Champion of the RRLEAGUES P1 Amateur Cup

Last Wednesday, Februari 22nd, the final round, round 4, of the RRLEAGUES P1 Amateur Cup took place on the Raceroom Raceway layout Bridge.



Before Race 1 of Round 4:

With the top four in the championship being Valentino Rossi (107 points), Alexis Mimran (106 points), Chris Rives (80 points) and Stacy Chandler (72 points), the battle for the championship is still open.

Unfortunately, Chris Rives had to cancel his participation due to his PC malfuntioning. Leaving only Rossi, Mimran and Chandler to fight for the title.

Rossi had to start with a handycap, because of an error in the previous race. He had a No Qualification penalty, thus having to start from the back of the field.

For Chandler to win the title, he would have to win both races on Bridge (25 points per 1st place) and Rossi would have to get 9th (7 points) on average between both races with Mimran 8th (8 points) on average.

As expected, this did not happen. Nir Tal won the first race, with Mimran in second place and Rossi scratching the 3rd place with only a couple of laps to go out of Stenekers hands.

Chandler finished 8th, which put him at 80 points. This meant he could not challenge for the title anymore.



Race 2:

As a result of this, Mimran took the lead in the championship with 126 points and Rossi having 123 points. Rossi had to finish 3 positions in front of Mimran or Rossi had to finish in front of Mimran on the podium.

The qualification went horrible for Mimran, only getting up to 9th place. Looking at the front of the grid, Rossi managed to get a 3rd position on the grid. 

But after one lap, Mimran had taken up the 6th place, right behind Rossi in 5th. At this point Mimran was champion.

Then Mimran tried for an overtake.
There was not enough room and the two collided and spun.

For Mimran this meant he had to start over from a 10th position. Rossi had a bit more luck and could continue his way in 7th place. At this point both drivers had 129 points!

In lap 8, Rossi overtook Marko Talevski and along with that, taking the lead in the championship again!

In lap 11, Mimran overtook Simon Fillingham for the 9th place, making the points even again. But 4 laps later, Fillingham took the position back from the 51-year-old championship contender.

Then, in lap 16, Stacy Chandler and Nir Tal collided after a failed attemt at overtaking from Tal, granting Rossi two free positions and a lead of 7 points in the championship.

After that, neither of the two championship contenders changed places.

After 20 laps, Esteban Tolosa won the final race in the P1 Amateur Cup. This was his maiden victory in our leagues, so congratulations to him!
Elio Fernandes and Henk-Jan Steneker battled for 2nd place untill the last corner with Fernandes ending the race in 2nd.


We, as RRLEAGUES, are happy to congratulate VALENTINO ROSSI with his Championship title in our P1 Amateur Cup.

Henk-Jan Steneker

Josué "Valentino Rossi" Macé

Valentino Rossi, as he calls himself, is one of the best drivers of the league at this moment. You'll hear him say that before and after every race.

Whether he's mindgaming you or just really thinking that about himself, it does make him one of the biggest personalities of our league. His big rival in 2016 was Elio Fernandes, although it was not (yet) as bad as Hamilton and Rosberg or Senna and Prost.

Rossi has 6 race wins over all RRL leagues and has won the RRL 2016 Silhouette Series Cup (known previously as Slow GT Touring Car Cup)

Expect him to drive at the head of the field and fight for the win, nearly every race. He is fast, he can overtake very good, and he can defend (albeit sometimes too hard) with devotion. He will be a championship contender, no matter what car, no matter what track. And he surely is interresting to watch!

Statistics:

Age:	23
Date of Birth:	04-07-1993
Nationality:	French
Race Wins (in 2016):	6
Championship Wins:	1
Current Team:	The French Kiss