ERS - Season 6

• (If you see this then this is a work in progress. I have binned CARC and the AMC - they will still exist in the background - to put more priority on this. I will go in depth into races, something similar to JT and his GRC. If you ever see it hasn't been updated in a while just leave a comment and I will come back : )

Welcome to the ERS - Season 6

A champion has retired, leaving the grids leading team are scrambling for a replacement, the GMA (Global Motorsport Association) are still recovering from the consequences of Le Roux's sudden collapse and are letting in new competitors and, most importantly:

The series' first regulation changes! 

Teams are now allowed to develop the front and rear wings, and engine manufacturers are now permitted, with the following supplying:

Bastelli - Eve Bastelli, FlipSide and Parma

Lyons - Lyons AC, HMC and one of the new teams... 

Entendre - Just Entendre lol

And Yurasi - The other new team, Voyage Veloci and Ignition

The new teams:

Huge Japanese manufacturer Yurasi entered a works team for the season, aiming to build a solid platform in order to mount a charge on the leading teams in years to come.

Team Viborg were a CARC team who had relative success over two seasons and gathered a large following thanks to huge investments in the team's marketing. They then entered a ERS team when the opportunity surfaced from Le Roux's collapse. 

Drivers:

Three teams (Entendre, FlipSide and Ignition) kept their lineups. Lyons sacked Knox and replaced him with highly rated Szala (24) from Bastelli. Knox would become Yurasi's lead driver. Bastelli would sign Austrian endurance racer turned single seater racer Maxi Adler (25). Voyage Veloci would scramble to find a Barbero replacement and would find an unusual driver - Kazakh driver Kuanyshbek Beibitzhanev (good luck pronouncing that) was a 18 year old prodigy absolutely pummelling any Asian series he raced in, so Veloci decided to take a gamble and put him in the seat to develop, while having Narravise as a lead driver. HMC would sack the incredibly disappointing Ferreira and sign 23 year old German Oliver Lutz. Parma had already signed an agreement with Leroy and let go of Blazic, who signed for Viborg alongside the team's lead CARC driver, Theo Snijders. Finally, Yurasi would sign talented driver Yamasaki Sanjiro (22) from Japan. 

Calendar Changes:

Race in Austria

Sprints in Rome, London, Portugal and Italy

Pre-Season Testing in Portugal

Testing:

For the first time there would be a pre-season test to allow the teams to assess their car's abilities before the first race in Turkey.

1. Aiden Pryce - Lyons AC - 1:26.282 
2. Louis Narravise - Voyage Veloci - 1:26.374 (+0.092)
3. Yann de Rijke - Entendre - 1:26.405 (+0.123)
4. Anton Szala - Lyons AC - 1:26.433 (+0.151)
5. Jan Malmqvist - Entendre - 1:26.592 (+0.318)
6. Elijah Cox - Ignition - 1:26.724 (+0.450)
7. Kuanyshbek Beibitzhanev - Voyage Veloci - 1:26.730 (+0.456)
8. Preka Xhanari - Ignition - 1:26. 817 (+0.535)
9. Jacopo Mazzi - HMC - 1:27.083 (+0.801)
10. Santiago Fernandez - FlipSide - 1:27.141 (+0.849)
11. Nicolo Dello Russo - Eve Bastelli - 1:27.149 (+0.857)
12. Michael Knott-Cox - FlipSide - 1:27.172 (+0.890)
13. Kayden Knox - Yurasi WT - 1:27.246 (+0.964)
14. Maxi Adler - Eve Bastelli - 1:27.279 (+0.997)
15. Theo Snijders - Team Viborg - 1:27.408 (+1.116)
16. Oliver Lutz - HMC - 1:27.467 (+1.185)
17. Mattteo Allegro - Parma - 1:27.626 (+1.344)
18. Luka Blazic - Team Viborg - 1:27.752 (+1.470)
19. Florian Leroy - Parma - 1:27.901 (+1.619)
20. Yamasaki Sanjiro - Yurasi WT - 1:28.017 (+1.735)

Round 1 - Turkish GP

Pole - Aiden Pryce

1st - Aiden Pryce

2nd - Louis Narravise

3rd - Anton Szala

Fastest Lap - Yann de Rijke - 1:16.033

Defending champ Aiden Pryce would win the first grand prix of the season, but not without complications. 2nd placed Yann de Rijke actually took the lead on lap 1 and led until lap 17, just before the first scheduled round of pitstops, when the rain started falling. de Rijke would be caught out on the slight banking of turn 17, hitting a puddle and going spinning, brushing the barrier and damaging his front wing. Luckily for him though, he would not lose as much time at his pitstop, because at the same time de Rijke had his spin, Florian Leroy aquaplaned off at turn 4, smacking the barriers and bringing out the safety car. After the safety car peeled in, Pryce would lead away and kept his lead until the end of the race, with not much else happening apart for a spin from Theo Snijders. Pryce would win by 7 seconds from Narravise, with Szala, Malmqvist and the recovering de Rijke finishing a further 10 seconds back.

Round 2 - Greek GP:

Pole - Louis Narravise 

1st - Louis Narravise 

2nd - Yann de Rijke

3rd - Aiden Pryce

Fastest Lap - Aiden Pryce - 1:07.724

The dramatic wet conditions in Turkey would be trumped by a chaotic second race in Greece. On the first lap, Narravise would lead from pole, ahead of de Rijke, Szala and the poorly-qualified Pryce. They wouldn't race for long as Jan Malmqvist suffered an early spin before Nicolo Dello Russo collected compatriot Jacopo Mazzi. Dello Russo would be out on the spot, with Mazzi limping home before retiring on the second safety car lap. Upon the restart, Pryce would make two spectacular moves on Szala and de Rijke, before the race was halted again. Desperate to try and regain positions, Malmqvist attempted a kamikaze move around the outside of Yamasaki Sanjiro, collecting the Japanese driver, temporarily going slightly airborne, before beaching himself in a gravel trap. Sanjiro limped home to a distant 17th placed finish. The rest of the race would also be incredibly entertaining, with Pryce and Narravise dueling, trading positions and playing mind games. Unfortunately for the spectacle, Pryce would lose fourth gear on lap 62/67, falling back and behind de Rijke, leaving Narravise to win by a relatively comfortable 6.5 seconds. Other notable results included a fifth place for Veloci youngster Beibitzhanev, ninth for Maxi Adler and tenth for Michael Knott-Cox

Round 3 - Rome

Sprint Pole - Aiden Pryce

Sprint podium - Aiden Pryce, Jan Malmqvist, Yann de Rijke

Pole - Yann de Rijke

1st - Yann de Rijke

2nd - Anton Szala

3rd - Aiden Pryce

Fastest Lap - Kuanyshbek Beibitzhanev - 1:33.820

The first ever sprint weekend would be a rather uninteresting affair. Qualifying for the sprint would end up with Aiden Pryce on pole, ahead of Yann de Rijke and Louis Narravise. Not too much would happen in a slightly lacklustre race, apart from Narravise suffering from damage after an scrape with a wall at turn one, and Jan Malmqvist making a charge from fifth to take second, aiming to make up for the DNF in Greece. Matteo Allegro would be the only non-finisher, and Jacopo Mazzi would put on one of the drives of the season to finish eighth for a rather slow HMC, despite starting back in twelfth, making all the moves in just 18 laps. For the main race, Yann de Rijke would take pole and blast off into the distance, recording a very comfortable 14 second lead ahead of Szala, who would take a surprise second after some good strategy calls from Lyons. Pryce would come home third, with Narravise taking fourth for a disappointing Veloci. His rookie teammate Beibitzhanev would finish fifth for the second race in a row, while also taking the fastest lap. Also of note was Theo Snijders finishing tenth to record Team Viborg's first ever point, and Nicolo Dello Russo would DNF for the second race running after his car broke down on lap 45/53.

Round 4 - British GP

Pole - Aiden Pryce

1st - Aiden Pryce

2nd - Yann de Rijke

3rd - Louis Narravise

Fastest Lap - Aiden Pryce - 1:19.502

Aiden Pryce would take a domineering home GP win, much to the delight of the British crowd. It would be such a dominant race, he would lap all finishers up to 9th place, winning with an incredibly convincing 23 second lead over 2nd placed de Rijke and his fastest lap would be a half a second faster thean the second fastest, set by Narravise. Outside of the three on the podium, Szala would be easily fourth, ahead of Malmqvist and Beibitzhanev. Struggling Bastelli, now without star driver Szala, would score their first double points finish of the season, as the four clear groups of teams started to become obvious:

Lead Teams - Lyons, Veloci and Entendre

Scoring points but not podiums - Ignition

Battle for fifth - Bastelli, HMC and FlipSide

Battle for the wooden spoon - Viborg, Yurasi and Parma

The only incident of the race ocurred on lap 11/59, when Kayden Knox blew his engine and Oliver Lutz ploughed through and over the rear end of his car, unable to see through the smoke. Miraculously, Lutz continued driving before eventually ending up in the barrier after his suspension failed on his way back to the pits. Without this incident Aiden Pryce would've won by even more, as he already had a six second lead by this point.