Round 7 of the WTEC 2021 will take place today – and a lot is at stake when the stage will be set for the final races. FP1 already showed raw pace and some surprises.
First things first, Daniele Cascardo set the fastest lap of FP1. But did he? The Italian wrote a 1:18.300 on the table. Enough to start the longrungs from pole position. But the pace rose and saw Charlie Bebb set the fastest lap with 1:17.952 and crushing the 1:18.000 several times.
Championship-Leader Gluscic set the third fastest time in practice, so we can expect him to be in the first row when the big points are handed out tonight. At the moment Gluscic is 10 points ahead of Cascardo and 15 points ahead of Brumby. If Gluscic manages to extend his lead at Brands Hatch, he would already be in a comfortable position for the end of the season. But if he fails to keep up his tremendous consistency tonight, it’s most likely that the top three will be separated by less than 15 points when going into the last three races.
Battle for P4
Going into tonight’s race, 5 drivers are involved in the fight for P4 in the championship. Renders leads the group from P4 to P8, that is separated by 21 points. Runner-Up to Renders is Sandro Kapeller. The Austrian only lacks 4.5 points to P4 and has surprised everyone with the second fastest lap in FP1, underlining his ambitions on a track he held pole position last season. Charlie Bebb may lack big 19 points on P4, but his pace earns him a place among the favorites for the win in every race – same applies to Colin Wynn, who would just need to get his pit crew under control to make big points again. Graeme Brown, a point ahead of his teammate Wynn, would just need to cross the finish line on a position that correlates to his pace, and he would reach for P4 in the championship.
Fight for the Top 10
The battle for P9 is led by Joost Simkens (Den Kaap), just two points in front of Francesco Cuscino, and another five in front of Nicholas Allen. Each of them missed some races and had unfortunate incidents during the season- so we are excited to see who of them can exploit his potential in the final rounds of the season.
At the same time, Alfonso Ruiz (who could have taken victory at Brands Hatch last season), Kent Gardner and Iwan Bremer might get in the fight for the Top 10 again, if they manage to sort out their problems.
WTEC-2021 Round 7:
Brands Hatch, February 6th 2022
# 18:45 GMT – Practice
# 19:45 GMT – Qualifying
# 20:00 GMT – 90 Minutes Race