David Tonizza had been worried about the Brands Hatch race, feeling in the days leading up to it that he would be on the back foot. In fact, the Italian sim racer was on fire on the English track, taking a third win from four races. The fact that some of rivals failed to score means he extends his championship lead by a significant margin. It was a perfect team performance, as Tonizza’s team-mate Giovanni De Salvo chased his captain home, second being his best ever result with the FDA Esports team.
Qualifying. “Tonzilla” got off to a great start, securing pole position, beating the two Williams Esports drivers, Nikodem Wisniewski by 48 thousandths and Daire McCormack by 209. De Salvo was fourth fastest, while in the other two Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 =Joonas Savolainen (Griphax Engineering) and Samir Ibraimi (RennWelten) were 23rd and 24th respectively. David’s main title rival, Josh Rogers in the VRS Coanda Simsport car could do no better than seventh.
Race. Tonizza got a blinding start, followed by Wisniewski, while De Salvo defended well before passing McCormack with a bit of contact between the two. David always had the race under control, although the second placed driver was always just under a second off his tail for the first half of the race. When the window was open for the only obligatory pit-stop, Wisniwski came in early to try the undercut but was given a 30 seconds stop-go penalty for speeding in the pit lane. That put him out of the game, allowing De Salvo to secure second place. Rogers also picked up a penalty and failed to score for the first time this season. Tonizza and De Salvo thus crossed the line to pick up the team’s first one-two finish of the season. Joining them on the podium was Kevin Siggy in the Team Redline car. Savolainen was 12th and Ibraimi had to retire.
Championship. The championship is coming up to the halfway mark, with the Zandvoort race on 23 July and Tonizza now leads with 93 points, followed by Rogers on 53, De Salvo on 49 and Siggy on 45. It’s a commanding lead in the coming races, Tonizza will have to fend off his rivals who might have to be more aggressive if they want to stop the charge of the FDA Esports Team driver.