The first of two racing days occurred today for the Formula BMW Americas's drivers, at Lime Rock Park.
As usual, Alexander Rossi dominated the first session of the week-end, followed by Ricardo Favoretto - who would set the pole later in the day - and Daniel Juncadella.
Mikaël Grenier was sixth in the morning, more than 0.350 seconds away from his teammate Maxime Pelletier.
Even if Pelletier qualified fourth in the afternoon and Grenier sixth, they have not much to be proud of since they are respectively half a second and a full second away from pole sitter Favoretto.
With only 11 cars on the track - and we are not talking about the 9 cars alignment of Mid-Ohio, not even a month ago - and more than 2,2 seconds between the first and the last driver on the grid, series manager should really begin to be worried about their series future.
In four races this year, the place we saw the more cars on the grid was in Montreal. There were 16 cars to accompany... Formula 1! Even more worrying is the fact that this 16 cars alignment is still half the cars the series was managing, two years ago.
It is to wish that the managers find a way to lower the cost of a season very fast because, if Formula 1 thinks it will improve their races to do so, Formula BMW deeply needs it if they want to... survive!
Pratice:
Pos CarNo Driver TeamName Time Speed DiffBest
1 7 Ricardo Favoretto Eurointernational 58.670+ 92.040 -.---
2 11 Daniel Juncadella Euro Junior Team 58.747 91.920 0.077
3 16 Alexander Rossi Eurointernational 58.845 91.767 0.175
4 10 Maxime Pelletier Apex-HBR Racing Team 59.186 91.238 0.516
5 50 Gianmarco Raimondo(R) Autotecnica 59.192 91.229 0.522
6 17 Mikael Grenier(R) Apex-HBR Racing Team 59.679 90.484 1.009
7 9 Giancarlo Vilarinho(R) Eurointernational 59.691 90.466 1.021
8 26 David Ostella(R) Eurointernational 59.839 90.242 1.169
9 20 Jorge Goncalvez Apex-HBR Racing Team 1:00.153 89.771 1.483
10 19 Alexandre Ruiz(R) Apex-HBR Racing Team 1:00.184 89.725 1.514
11 14 Asad Rahman Atlantic Racing Team 1:00.903 88.666 2.233
Qualifying Results:
Pos CarNo Driver TeamName Time Speed DiffBest
1 7 Ricardo Favoretto Eurointernational 58.670+ 92.040 -.---
2 11 Daniel Juncadella Euro Junior Team 58.747 91.920 0.077
3 16 Alexander Rossi Eurointernational 58.845 91.767 0.175
4 10 Maxime Pelletier Apex-HBR Racing Team 59.186 91.238 0.516
5 50 Gianmarco Raimondo(R) Autotecnica 59.192 91.229 0.522
6 17 Mikael Grenier(R) Apex-HBR Racing Team 59.679 90.484 1.009
7 9 Giancarlo Vilarinho(R) Eurointernational 59.691 90.466 1.021
8 26 David Ostella(R) Eurointernational 59.839 90.242 1.169
9 20 Jorge Goncalvez Apex-HBR Racing Team 1:00.153 89.771 1.483
10 19 Alexandre Ruiz(R) Apex-HBR Racing Team 1:00.184 89.725 1.514
11 14 Asad Rahman Atlantic Racing Team 1:00.903 88.666 2.233
As usual, Alexander Rossi dominated the first session of the week-end, followed by Ricardo Favoretto - who would set the pole later in the day - and Daniel Juncadella.
Mikaël Grenier was sixth in the morning, more than 0.350 seconds away from his teammate Maxime Pelletier.
Even if Pelletier qualified fourth in the afternoon and Grenier sixth, they have not much to be proud of since they are respectively half a second and a full second away from pole sitter Favoretto.
With only 11 cars on the track - and we are not talking about the 9 cars alignment of Mid-Ohio, not even a month ago - and more than 2,2 seconds between the first and the last driver on the grid, series manager should really begin to be worried about their series future.
In four races this year, the place we saw the more cars on the grid was in Montreal. There were 16 cars to accompany... Formula 1! Even more worrying is the fact that this 16 cars alignment is still half the cars the series was managing, two years ago.
It is to wish that the managers find a way to lower the cost of a season very fast because, if Formula 1 thinks it will improve their races to do so, Formula BMW deeply needs it if they want to... survive!
Pratice:
Pos CarNo Driver TeamName Time Speed DiffBest
1 7 Ricardo Favoretto Eurointernational 58.670+ 92.040 -.---
2 11 Daniel Juncadella Euro Junior Team 58.747 91.920 0.077
3 16 Alexander Rossi Eurointernational 58.845 91.767 0.175
4 10 Maxime Pelletier Apex-HBR Racing Team 59.186 91.238 0.516
5 50 Gianmarco Raimondo(R) Autotecnica 59.192 91.229 0.522
6 17 Mikael Grenier(R) Apex-HBR Racing Team 59.679 90.484 1.009
7 9 Giancarlo Vilarinho(R) Eurointernational 59.691 90.466 1.021
8 26 David Ostella(R) Eurointernational 59.839 90.242 1.169
9 20 Jorge Goncalvez Apex-HBR Racing Team 1:00.153 89.771 1.483
10 19 Alexandre Ruiz(R) Apex-HBR Racing Team 1:00.184 89.725 1.514
11 14 Asad Rahman Atlantic Racing Team 1:00.903 88.666 2.233
Qualifying Results:
Pos CarNo Driver TeamName Time Speed DiffBest
1 7 Ricardo Favoretto Eurointernational 58.670+ 92.040 -.---
2 11 Daniel Juncadella Euro Junior Team 58.747 91.920 0.077
3 16 Alexander Rossi Eurointernational 58.845 91.767 0.175
4 10 Maxime Pelletier Apex-HBR Racing Team 59.186 91.238 0.516
5 50 Gianmarco Raimondo(R) Autotecnica 59.192 91.229 0.522
6 17 Mikael Grenier(R) Apex-HBR Racing Team 59.679 90.484 1.009
7 9 Giancarlo Vilarinho(R) Eurointernational 59.691 90.466 1.021
8 26 David Ostella(R) Eurointernational 59.839 90.242 1.169
9 20 Jorge Goncalvez Apex-HBR Racing Team 1:00.153 89.771 1.483
10 19 Alexandre Ruiz(R) Apex-HBR Racing Team 1:00.184 89.725 1.514
11 14 Asad Rahman Atlantic Racing Team 1:00.903 88.666 2.233