Friday, 10th November was dedicated to the Prefinals of the 2017 Portimao Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals. Under a still uniformly blue sky, an important stage was played on the track. Except for the Micro and Mini Max, the two Prefinals for each category were the last element of the qualifying stages, opening up (or not) access to the Finals for the 36 best. New this year, it was not the top 18 places that gave direct access to the Finals. The ranking of the Qualifying Heats provided a basic score (0 pts for 1st, 2 pts for the 2nd, 3 pts for the 3rd, etc.) to which was added the points of Prefinals A or B according to the same scale. It was this total that determined the names of the lucky finalists. It took quite some time to learn the verdict on Friday night, but Team France only had three non-qualifying drivers and totalled 12 drivers to defend their chances in the Final on Saturday. It should be noted that the many penalties, most often for unhooked spoilers, played an important role in the results.
The two Micro Max drivers did not take advantage of the start of their Prefinal, but increased the pace at the end of the race, Théophile Nael coming back to 7th and Louis Iglesias 12th.
Marcus Amand quickly took the lead of the Mini Max Prefinal and won a superb victory full of maturity and panache 1.7” in front of his rivals. Craig Tanic had started very well, moving up to 4th, before suffering a collision that sent him back to 20th place. He nevertheless went back to 14th with courage, a performance cancelled out by a penalty (24th).
Camille Prouteau and Victor Bernier stood out in the leading group of Prefinal A for Junior Max. Prouteau was rewarded with a magnificent 3rd place, while Bernier, 5th on the line, dropped to 20th after a penalty. Sami Meguetounif moved up to 4th position in Prefinal B, but Hugo Vair, who was off to a good start, dropped to 21st due to electrical problems. The four drivers qualified more than honourably for the Final: Prouteau 5th, Meguetounif 8th, Bernier 14th and Vair 15th.
Jean Nomblot drove an ideal Prefinal B race by taking the lead on the 5th lap, then controlling his opponents calmly to take a great victory. At the bottom of the pack, Matthieu Bourdon no longer had any illusions.
Arnaud Sarrazin fulfilled his mission during Prefinal A of Senior Max by coming back near to the top 10. Unfortunately his spoiler was detached in contact with an unidentified blunt object that hit the ground during a corner exit that was a bit wide. The suspense then lasted a long time before he was assured of qualification. Nomblot qualified 7th for the Final and Sarrazin was 34th out of 36, while it was over for Bourdon.
The performance was there in DD2 Masters. Michael Dauphin was finally on the pace without incident during Prefinal B and got a good 5th place. Charly Hipp began by making a beautiful run in Prefinal A with a creditable 2nd place against a threatening pack behind him. A penalty for a jumped start, a manoeuvre from which he drew no benefit, spoiled the party by dropping him to 19th position. Hipp qualified 8th and Dauphin 13th for the Final.
Success was not there for the French drivers in DD2. Despite all his strong will, Andrew Williamson could not move back up as he had done so well until then and had to settle for a 22nd position which was insufficient to reach the Final (39th qualifier). He did not lose his legendary smile. Lucas Joly was doing the job perfectly in Prefinal B with a legendary climb from 23rd to 9th position. This was unfortunately not enough to qualify as he was 40th.
The day of Saturday, 11th November will be devoted to the six Finals from 12:20 to 16:15, then to the podium ceremony from 17:15. The Drivers Party will close a busy week of competition in the evening.
Info Kartcom with Kartlink / © Photos KSP