The V1 Malta Series returned into action following the Christmas break, and the first race of 2022 certainly did not disappoint, with Adrian Manduca in the Alpine taking victory in dramatic circumstances. Mercedes driver Michael Pace finished in second, whilst reigning champion Jake Sammut took third in his Ferrari.
Qualifying was an entirely wet affair, and eventually it was Sammut who took pole position once again. Pace qualified second, whilst current Championship leader Ryan Carabott qualified in third. Manduca and Red Bull driver Brandon Bonello qualified in fourth and fifth respectively.
At the start, Sammut did not get away well at all from pole, however, he maintained the lead going into turn 1 and the first braking zone. Carabott from third got a good getaway and immediately got past Pace. However, going into The Loop, Sammut and Carabott made contact which led to the latter spinning out in unfortunate circumstances. As a result, Carabott suffered front wing damage and pitted to have it repaired and put on a set of hard tyres, dropping him down to last place in the process. Also, further back, Sammut’s team-mate Anthony Calabrese inadvertently ran into Alpha Tauri driver Wayne Micallef who ended up being spun round as a result, although fortunately did not pick up any significant damage.
At the end of lap 1, Sammut held the lead, with Pace back up into second, Manduca in third and Bonello in fourth – with all the latter 3 taking advantage of Carabott’s incident with Sammut. Another driver who made a strong start was Bonello’s team-mate Wayne Schembri, who moved up from 15th to 11th on the opening lap.
On a track where tyre degradation was proving to be extremely minimal (partly aided by a wet qualifying session which meant all drivers could start on brand new tyres), a highly fascinating battle was taking place between the driver from 5th down to 10th, which included Haas driver Daryl Pace, Alpha Tauri driver Kurt Friggieri, Schembri, Williams driver Jamie Zahra, McLaren driver Christian Caruana ‘Galluwa’ and Mercedes driver Brendan Buhagiar. On lap 10, Buhagiar attempted an overtake on Galluwa and unfortunately the two collided which saw Galluwa spin round and suffer wing damage. Meanwhile, all this battle enabled the top 4 to pull away rapidly from the rest.
On the following lap, Bonello from fourth place spun in Village corner, and this saw him drop down all the way down to 10th place. Also, on lap 13, whilst attempting an overtake, Buhagiar spun round and dropped down to 13th place as a result. The first driver of the top 10 to pit was Friggieri in his Alpha Tauri, getting rid of his soft tyres for a set of medium ones, and this began to trigger a sequence of pit stops.
On the following lap, in reaction to Friggieri’s pit stop, Daryl Pace in the Haas changed his soft tyres to go onto a medium set, and Pace re-emerged from his pit stop behind Friggieri once again. The next lap saw pit stops begin to occur between the front 3 runners, as Sammut from the lead and Manduca from 3rd place both pitted from their medium tyres onto a set of soft tyres, however, Michael Pace in the Mercedes elected to stay out. Pace in the Mercedes then pitted on the following lap, and this proved costly for him as he lost track position to Manduca, whilst Sammut kept the lead of the race. All the while, as a result of all pit stops occurring, Carabott started to make up considerable ground and moved back up into 4th place. Also, impressively, by going longer and not pitting immediately, Schembri managed to jump Daryl Pace as well as Friggieri, although he did lose track position to Carabott.
On lap 18, Manduca’s team-mate Keith Muscat crashed out of the race, and this led to the Safety Car (SC) being deployed. Carabott took advantage of this Safety Car to get rid of his hard tyres and pit onto a set of soft tyres, although it did mean he dropped down to 11th place. Other drivers who used this SC period to pit included Friggieri, Galluwa, Calabrese, and the Alfa Romeo drivers Daylziel Tabone and Jake Gauci.
The SC came in at the end of lap 20 in what was an extremely late call. Sammut from the lead got a good restart, whilst Zahra’s team-mate Chris Ciantar retired from 10th place after spinning out, and Carabott was extremely fortunate not to collide into him. On lap 23, Carabott attempted to make an overtaking move on Bonello going into the Vale chicane, but made contact and spun round as a result, which dropped him down to 12th place. Shortly afterwards, Bonello also ended up spinning because of an unfortunate collision with Haas driver Kirsten Formosa.
On the final lap, on the Hangar straight, Manduca got close enough to be able to attempt an overtake on Sammut, and the two ended up making contact which saw Sammut get spun round and drop down to 3rd. Manduca went on to take the victory, whilst Michael Pace took second place and Sammut completed the podium. Also, Bonello retired on the final lap of the race after he collided with Friggieri. The rest of the top 10 turned out to be: Schembri, Formosa, Carabott, Zahra, Galluwa, Friggieri and Daryl Pace.
The V1 2021/2022 race Calendar –
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