Michael Lyon‘s run of form continued at the Nurburgring, taking two strong wins in the FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship.
Fresh from his double victory at the Silverstone Classic, Lyons took his maiden historic F1 wins at the Nurburging in his RAM Williams FW07 despite failing to make pole position in qualifying. After being held in second for the opening lap, Lyons took the lead at the first corner of the second lap and never looked back.
The Felsted-based driver cruised to a 15 second winning margin in the 16 lap race, as well as comfortably posting the fastest lap. He then lined up from pole for the second race and stormed off in to the lead, pulling out another 15 second advantage.
A late safety car period saw his lead disappear, but a perfect restart on the final one lap dash to the line meant he took victory by three seconds while taking yet another fastest lap.
“We didn’t use new tyres in qualifying, in retrospect we should have, but I did get baulked as well by traffic which was a little bit frustrating – we were quick enough for pole”, explained the 22-year-old, “I managed to get the lead of the first race at the start of lap two and then pulled away, we also had fastest lap by more than a second.
“I was leading race two by the same margin but then we had the late Safety Car. I judged the re-start just right, caught the others napping, and won by three seconds. It’s great to carry on the winning momentum from Silverstone, overall it was a really good weekend. Nurburgring was the first place I ever raced an F1 car when I was 16, so it’s fantastic to finally win there.”
The next round of the FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship takes place at Zandvoort in the Netherlands on 31 August/1 September, after which Lyons will return to his contemporary racing career in the International GT Open at Spa-Francorchamps on 7/8 August.
