Nigel Moore marched to his second victory in three races with an assured performance in the opening contest at Rockingham, closing the gap to championship leader Maxime Jousse in the process. Starting from second, Moore kept position in the opening corners before diving down the inside of leader Jose Alonso Liste in a bold move as the pair approached the final chicane for the first time.
From there Moore never looked back, building a solid cushion of around three seconds which he then maintained until the chequered flag. His victory, the second of his season following a maiden win at Oulton Park, moves Moore to within 49 points of the overall championship lead. Thimeo Storz finished second on his FPA debut, the German pulling off a great move on Jose Alonso Liste at turn two to seal the runner-up spot. Storz also set the fastest lap of the race, although he wasn’t able to shake the attentions of the impressive Kieran Vernon, who followed Storz’s move past Alonso Liste and remained within one second of the German for the remainder of the race.
Thiermo Vernon (2nd Place), Nigel Moore (winner) and Kieran Vernon (3rd Place) ©james bearne
Vernon wasn’t quite able to find a way past Storz, but his third place finish represents his best ever finish in FPA and saw him climb the podium for the first time this season.
Behind the lead trio Alonso Liste occupied fourth, while Maxime Jousse swarmed over the back of fellow Frenchman Vincent Beltoise in the battle for fifth. Jousse made his moved on the inside of turn two on lap three, only for Beltoise to fight back and reclaim the position at turn three, with Melroy Heemskerk also profiting to demote Jousse to seventh. That became sixth however when Alonso Liste seemingly missed a gear at the turn seven tarzan hairpin on lap five, allowing Beltoise, Heemskerk and Jousse through. A lap later Beltoise ran wide at the same corner, with Heemskerk pulling off an opportunistic move to snatch fourth.
From there Heemskerk was able to establish a small gap to the rest of the pack, while Howard Fuller joined in a four-way battle for fifth – Beltoise, Jousse, Alonso Liste and Fuller all finishing within one second of each other at the chequered flag. Tommaso Menchini finished slightly down the road in ninth, with Callum Holland completing a great fightback after slipping down the order on the opening laps to finish tenth. James Thorp was 11th, with Ash Davies – who had been closing on Menchini until spinning on lap 13 at turn four – finishing fractions behind in 12th.
On his debut, Victor Jimenez impressed to seal 13th, the Spaniard setting his fastest lap on his penultimate tour of the circuit. Giuseppe Cipriani and Luca Orlandi rounded out the finishers in 14th and 15th respectively, while Ramón Piñeiro retired after just one lap.
Formula Palmer Audi Championship – Rounds 11 & 12 – Rockingham – Race One Provisional Classification:
1. Nigel Moore, 15 laps
2. Thiemo Storz, +3.007s
3. Kieran Vernon, +4.095s
4. Melroy Heemskerk, +7.641s
5. Vincent Beltoise, +10.175s
6. Maxime Jousse, +11.076s
7. Jose Alonso Liste, +11.716s
8. Howard Fuller, +12.271s
9. Tommaso Menchini, +18.905s
10. Callum Holland, +23.177s
