstops. Groskamp extends lead.
6 minutes – Balestri out. Front corner off after getting collected following a spin.
7 minutes – Order is Groskamp, Lemieux, Leino, Tironi
7:30 minutes – Groskamp makes mistake, Lemieux leads.
9 minutes – Lemieux has comfortable lead from Groskamp and Leino.
10 minutes – Tosolini and Groskamp run out of fuel.
11 minutes – After second pit stops – Lemieux, Leino, Groskamp and Bertin. Top 8 on lead lap.
12 minutes – Order is Lemieux, Leino, Groskamp, Bertin, Tironi, Hudy, Ielasi, Christensen, Tosolini & Balestri (out).
13:30 minutes – Balestri rejoins race.
15 minutes – Bertin stalls during pitstop
16 minutes – Leino’s car stops on track
17 minutes – Leader Lemieux about to lap Groskamp who is second!
18 minutes – Order is Lemieux, Groskamp, Hudy, Tironi, Ielasi, Christensen, Bertin, Tosolini, Leino & Balestri.
19:30 minutes – Groskamp stalls after his pit stop.
20 minutes – Lemieux has lapped entire field. Hudy second. Groskamp back running – now 6th.
22 minutes – Lemieux about to pass Hudy who is second 2 laps down!
24:30 minutes – Order is Lemieux, Hudy, Ielasi, Tironi, Christensen, Groskamp, Bertin, Tosolini, Leino & Balestri.
26 minutes – Lemieux 2 laps up on the entire field! Balestri crashes again.
27 minutes – Groskamp closing on Tironi for fifth.
28 minutes – Lemieux doing tyre change.
29 minutes – Lemieux’s car stalls – trouble restarting but he is back on track
30 minutes – Half way and Hudy leads from Ielasi and Christensen. Lemieux 9th.
32 minutes – Order Hudy, Ielasi, Christensen, Groskamp, Tironi, Tosolini, Bertin, Leino, Lemieux and Balestri (out).
34 minutes – Groskamp stalls again after pit stop. Pit crew adjust ideal.
35 minutes – Order is Ielasi, Hudy, Christensen, Tironi, Tosolini, Leino, Groskamp, Bertin, Lemieux.
36 minutes – Lemieux running super fast laps but 2 laps down running 8th but he has fresh tyres.
38 minutes – Leino crashes and damages car.
39 minutes – Bertin stops on track.
42 minutes – Bertin changing engine!
44 minutes – Ielasi leading from Hudy and Christensen. Lemieux is 7th now one lap down.
48 minutes – Hudy back in lead from Ielasi. Lemieux storming through the field and 6th.
52 minutes – Hudy leads from Ielasi
53 minutes – Tironi rolls
55 minutes – Tosolini passes Hudy for second
57 minutes – Ielasi leads by almost a full lap
57:30 minutes – Christensen stops on track
58 minutes – Order Ielasi, Tosolini, Hudy, Lemieux, Groskamp, Tironi, Christensen, Bertin
60 minutes – Ielasi is World Champion

Worlds Final grid finalised

The grid for the 2008 1:10 200mm World Championships has been finalised with Swede Roland Strom loosing his place to Slovak driver Martin Hudy after an error in the combined result of the Semi B was discovered.

Final Starting order
1. Jilles Groskamp (NL)
2. Chris Tosolini (USA)
3. Daniele Ielasi (IT)
4. Francesco Tironi (IT)
5. Martin Christensen (DNK)
6. Teemu Leino (FIN)
7. Balestri Dario (IT)
8. Paul Lemieux (USA)
9. Adrien Bertin (LUX)
10. Martin Hudy (SK)

Christensen, Balestri & Bertin complete WC grid

We have our grid for the one hour Main Final that will get underway in just under an hours time and determine who the new 2008 World Champion will be.

The Semi A was the last run before the big race and a superb drive by Martin Christensen saw the Dane lead home a class act with double European Champion Dario Balestri, from whom he took the race lead during the final pit stop, taking second and double World Champion Adrien Bertin taking the last of the bump up placings.

Starting from pole Balestri’s Novarossi powered Team Magic lead the way but the very fast Christensen chased him down. Entering the pits at 25 minutes, right on the tail of Balestri, a superb stop by the pitman of the Xray/Sirio driver allowed him to get passed the Italian where he would stay until the end. Bertin, who only came up the order late in the race, was pushed hard to the end by Josh Cyrul but the America ran out of time finishing just under 4 seconds behind the Frenchman.

The race which was delayed twice, firstly after quick Aussie Peter Jovanovic called 10-minutes and then again when Walter Salemi had radio problems. Both got to start the race but unfortunately neither were to finish, Jovanovic lost steering due to fuel in his electrics while Salemi broke his Mugen early on. Fast German Robert Pietsch was holding a bump up position but retired just after the half way distant. Once again US Xray driver Ralph Burch was the fastest man on the track but he flamed just before his 2nd stop, ending all chances for him to bump up.

The main final is due to get underway at 18:10 GMT with driver presentations and 15 minutes after the race will begin. We will be bringing you live updates throughout the race on Red RC.

Update: There is currently a protest underway regarding the results of Semi Final B so until that is resolved we cant bring you the main final starting order.

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Leino, Strom & Lemieux into Final

Teemu Leino, Roland Strom and Paul Lemieux have secured their places in the 2008 Worlds Final after taking the top 3 places in the Semi Final B combined results. The race had to be run over two parts after a rain shower interrupted to orginal run 17 minutes in. Lemieux had a comfortable lead over Leino in the first part of the final when the weather caused the race director to stop the race.

In the second part, run over the 13 remaining minutes of the half hour race distannce, Lemieux started from pole but quickly fell back down the order leaving Leino to cruise to the win of both the second part of the race and the overall ranking. Swede Strom, who put pressure on Leino for the second win, eventually claimed second and the runners up spot in the combined result while Lemieux’s win in the first part plus his fifth in Part 2 was enough to secure 3rd overall. Martin Hudy was having a great drive but was hit with radio glitches in the dying part of the race which appear to have cost him a place in the final.

The Semi B brought to an end the great showing by 1:5 World Champion Martin Lissau who’s car suffered a wheel axle failure in the second half of the race causing him to miss the start. He got going again but pulled up with further problems after just 8 laps. Also dropping out from the event in this race was Japan’s Takaaki Shimo who had battled for the TQ in early qualifying.

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Semi Final B Update

The Semi B Final has been stopped due to rain. Young American star Paul Lemieux was holding a comfortable lead from fellow electric touring car ace Teemu Leino with 13 minutes to go when a shower caused the race to be stopped. The remaining part of the race will be run after a short delay with the two parts added together to decide the result. Due to the weather interruption it will now be the Top 3 from each Semi that progress to the Main Final.

Update (15:21 GMT): It has started raining again, so the delay will continue until further notice. Looking at the skies here, it appears that it will be some time before the rain clears. We will keep you posted.

Update (15:37 GMT): Race Director Frank Noens has just announced that a final decision on whether to continue racing today or move it to tomorrow’s scheduled spare day will be made a 16:00 GMT.

Update (15:56 GMT): Racing is to resume in just under 5 minutes with the second part of the Semi Final B which is to run over 13 minutes. Drivers will line up in the order in which they finished Part 1 of the race so Paul Lemieux is on pole from Teemu Leino.

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World Champion Fukuda out

Defending World Champion Keisuke Fukuda will take no further part in the 2008 World Championship after finishing outside the top 3 in the 1/4 Final B. With the Japanese driver not progressing to the next final it means, weather permitting, that this evening we will have a new World Champion.

The 1/4 Final B was dominated by electric touring ace Teemu Leino who lead from start to finish under the guideance of double World Champion Adrien Bertin and his super fast pitman. Behind the Finn it was another Scandanavian who drove a faultless race as Sweden’s Roland Storm took second.

The big battle of the race was for third between Hideo Kitazawa and local driver Filipe Costa. Entering for their final pit stop together it was Kitazawa who had the faster stop allowing him to get passed Costa to take the final bump position. After the race Costa, who was the top Portuguese qualifier, was clearly heart broken to have come so close to making the Semis.

For the second time in a row Fukada missed the start after his Ninja engine cut but 8 minutes in his race was to come to an end after he was given a Stop & Go penalty for an incident with fellow countryman Kitazawa. Team-mate Rick V also saw his World’s come to an early end when his suffered terminal engine problems. Another big casualty of the 20 minute final was current Electric Touring European Champion Marc Rheinard, who looked to have pace for a Top 3 result, but the German rolled his Team Magic three minutes in having worked his way from ninth on the grid up to fourth.

The 1/4 Final A saw a pretty frantic start to the race. Basile Concialdi took the early lead but rolled back to last on the third lap. With Spanish driver Oscar Cabezas taking up the lead, which he would hold till the end, the big battle behind was for second. In the very tightly packed group Mark Green was given a Stop & Go penalty for contact with Josue Artiles which dropped him to last. Although the British ace recovered to fourth its an early exit for the star of the 2006 Worlds in Brazil. Walter Salemi eventually took second followed closely by American ace Josh Cyrul ensuring that both go through to the Semis.

Another big casualty of the quarter finals was local racer and Off road ace Miguel Matias, who was in a bump up position until problems meant he dropped down to 7th by the end of the race.

1/2 Final – A starting order
1. Balestri Dario (IT) – Team Magic/Novarossi/ATS
2. D’Angelo Giuseppe (IT) – Mugen/Novarossi/ATS
3. Martin Christensen (DNK) – Xray/Sirio/Matrix
4. Robert Pietsch (DE) – Xray/Novarossi/ATS
5. Peter Jovanovic (AUS) – Xray/Novarossi/LRP
6. Adrien Bertin (LUX) – Kyosho/Orion/Matrix
7. Ralph Burch (USA) – Xray/Max Power/Jaco
8. Oscar Cabezas (ARG) – Serpent/Mega/Enneti
9. Walter Salemi (IT) – Mugen/GRP/GRP
10. Josh Cyrul (USA) – Xray/Novarossi/Jaco

1/2 Final – B starting order
1. Takaaki Shimo (JPN) – Kyosho/OS/Kyosho
2. Martin Lissau (DNK) – Xray/GRP/GRP
3. Mazzeo Alessio (IT) – Serpent/Max Power/Enneti
4. Paul Lemieux (USA) – Xray/Max Power/Jaco
5. Martin Hudy (SK) – Xray/Max Power/Xray
6. Dirk Wischnewski (DE) – Xray/Novarossi/Xray
7. Yuya Sahashi (JPN) – Serpent/Mega/Kawahara
8. Teemu Leino (FIN) – Xray/Orion/Xray
9. Roland Strom (SE) – Kyosho/GRP/GRP
10. Hideo Kitazawa (JPN) – Mugen/OS/Kawahara

The top 4 qualifiers are currently wrapping up their 1 hour long practice and following this we shall get straight into the Semi finals.

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