The 2021/22 V1 Malta Series season, the third one organised by Velocity Esports Racing, finally got underway last night – with the first race of the season taking place in Melbourne. Ryan Carabott, who last season unsuccessfully defended his title from the first season, got his bid to reclaim the crown off to a perfect start, as he won the first race of the season and in the process achieved a grand slam as he led the race from start to finish having taken pole, and in addition, managed to set the fastest lap of the race.
The qualifying session was split into 3 segments: an 18-minute opening session with the slowest 5 drivers eliminated and occupying the bottom 5 positions on the starting grid, then a 15-minute session with the slowest 5 eliminated once again and occupying the next 5 positions, and a final part of 12 minutes to determine the starting order of the top 10. Qualifying proved to be a very hard-fought session, and in the end, Carabott took pole from Red Bull driver Brandon Bonello by a mere 0.02s. Reigning champion Jake Sammut, this year driving for Ferrari, qualified just behind Bonello in third. A key incident of note during qualifying regarded Alfa Romeo driver Daylziel Tabone, who was disqualified from qualifying (meaning that he had to start at the back of the grid) for blocking the pit lane and this could have resulted in a nasty collision between Sammut and Tabone, but fortunately did not.
At the start of the race, Carabott got away well and led from pole going into the first corner. However, Bonello got a sub-optimal start and dropped down to fourth from second – with both Sammut and Mercedes driver Michael Pace leapfrogging him. Bonello later managed to get back past Pace for third place.
The first key incident of the race involved Bonello’s Red Bull team-mate Wayne Schembri and Williams driver Jamie Zahra, as Schembri spun at the first turn and veered across the track, and as a result, Zahra ended up running straight into him. Eventually, both these two drivers went on to retire from the race.
The first of two Safety Car (SC) periods happened on lap 7, and this resulted in all the frontrunners electing to make their pitstop, switching from soft to medium tyres. However, Alpha Tauri drivers Kurt Friggieri and Wayne Micallef, who began the race on medium tyres, elected not to pit and as a result jumped up into second and third respectively, behind Carabott who retained the race lead but crucially ahead of both Sammut and Bonello. This proved to be crucial as it gave Carabott breathing space at the SC restart and both Sammut and Bonello lost a considerable amount of time relative to Carabott in clearing the two Alpha Tauri cars. Shortly after the SC restart, McLaren-Mercedes driver Simeon Nechev lost control of his vehicle and retired from the race.
The race was overall a clean affair, however, several drivers lost control of their cars and spun or made mistakes on what is a rather unforgiving track. One such driver who lost control of his car was Alfa Romeo driver Keith Vella, who retired with just 7 laps to go. This led to the SC being deployed for a second time, and once again all frontrunners changed their tyres, this time onto a set of soft tyres.
As the second SC period was about to end, Alpine driver Adrian Manduca made a massive error, as he lost control of the car whilst weaving to generate heat into the tyres, and as a result, crashed out of the race. Carabott got a good restart and built up a solid advantage to Sammut in second, and in the end, Carabott secured a comfortable victory in what was a superbly controlled drive, whilst Bonello completed the podium.
The rest of the top 10 were: Kurt Friggieri, Haas driver Daryl Pace, Mercedes driver Michael Pace, Haas driver Kirsten Formosa, McLaren driver Christian Caruana, Wayne Micallef and Alpine driver Keith Muscat.
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