Matthias Farrugia wins his second race of the season after a tense final lap which saw Christian Caruana (Aston Martin) suffer a game disconnection which cost him the win. Thos win helped Farrugia close the gap towards the championship leader and joining the fight for first place.
The rain-soaked qualifying saw a front-row lockout by the Aston Martins of Christian Caruana and Kevin Lucchese, with Caruana snatching pole position by a mere 0.053. Caruana surprised everyone with this pole position as this was his first race back after he was not able to race for a couple of rounds due to a problem with his hardware.
In the race, Caruana positioned his car badly which made him lose traction at the start. Lucchese initially got off to a great start and managed to overtake his teammate into turn 1. The two Aston Martins then pulled away from the rest of the pack and seemed to be in control of the race until Lucchese had an incident that forced him to retire just three laps shy of the finish line. After an incident by Andrea Borg (Haas), the safety car was deployed, causing major drama as it was deployed around the pit window of some drivers. Those who pitted before the safety car period lost a lot of time compared to the others who were lucky enough to pit during the safety car period. A few laps after the restart, Christian Caruana (Aston Martin) was handed a 3s time penalty for exceeding track limits. Towards the end of the race, he was leading by more than 5s, which was theoretically enough for him to keep first. However, fate had other plans, as in the very last two corners, Caruana suffered a game disconnection, losing his advantage and ultimately ending up in third place after serving his penalty.
Despite not winning the race, Christian Caruana (Aston Martin) was awarded the Driver of the Day for his incredible performance, showing his worth around one of the hardest tracks in the calendar. Keith Muscat (McLaren) was awarded the Fastest Lap award after an incredible lap with soft tyres near the end of the race.
Stay in touch with us next Monday at 9pm on the Velocity Esports Racing Facebook or YouTube page for the next round of the V1 Malta Series Main Championship.
