| Following yesterday’s disappointing Feature Race for Racing Engineering, Nyck De Vries was starting from 13th position on the grid and Gustav Malja from 14th for today’s 28-lap Sprint Race at Jerez. Both men were using the Pirelli P Zero White medium compound tyres and both men were aiming to score as many points as possible on this track where overtaking is not easy but preserving their tyres would be very important.
Nyck had a good opening lap moving up to 11th as he passed Jeffri and Ghiotto and he was soon embroiled in a big group of cars all battling for position and on lap three he passed a retiring King and Sette Camara but, on the following lap he was repassed by Sette Camara and Jeffri, to fall to 11th. By lap six Nyck was still in the big battle between the cars from 7th to 14th and he was soon able to regain his position from Jeffri moving back to 10th. The Racing Engineering driver soon opened out a 2.5 second gap over Jeffri and on lap 12 he moved ahead of Sette Camara again and as several cars were forced to pit for new tyres the young Dutchman was up to 7th on the following lap. Nyck’s next target was Nato who was 1.5 seconds ahead as the race reached the half-way point at fourteen laps, but the Frenchman was setting almost identical lap times to Racing Engineering car.
On lap twenty Nyck pitted for a set of soft compound Pirelli tyres as his medium compound tyres were now too badly worn and he resumed the track in 16th with just eight laps of the race left. Nyck now began to set some very quick lap times setting the fastest lap of the race so far on lap twenty-two and he was soon passing cars and by lap twenty-four he was 10th and chasing Nato once again. Two laps later he easily passed the Arden car and he immediately got ahead of Albon and with one lap to go he was 7th as he passed Palou and, as the cars crossed the finishing line, he was able to out-drag the 2017 GP2 Champion Leclerc to take 6th at the flag.
Gustav was in trouble before the start as the set of tyres he was due to use for the race had a puncture so the team were forced to fit a set that had already been used in yesterday’s race The young Swede held on to 14th place on the opening lap but he was under pressure from Ferrucci and Delétraz and, although the retirement of King promoted him to 13th, on lap four he fell behind Ferrucci, Delétraz and Giotto falling to 16th as his tyre handicap slowed his pace. Two laps later he was passed by Binder and Boschung leaving him in 18th and he then fell behind Gelael to lie 19th. in the closing laps he was able to pass Boschung for 18th which was where he finished the race.
A mixed race for Racing Engineering as Gustav was never on the pace through no fault of his own but Nyck drove very well, gaining eight places on a circuit where overtaking is very difficult and he was able to add more points to his score. There will now be a seven week gap until the final race of the season at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi. |
