2006 Malaysian GP
Welcome to the 2nd round of the WSRC 2006 championship. We are here today for the Malaysian GP in soaking rain! Qualification results were a bit different this time due to the rain. Tom Matthews sits on pole followed by Reece Byrne which was almost a second behind. Then we have Diogo Vincenzi on third followed by Raltwest’s Bruno Castelló. New Audi driver Matthew Green, comes in 5th sided by Matt Finlay and on the last row we have Flavio Santos and Tom Pell who was unable to set a qualification lap.
Final qualification results:
Tom Matthews - 1:45.606
Reece Byrne - 1:46.624
Diogo Vincenzi - 1:46.990
Bruno Castelló - 1:47.904
Matthew Green - 1:48.111
Matt Finlay - 1:49.579
Flavio Santos - 1:55.956
Tom Pell - DNQ
So now let’s get on with the race! Red lights are on…and we off! Tom Matthews is able to keep the lead through the first corner followed by Reece Byrne and Vincenzi comes right behind closely followed by Matthew Green who was able to take 4th place off from Castello. Matt Finlay comes a little further behind and Flavio Santos comes in a very lonely 7th place. As the cars come for the first lap, Tom Pell is being black flagged! Wonder what is happening there. By end of the first lap, order remains unchanged. Now we come to the 2nd lap and Matthews keep the lead with Byrne closing in. Matthew Green passes Vincenzi and is now hunting Reece Byrne only a couple of tenths behind. Vincenzi lags behind as he seems to struggle with the car a bit. About 1.7 seconds behind is Catello and further behind comes Finlay. Flavio Santos seems to be struggling too as he comes in 7th over 15 seconds behind! On to lap 3 and Matthews is able to open the gap a bit to Byrne who in turn open a bit to Green as well. About a second behind comes Vincenzi followed by Castello another second behind. Matt Finlay is now a little over 2 seconds behind Castello with Santos very far. Now we come to the end of lap four and we have the first pit stops. Matthews, Byrne, Castello and Finlay all have their stops but Byrne is able to come ahead of Matthews. With this, Matthew Green takes the lead followed by Vincenzi right behind and then Byrne, Matthews, Castello, Finlay and Santos form the rest of the pack. We now come to the end of lap 5 with Matthew Green on the lead. Vincenzi goes to the pits and comes back in 4th while Matthews is able to pass Byrne to take 2nd place. Incredible performance from Matthews so far. Vincenzi was still able to come ahead of Castello, so Bruno comes in 5th and 11 seconds behind comes Finlay. Santos very far behind. On the 6th lap, Green goes to the pits giving Matthews the lead again that is now opening quite a gap to Byrne. Vincenzi is able to pass Green as he exits the pits. Castello, Finlay are still on the respective positions while Santos goes to the pits and gets lapped by the leader. Lap 7 and we see Matthews first, and then comes Byrne about a second behind with Vincenzi and Green very close to each other. Castello is able to close the gap a bit and is now about 2 seconds behind. Finlay comes over 12 seconds later with Santos in 7th. Now on to the final lap! Tom Matthews is able to finish the race in first about 2.5 seconds ahead of Byrne who comes in second. Green is third and so Vincenzi comes in fourth. Castello finishes 5th followed by Finlay who gets the last point in 6th. Santos comes off in 7th at the end of the race. This is it race fans! We’ll be seeing you in two weeks time for the Austrian GP. See you next time!
End results:
Tom Matthews - 0h14m47.883s
Reece Byrne - 0h14m51.266s
Matthew Green - 0h14m56.160s
Diogo Vincenzi - 0h14m56.579s
Bruno Castello - 0h15m02.227s
Matt Finlay - 0h15m16.248s
Flavio Santos - 0h16m56.586s
Tom Pell – DNF – Wrong Checksum Data/Wrong Name/Wrong Team Name
Fastest Laps:
Tom Matthews – 1:45.759
Matthew Green – 1:46.525
Reece Byrne – 1:46.816
Diogo Vincenzi – 1:47.377
Bruno Castello – 1:48.315
Matt Finlay – 1:49.506
Flavio Santos – 1:55.061
Driver Points:
Tom Matthews - 20
Reece Byrne - 9
Diogo Vincenzi – 7
Matt Finlay - 7
Bruno Castelló - 4
Matthew Green - 4
Kyle Schreoder - 1
Flavio Santos - 0
Tom Pell - 0
Constructor Points:
Team KDR Porsche - 20
Holden Motorsports - 16
Audi Motorsports - 11
RaltWest Racing - 4
Rhino Racing - 1
Ford Racing - 0
Eclipse Motorsports - 0