A testing weekend in France, but ‘Luchi’ remains on top.

27/07/2012

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In a sun drenched weekend at the Paul Ricard circuit in Provence, southern France over the weekend of July 21st/22nd, Comma-sponsored Luciano Bacheta maintained his lead at the top of the FIA Formula Two championship with a second place podium result in Race 1 and a closely fought fifth place in Race 2.

While 'Luchi' was very confident following his pre-event race pace in Friday's official practice runs, sheer bad luck in the qualifying sessions – fourth on the grid in Race 1 and an even more disappointing sixth alongside fellow Brit Dino Zamparelli in Race 2 – meant that had to work in damage limitation mode while still giving it his best shot throughout both contests. A brilliant start in Race 1 immediately promoted him to second place in pursuit of the pole-sitting Matheo Tuscher, but even a boost-assisted late race challenge wasn't quite enough to displace the Swiss teenage prodigy. Luchi wasn't quite as sharp off the line in Race 2, so while he forged past a slow-starting Zamparelli, that was as promising as it got for the rest of the 19 laps in which he had to hold at bay Romania's Mihai Marinescu for the first half and a very racy looking Zamparelli for the second half of the race.

So Tuscher it was who hogged the lion's share of the weekend's points haul, making good on the widely held expectation that he would soon register his first F2 race victory with an assured winning performance in Race 1, and following up with an equally mature effort to take second place behind Germany's Marcus Pommer – with who he shared the front row in both races - in Race 2.

Having in the process become the youngest ever driver to claim an F2 race victory, the fifteen year old has now promoted himself to second place in the overall championship battle, 32.5 points behind Bacheta and 14 ahead of fellow Swiss Christopher Zanella who recovered from a lack-lustre eighth in Race 1 to claim third in Race 2. Apart from these three, only Pommer on 140 and Marinescu on 135 points respectively remain in theoretical contention for the official Williams F1 test that goes to the winner, and the official GP2 test drives that are awarded to the second and third place drivers in the F2 championship.

For all of them, the remaining four races of the season at the Hungaroring and Monza – with 100 race winning points in all still available - promise to be nerve-testing affairs. There's all still to play for, but while the hot money can't see very far beyond 'Luchi' prevailing ahead of 'The Kid' Matheo, a DNF for any of the top contenders could completely change the complexion of the battle.

In addition to sponsoring Luciano Bacheta's No 4 car in the series, Comma has been Technical Partner to FIA Formula Two, and the exclusive supplier of engine oils, coolants and maintenance chemicals to the championship since it was launched in 2009. All of the identical 500bhp Williams F1 designed Formula Two race cars are lubricated, cooled and serviced with maintenance products supplied by Comma.

You can read detailed race reports, view the complete championship standings and keep up with all the other latest FIA Formula Two news at the excellent official Formula Two website.