Punta del Este
After a month off, Formula E heads to South America for the first time in the series history as the streets of Punta del Este, Uruguay plays host to the all-electric championship.
Virgin Racing's Sam Bird won in convincing fashion last time the series raced from Putrajaya, Malaysia. The Brit led 21 of 31 laps as he would hold off Audi Sport Abt's Lucas di Grassi by 4.175 seconds. The Brazilian di Grassi leads the championship with 43 points, three points over Bird as di Grassi won the only other round of the Formula E season at Beijing.
Four drivers are tied for third in the championship with 18 points. Andretti Autosport's Franck Montagny finished second at Beijing but finished 15th at Putrajaya after contact with Venturi Grand Prix driver Nick Heidfeld damaged the Frenchman's car and led to a penalty ending any hope of scoring points. Montagna will not be at Punta del Este as Andretti Autosport has hired former Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Jean-Éric Vergne. Nicolas Prost of e.dams finished fourth at Putrajaya and has won both pole positions this season, which pay three points apiece. Mahindra's Karun Chandhok and Dragon Racing's Jérôme d'Ambrosio each have finished fifth and sixth this season with the Indian Chandhok bettering the Belgian at Beijing and the two drivers flipping positions at Putrajaya.
Sébastien Buemi has 15 points after finishing third at Putrajaya, just ahead of his e.dams teammate Prost. Charles Pic and Oriol Servià each have 12 points but Pic will not be at Punta del Este as American Matthew Brabham will replace the Frenchman for the second consecutive race.
Nelson Piquet, Jr., António Félix da Costa and Jaime Alguersuari all have four points while Stéphane Sarrazin, Daniel Abt and Takuma Sato all have two points. Sato substituted for da Costa at Beijing as the Portuguese driver had a conflict with his DTM duties.
Four drivers slated to run in Uruguay failed to score in the first two rounds. Bruno Senna was on his way to points at Putrajaya before an accident on the final lap. Nick Heidfeld could have won the premiere race at Beijing but was taken out by Prost and we know contact with Montagny ended his race at Putrajaya. Both TrulliGP drivers, Jarno Trulli and Michela Cerruti, have yet to finish in the points.
Joining Vergne as Formula E debutants in Uruguay are Antonio García, who will replace Ho-Pin Tung in the second China Racing seat and Salvador Durán will replace Katherine Legge in the second Aguri ride. García was slated to run Putrajaya but after the Thailand round was dropped from the Asian Le Mans Series schedule, Tung was freed to run. The Chinese driver will be competing in the Gulf 12 Hours (more on that in a moment). Legge failed to score in each of the first two races.
Audi Sport Abt leads the team championship with 45 points, one clear of Virgin Racing. Dragon Racing is third with 33 points. The other American team, Andretti Autosport and e.drams trail Dragon by three points. Mahindra has 18 points, all at the hands of Chandhok. Aguri has six points, China Racing has four and Venturi Grand Prix has two. As mentioned above, TrulliGP is still looking to get on the scoreboard.
Gulf 12 Hours
Twenty-five cars are entered for the Gulf 12 Hours from the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The unique split 6-hour formats features 16 GT3 cars with the Abu Dhabi Racing Black Falcon Mercedes returning to defend their title. The 2013 winning driver combination of Bernd Schneider, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Khaled Al Qubaisi returns in the #1 Mercedes while Richard Muscat, Hubert Haupt and Abdulaziz Al Faisal will run the #2 SLS AMG GT3.
Two McLaren 650S GT3s will be making their debut this weekend at the Gulf 12 Hours. The #59 will be driven by Rob Bell, Kevin Éstre and Álvaro Parente while Dutchmen Peter Kox and Nico Pronk will be in the #60 along with Frenchman Gilles Vannelet.
I.S.R. Racing has entered the #75 Audi R8 LMS GT3 with Aditya Patel, Jiri Pisarik and Filip Salaquarda as the team makes a transition from field junior formula entries to a full-time Blancpain Endurance Series effort in 2015. Absolute Racing has also entered an Audi with Ho-Pin Tung being joined by Xiao Jin Li and Jiang Wei Weng in the #17 R8 LMS GT3.
The #10 GT Russian Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 will be shared by Marko Asmer, Alexey Vasilyev and Karim Al Azhari.
Two-time MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo will make his Gulf 12 Hours debut driving the #99 Kessel Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 alongside Australian Liam Talbot, Italian Marco Zanuttini and Belgian Jacques Duyver. Kessel Racing's #11 Ferrari will be driven by Isaac Tutumlu, Marco Frezza and Vadim Gitlin.
AF Corse has entered four GT3 Ferraris. The #3 features FIA WEC drivers Stephen Wyatt, Michele Rugolo and Davide Rigon. Piergiuseppe Perazzini, Marco Cioci and Felipe Barreiros comprise the #4 AF Corse Ferrari with the #5 being piloted by Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci and Andrea Rizzoli. AF Corse's final GT3 entry is the #77 which will be piloted by Adrien De Leener, Cedric Sbirrazzuoli and David Akhobadze.
Dragon Racing will field the #88 Ferrari with Sean Walkinshaw being joined by Jordan Grogor and Mohammed Jawa. Villorbra Corse field the #89 Ferrari with drivers Cedric Mezard, Christophe Hurni and Didier Cuche.
Gulf Racing will field the #69 Lamborghini FL2 of Roald Goethe, Stuart Hall and Frederic Fatien.
Five Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars are entered. MRS-GT Racing has entered two cars with the #33 being filled by Ralf Bohn, Siegfried Venema and Ilya Melnikov. The #34 MRS-GT entry has yet to be filled and might not compete. The #43 STP Racing with Sopp + Sopp has three Brits, Matthew Telling, Liam Venter and Ryan Ratcliffe being joined by South African Daniel Welch. Labre Competition entered an all-French drivers line up with Franck Labescat, Manuel Rodrigues, Christian Filippon and Denis Gibaud sharing the #50. The #67 GDL Racing entry will be driven by Nicolas Vandierendonck, Rob Thomson and Yusif Bassil.
The CN2 class has four entries, all Wolf GB08s. Avelon Formula has entered two with Ivan Bellarosa, Guglielmo Belotti and Ricardo Teixeria in the #45 and Simon Stoller, Gianluca Pizzuti and Fabio Emanuela in the #46. Motionsport has an all-British line-up with Peter Storey, Ben Gower and Ollie Chadwick in the #47. The #48 CRM Motorsport entry is occupied by Nicola and Stefano de Val and Jose Pedro Faria.
The Gulf 12 Hours features two, 6-hour races, the first beginning at 9:00 a.m. in Abu Dhabi (midnight ET) and ending at 3:00 p.m. (6:00 a.m. ET). The second race will start at 6:00 p.m. local time (9:00 a.m. ET) with the race ending at midnight in Abu Dhabi (3:00 p.m. ET).
Race of Champions
After being cancelled in 2013 because of political unrest in Thailand, Race of Champions returns and for the first time ever, the event occurs in the Caribbean. Barbados plays host to the all-star event which features eleven teams of two. The host nation will have their own team as Barbados Rally Club drivers Rhett Watson and Dane Skeete were the top two competitors in the Suzuki ROC Barbados Challenge.
Romain Grosjean returns at the incumbent Race of Champions winner and finished runner-up representing France in the Nations Cup. He will be joined by FIA European Formula Three champion Esteban Ocon. The 19-year old Ocon won nine of 33 races and defeated Tom Blomqvist and future Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Max Verstappen for the title. Ocon was a test driver for Lotus F1 in 2014.
The United States will have three representatives split between two teams. This year's Indianapolis 500 winner and 2012 IndyCar champion and ROC competitor Ryan Hunter-Reay will be joined by 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion and 2014 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year Kurt Busch. Busch makes his first ROC appearance while Hunter-Reay teamed with Mexican rally driver Benito Guerra to form Teams Americas in 2012. Hunter-Reay won two of six races in 2012 defeating David Coulthard in the Nations Cup and Kazuya Oshima in the Race of Champions.
The other American competitor is back-to-back Stadium Super Trucks champion, IndyCar race winner, NASCAR race winner and sports car race winner Robby Gordon who will join 2014 World Touring Car champion Argentine José María López to form Team Americas. Gordon ran in the 2001 where he set the course record on the Gran Canaria course and led the United States to a semifinal appearance with teammates Shaun Palmer and Rhys Millen. López won ten of 23 WTCC races in 2014 and won the title over four-time WTCC champion and Citroën teammate Yvan Muller.
David Coulthard returns to ROC and will be joined by Williams test driver Susie Wolff, the first female competitor in the history of ROC. They will represent the United Kingdom. Coulthard will be making his ninth ROC appearance. The Scotsman's best ROC performance was in 2008 when he made the finals before being defeated by Sébastien Loeb 2-1 in the finals. Coulthard went to the semifinals in the 2012 Race of Champions before losing to Tom Kristensen.
Fresh off his record sixth V8 Supercars championship, Jamie Whincup returns to ROC to represent Australia and he will be joined by five-time 500cc motorcycle world champion Mick Doohan. Whincup and Doohan paired in 2012 where they went to the semifinals of the Nations Cup before being eliminated by the dominate German pairing of Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. Whincup failed to get out of the group stage of the Race of Champions in 2012 while Doohan advance to the quarterfinals before losing to Schumacher.
Tom Kristensen will make his 13th consecutive and possibly final ROC appearance as the Dane announced his retirement prior to the final round of the FIA WEC event last month. Kristensen won the 2005 Nations Cup for Scandinavia paired with Swede Mattias Ekström and his finished runner-up in the Race of Champions in the last two editions, losing to Sébastien Ogier 2-0 in 2011 and to Grosjean 2-0 in 2012. Kristensen will be joined by 2003 World Rally champion and this year's World Rallycross champion Petter Solberg to form Team Nordic. Solberg will make his first ROC appearance in seven years. Petter and brother Henning made it to the Nations Cup semifinals that year while Petter lost to Coulthard in the first round of the Race of Champions.
GP2 champion Jolyon Palmer and the youngest winner in DTM history and Mercedes F1 test driver Pascal Wehrlein will both make their ROC debuts in Barbados. The Brit and German form Team Young Stars in the Nations Cup.
The Nations Cup will take place at noon local time (11:00 a.m. ET) on Saturday while the Race of Champions will take place at the same time on Sunday.
In the Nations Cup Group Stage, France will be in Group A alongside Team Nordic, Team Americas and Team Young Stars.
Group B will be comprised of Australia, United Kingdom, Barbados and the United States.
For the Race of Champions Group Stage, Grosjean will be in Group A alongside Coulthard both Australians, Whincup and Doohan.
Group B will feature Solberg, Busch, Wolff and the fastest driver from Team Barbados.
Group C is comprised of López, Gordon, Ocon and the winner of ROC Caribbean, an event that will occur after the Nations Cup on Saturday.
Group D will see Kristensen joined by Hunter-Reay, Palmer and Wehrlein.
ROC Caribbean participants include Watson and Skeete representing Barbados; Doug Gore and Jeffery Panton representing Jamaica; Kristian Jeffery and Mark Vieira representing Guyana and Franklyn Boodram and David Coehlo representing Trinidad and Tobago.
Cars that will be used for this year's competition are the ROC buggy, Ariel Atom, Audi R8 LMS, a stock car and Stadium Super Trucks.
A European driver has won every edition of Race of Champions. Former World Rally champion Didier Auriol has the most Race of Champions titles with four. Sébastien Loeb won three times as did Mattias Ekström. Stig Blomqvist and Juha Kankkunen each won the ROC twice. Eleven drivers have won the ROC one time.
Finland and France have each produced five different ROC winners (Kankkunen, Tommi Mäkinen, Harri Rovanperä, Marcus Grönholm and Hekki Kovalainen for Finland and Auriol, Loeb, François Delecour, Ogier and Grosjean for France). The only other nation to produce multiple ROC winners is Sweden (Ekström and Blomqvist). Italy (Andrea Aghini), Spain (Carlos Sainz), the United Kingdom (Colin McRae) and Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque) are the other four nations to produce ROC winners.
The last six Nations Cups have been won by Germany. Finland was the last country prior to the German dominance to win the Nations Cups when Hekki Kovalainen and Marcus Grönholm held off Travis Pastrana who was representing the United States solo in 2006. Finland won the inaugural Nations Cup in 1999. France is the only other nation with multiple Nations Cups as Regis Laconi, Yvan Muller and Gilles Panizzi won in 2000 and Loeb and Jean Alesi won in 2004.
Scandinavia won the 2005 Nations Cup with Kristensen and Ekström as representative. An All-Star team featuring Cristiano da Matta (Brazil), Fonsi Nieto (Spain) and Panizzi won the 2003 Nations Cup. The United States won the 2002 Nations Cup being represented by Colin Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Spain won the 2001 Nations Cup with Jesús Puras, Rubén Xaus and Fernando Alonso.
Over/Unders
1. Over or Under: 1.5 drivers scoring their first points of the Formula E season at Punta del Este?
2. Over or Under: 23.5 minutes in the pit lane for the winners of the Gulf 12 Hours?
3. Over or Under: 0.5 Americans in the knockout round of the Race of Champions?
Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Under: Scott McLaughlin finished third for Volvo in race two at Homebush, the only international make to score a podium.
2. Under: Four laps separated the overall winning OAK Racing Morgan and GT winning Clearwater Racing Ferrari at Sepang?
3. Under: Zero cars completed 700 laps at Thunderhill?
Predictions
1. Nicolas Prost does not win pole position for the Punta del Este round of Formula E.
2. Whoever wins part one of the Gulf 12 Hours does not win the Gulf 12 Hours overall.
3. A European driver does not win the Race of Champions.
Last Week's Predictions
1. Craig Lowndes finishes ahead of Mark Winterbottom in the final championship standings (Wrong. Lowndes finished fourth in the championship, Winterbottom finished third).
2. OAK Racing completes the perfect season (Correct).
3. One of the 12 teams I featured above wins at least their class at Thunderhill (Correct as Davidson Racing won overall).
Overall: 2/3. Running Tally: 36.5/65
