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AMA Round 2: iMic With Simon
Simon Talks Over The Malaysian GP

League: AMA
Category: Article

A second race in as many weeks saw the FSR

"Bracciano Racing Logo"

parade arrive at Malaysia and the wide, sweeping and challenging Sepang circuit. Pedro Melim who was well on the pace in Albert Park took the pole and was looking to avenge his lost podium from the previous weekend while championship leader Muhammad Patel was not quite up the front. Albert Parks bridesmaid Simon Melhuish was up front again chasing the win for his birthday and both Bracciano guys of Marcelli and Perrone were in feisty mood and looking to open their 2009 wins account. Further down the grid we had several people making it to the grid after failing in round 1. Benjamin Chong made it to the grid after missing the whole session in Melbourne, as did Knight Racing's Uriah Hill and Europe F1's RIzwan Sarwar to make their 2009 debuts and the latters first start ever. Also making his first start was Toni Aleman for FZS Team who then nearly found himself disqualified for going onto the track in Q2 and blocking Perrone's hot lap!

However at the start it was Pedro Melim who took charge and jumped into the lead whilst behind Simon Melhuish made a corker of a start to jump into 2nd. Further back a troubled weekend for Graham Dickinson got to Turn 1 only to take evasion action from several other drivers and get stuck on the inside curb. Game over and an unfortunate end to the GP. The biggest winner out of lap 1 was Fredrick Arbegard who jumped an amazing 10 places and by the end of lap 1 it was Melim leading Melhuish, Marcelli, Adebisi who had jumped into 2nd at the start, Perrone, De Juan, Gabriel, Chong, Vanderhoydonck and Sasa Tondorovic rounding out the top 10. Championship leader Patel was going backwards down in 13th too. Scott Beck would too be in trouble early on pitting to repair damage and rejoining a lap adrift.

Upfront however Marcelli was fast and all over the back of Melhuish and Adebisi and Perrone having a battle behind when on lap 4 the duos swap places in text book moves. Melhuish then let Marcelli get the better of him and runs wide coming out of the double right hander and spins off down to 7th! In a replay of round 1, Melhuish had ruined what looked like a potential victory. He made like work of Corey Gabriel for 6th who then spun off a lost his front wing down at turn 4 trying to retake Simon. That put pay to another fine outing from the American who would struggle to recover. At the exact same time Toni Aleman threw his car into the wall out of the final turn and retired from second last. The men whom benefited the most from this were Alberto De Juan, Chong, Vanderhoydonck and Juan Nicola, who had quietly overtaken many drivers and placed himself into 8th. Muhammad Patel continued his dismal weekend by being clouted by Arbegard for 11th and being spun off. However the incident was started by trying to avoid Antonio Perrone's front wing that was flying around the track. Perrone pitted for a new wing and a full tank of fuel in 19th.

Next to fall was Simon Melhuish who whilst running 5th crashed out at the final hairpin and promptly retired. He'll be regrouping for Shanghai and looking to have a mistake free race. While Simon was walking back to the pits, Marcelli had caught leader Melim's two second lead. The two had been scrapping for several laps however lap 13 saw Melim pit from the lead letting Marcelli take the lead from Alberto De Juan however Benjamin Chong had just slipped passed Melim into turn 1 for third. Melim had to pass Chong in order to stand a chance of regaining the lead when Marcelli pitted. One lap later and Melim seemed to have done it in an excellent move however he then caught the curb exiting turn 2, slid the car sideways and Chong went straight back passed. Obviously rattled, Melim then struggled to overtake Chong and made several mistakes. Alberto De Juan could sniff a podium that Simon Adebisi had quietly moved into but he had traffic of Arbegard and Kesseli to deal with. However the latter duo were so busy with each other that he was able to pass Kesseli and Arbegard in a single lap. Unknown to him though, Adebisi had been lapping in relatively clear air and pulled out a small gap.

By lap 17 Marcelli pitted and rejoined in the lead with a 5 second gap. With Chong pitting at the same lap, Melim had still not passed him and had he not had made that mistake earlier in the race, he could well have held the lead. Adebisi had now moved in third ahead of De Juan and a shocked Juan Nicola who had ran a long first stint and leapfrogged Chong into 5th and was severely hounding the Juan ahead. Then in a great move into Turn 1 Nicola took the place and gave Alberto a little shove too. Meanwhile just behind Chong and Uriah Hill, driving competitively in his 2009 début for Knight Racing had a strange incident where they hit each other down the home straight. It had since been put down to a racing incident. Sadly Antonio Perrone's incident was of his own doing in a driver error spinning out of the race whilst climbing back up the order. He joined Vanderhoydonck in the retirement pile who had embarrassingly ran out of fuel in the pitlane and thus losing a potential top 8 position. He would then be joined by Anthony Herbert who would be the final retirement, spinning off at the tricky penultimate turn with 4 laps to go whilst battling with teammate Niko Van Doren.

Alessandro Marcelli then took the win for Bracciano Racing by five seconds from Pedro Melim, the two being the class of the field and battling hard to the flag. Marcelli showed that he's lost none of his 2007 championship winning form. Melim grabs his first career podium, and Simon Adebisi grabs 3rd albeit nearly half a minute behind with a classy drive. Juan Nicola drove his socks off during the race to come home 4th ahead of Alberto De Juan in the top Precision car in 5th. He was being hounded by silent assassin Michael Theis who put in some quick laps midway through the race and crept passed many cars to come home 6th.

Muhammad Patel took seventh in the final sector of the whole race after a disastrous start saw him battling all race with various dramas while Benjamin Chong introduced himself into FSR with an impressive début for Williamson Dynamics in 8th. Ivan Kaloyanov had struggled early on in the race but improved gradually during it to claim 9th while Ari Kesseli was top Rice Racing man today with an impressive 10th passing Fredrik Arbegard who again got himself into various scrapes during the race but still brought home some bacon in 11th. Corey Gabriel will be ruing the spin that lost him his wing as he came home 12th but with points whilst Sasa Todorovic came home 13th for his first points of the year and Malcolm Rice picked up the final point after a dogged drive with a a damaged car.

Gaining his second 15th in a row, Adrian Greda had his race dealt with a blow at the start by picking up damage and struggling round. Niko Van Doren too stated his car was damaged however he should be pleased to have his first race finish of his career in 16th. Darren Johnston continues to be a reliable and responsible driver coming home 17th ahead of Uriah Hill who would have been delighted to grab his and Knight Racing's first finish of 2009. Two laps down Scott Beck soldiered home after a lap 3 pitstop for a new wing however he beat Rizwan Sarwar home who gained his first finish on his début and should be happy to gain the mileage.

Upfront though, Marcelli leads the championship by a single point from Melim with Patel and Adebisi a few points adrift. There's everything to play for as they go to the narrow Shanghai circuit. Join us there for round 3 of the battle royale.

Article by: Simon Smith, 2009-04-16 13:01:29

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