2010 F1RWRS Tasman Grand Prix

The 2010 F1RWRS Tasman Grand Prix was the fifth race of the 2010 F1RWRS season held at Adelaide, Australia. David Koczo won the race, his first career victory and the first for a Hungarian driver.

Race Report
Frank Zimmer led the championship coming to Adelaide, but he hadn't been the most successful. Dave Simpson, Ashley Watkinson and Dan BH had won the first races, but consistency was key and Zimmer led by two points from Watkinson and three from Gary Cameron who hadn't won a race either.

The qualifying results pointed to a battle between Cameron and Zimmer, who took the first two spots with Cameron in front. Watkinson was left in the midfield, qualifying eleventh. The main surprise in qualifying was Kay Lon, the German driver having qualified in third position.

Frank Zimmer beat Cameron off the grid, but went for a daring strategy, pitting on lap 1 and leaving the lead to Cameron with Lon second and Dan BH in third. Lon, however, quickly passed Cameron for the lead. Douglas Mann was fourth in the West Cliff, with Luca Pacchiarini fifth. Cameron then retook the lead while David Koczo and Nathanael Spencer began moving up the field to 5th and 6th.

Immediately, Koczo went in for his stop on lap 4. As Cameron began pulling out a gap, BH pitted from third, with Daniel Melrose taking second place, taking advantage of a sloxing Kay Lon. On lap 6, Mann charged up to second place, while Zimmer and Koczo were already moving up the field, Phoenix McAllister also taking advantage of the strategy.

As Pacchiarini lost more speed, Nathanael Spencer and Sammy Jones collided in the midfield battle, Spencer having to pit for a new nose. More accidents like this would happen throughout the race. Cameron pitted on lap 8 leaving Melrose in the lead ahead of Frank Zimmer already back to the front after his stop. Zimmer quickly passed Melrose and immediately pulled away into the lead.

As more and more drivers began to pit, Luca Pacchiarini managed to find more speed, charging back up to second place ahead of a charging Lon and Daniel Melrose, with Simon Redman up to fifth. There was now a huge battle from second place down to fourth. As Zimmer began lapping other drivers, Pacchiarini dropped backwards, leaving Melrose in second place ahead of Lon and Dan BH, who quickly moved up to second place, overtaking Melrose and a slowing Lon.

On lap 19, Frank Zimmer had to make his second pit stop, not having looked after his tyres properly. His stop was slow, and he came back in third place, Dan BH now leading the race and fighting with David Koczo, who had driven superbly back to the front. Zimmer and Cameron were further behind and fighting for third place.

As the last drivers began to stop, David Koczo took the lead, albeit on older tyres. Frank Zimmer, who had much newer rubber, was catching the leading drivers at a rate of knots, leaving Cameron behind as the Briton was stuck behind a lapped Daniel Melrose. As Koczo started to pull away from BH, Zimmer was still getting closer and closer, but a small loss of pace with two laps to go leaves Koczo his first race victory!

Dan BH stayed relatively close to Koczo and took his third consecutive podium, a series record that he shares with Frank Zimmer, who took third place. Championship-wise, Zimmer still led. However, Dan BH was now second and just three points behind, with Gary Cameron hanging on to third place with an anonymous race to fourth while Ashley Watkinson only managed to finish in tenth place.

Race

 * Fastest Lap: Gary Cameron: 0:57.49

Standings after the race

 * Bold text indicates who still has a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.


 * Drivers' Championship standings
 * Constructors' Championship standings
 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.