A crash on the first lap saw many of the front runners retire or drop positions, which left Rodrigo Fonseca out in front to take the win after a dramatic race that also saw Harrison Newey fail to start the race, after claiming pole.
Newey found himself being wheeled away at the start after being unable to get going. This left his team mate and championship leader, Will Palmer to lead the field away. However; Palmer went off at the Deene Hairpin in an incident with Jordan Albert. The two drivers locked up and ran wide, but this caused the drivers behind to do the same causing carnage, and seeing them retire with accident damage. Palmer, Tom Jackson, Hernan Fallas and Fernando Urrutia were all eliminated.
The Safety Car was deployed as the field bunched up. Fonseca lead from Jack Lang and Akhil Rabindra. The race was restarted after four laps and immediately, Fonseca pulling away, with Lang having a queue form behind him.
While others had retired, Jack Bartholomew, Albert and Chris Mealin found themselves forcing their way through the pack in order to claim a good result from the race after the first lap incident.
Ameya Vaidyanthan, who had been fourth after the restart had made his way past Rabindra and started to close in on the struggling Lang in front. Lang was now 2 seconds down on the leader who had set the fastest lap earlier on.
The Indian driver, Vaidyanthan had attempted a move on the penultimate lap, but only managed to make it stick around the outside of the Deene Hairpin, one lap later. He was too far back to challenge the leader however, allowing Fonseca an easy race to take the win ahead of Vaidyanthan, Lang, with Mealin, Albert and Bartholomew who all raced expertly to come back from their troubled starts.
The result means that Mealin takes the championship lead with 90 points with Fonseca second on 84, while the old championship leader, Palmer, falls to third on 74 points. While his eighth place today sees Michael O’Brien on pole for race 2 tomorrow.
Rockingham Race 1 Result
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