2022 Cossa GP

2022 Cossa Grand Prix

Race 1/14 in the 2022 Formula Vegnese Championship
Tournament details
Host country	Vegno
City	Cossa Street Circuit, Cossa
Dates	5-7 April 2022
Venue(s)	72 Laps (4,53 km per lap)
Final positions
Champions	Alberto Saiani
Runners-up	Carlo Lecce
Third place	Massimo Veraldi
Tournament statistics
Pole Position scored	Luigi Hamel
Fastest Lap scored	Massimo Veraldi
2023 →

The 2022 Cossa Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula Vegno Cossa Grand Prix 2022) was a Formula Vegnese Championship race that was held on 7 April 2022 at the Cossa Street Circuit, a motor racing circuit in the capital of Vegno. It served as the season opener of the 2022 Formula Vegnese Championship and it was the first running of the Cossa Grand Prix.

Background

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list and the race saw the Grand Prix debut of all the drivers, the teams, and the Formula Vegno Championship.

Tyre Choices

The compound of tyres selected for this weekend by Vegnelli, the official supplier for Formula Vegno are: C5 as Softs (color Red), C4 as Medium (color Yellow) and C3 as Hard (color White).

Practice Session

The practice session was held at the Grand Prix lasting an hour in length; it was scheluded on 5 April 2022, and started at 15:00 local time, having the following situation:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Time	Tyre	Gap
1	55	Alberto Saiani	Scuderia Rossini	1:11:462	H	-
2	44	Luigi Hamel	Puredes Racing	1:11:514	M	+0.051
3	33	Massimo Veraldi	Blue Bull Racing	1:12:046	H	+0.583

The free practice session was held on 5 April and revealed no dominant team for the first race of the season: both Scuderia Rossini and Blue Bull Racing seemed to be very strong, with the fastest time (Saiani) and the third one (Veraldi) with the slowest tyre compound (White Medium); the Puredes Racing is trying to keep the pace with Hamel, but seemed to be slower than the other 2 top-teams, using the Supersoft tyre for his time.

As regard the other teams, Omega Romeo and Sburo are the most listed to make pressure on the three top-teams. The worst notice of the free pratice is the McPapu FV, last in pace with both his driver, and quite a second away from the others.

Qualifying

As clarified by the regulations, the qualifying session took place on 6 April 2022, with a double session: the 10 fastest drivers had access to Q2, competing with each other for the pole position and the first two points of 2022 Formula Vegnese Championship.

Report

As expected from the expectations, the last two positions of the ranking are occupied by the two McPapu FV, which as shown by the tests appear in great difficulty in the flying lap, positioning themselves even 6 tenths of a second behind the 14th place occupied by the Sota of Garrics, another disappointment of Q1 in Cossa.

Both Sota in fact fail to qualify in Q2, with Nicola Lode just pipped out at the end by Ciccio Giocatore, who manages to complete a clean lap and bring both Sburo to Q2.

The two Ripamonti, as witnessed by the drivers, were unable to find the right set-up in the flying lap for this weekend and are forced to start from 12th and 13th position, despite the great experience of the two drivers.

In Q2 the situation becomes interesting but, contrary to expectations, it is Alberto Saiani and not Carlo Lecce who are competing for pole position and above all Luigi Hamel, who appeared subdued in the tests but in great shape this weekend in Cossa. Hamel and his Puredes manage to win in Qualifying, managing to complete a clean lap in 1:09:392, while Saiani stops at 1 tenth of a gap, having however recorded an even better time than pole in Q1, as happened to Massimo Veraldi (only 4th), a sign that the only one who managed to improve in the next run was Hamel himself, thus obtaining the first two championship points of the season.

Surprise for the Michele Spettacolo that manages to overtake Salvatore Botta's Puredes by 43 thousandths, auotre of a great lap and in an excellent position for the next day's race.

Results

Pos.	Driver	No.	Constructor	Qualifying times		Final grid
				Q1	Q2
1	Luigi Hamel	44	Puredes Racing	1:09:909	1:09:392	1st
2	Alberto Saiani	55	Scuderia Rossini	1:09:123	1:09:492	2nd
3	Carlo Lecce	16	Scuderia Rossini	1:10:070	1:09:841	3rd
4	Massimo Veraldi	33	Blue Bull Racing	1:09:701	1:09:895	4th
5	Francesco Perego	11	Blue Bull Racing	1:10:273	1:10:135	5th
6	Michele Spettacolo	42	Sburo	1:10:667	1:10:602	6th
7	Salvatore Botta	77	Puredes Racing	1:10:693	1:10:645	7th
8	Giorgio Russo	63	Omega Romeo	1:10:310	1:10:723	8th
9	Tanilo Zhong	24	Omega Romeo	1:11:461	1:11:323	9th
10	Francesco Giocatore	89	Sburo	1:10:914	1:11:390	10th
11	Nicola Lode	69	Sota Racing Team	1:11:644	N/A	11th
12	Nicola Alocci	14	Ripamonti Racing	1:11:907	N/A	12th
13	Giuseppe Veterani	5	Ripamonti Racing	1:11:910	N/A	13th
14	Martino Garrics	13	Sota Racing Team	1:11:956	N/A	14th
15	Luca Ricagni	3	McPapu FV	1:12:528	N/A	15th
16	Marco Schiavelli	47	McPapu FV	1:12:651	N/A	16th

Race

Report

Hamel starts badly from the first position and is immediately overtaken by Saiani and Lecce who take the lead of the race.

in the rear an excellent starting point from Nicola Lode who from 11th place is in the early stages of the race stably in 6th position, also detaching Spettacolo which still remains anchored in 7th place.

on lap 9 Botta ends long in curve 5 damaging the front wing and this forces him to an early pit stop and restart from the back of the group; same fate for Nicola Lode on lap 16, who punctures the right rear tire after a contact with Entertainment and is forced to change tires and strategy.

The first retirement of the 2022 season takes place on lap 18 when Alocci is forced to return to the pits definitively due to an engine failure, while the first lap of pit stops between all the drivers begins.

Botta after the problem he had at the beginning of the race manages to recover up to the 6th position without being able to overtake Spettacolo which brings home a fundamental 5th position for the Sburo team, also in points with Player in 9th place.

Nicola Lode was also forced to retire on lap 48 after yet another problem which occurred in a very unfortunate race for the Sota driver.

Quiet race for the two Rossinis in the lead who finish the first 1-2 of their history and of the Formula Vegno, closely followed by Veraldi who overcomes a Hamel in evident difficulty in the race after the pit stops; fastest lap finally made by Veraldi on the penultimate lap after having made a pit and mounted Ultrasoft tires.

Excellent performance also for Zhong who reaches points for Omega Romeo and Martino Garrics who partially repays the good performance of the Lode's Sota.

Result

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	55	Alberto Saiani	Scuderia Rossini	72	1:31:04.198	2nd	25
2	16	Carlo Lecce	Scuderia Rossini	72	+10:081	3rd	18
3	33	Massimo Veraldi	Blue Bull Racing	72	+34:860	4th	16
4	44	Luigi Hamel	Puredes Racing	71	+1 Lap	1st	12
5	42	Michele Spettacolo	Sburo	71	+1 Lap	6th	10
6	77	Salvatore Botta	Puredes Racing	71	+1 Lap	7th	8
7	11	Francesco Perego	Blue Bull Racing	70	+2 Laps	5th	6
8	24	Tanilo Zhong	Omega Romeo	70	+2 Laps	9th	4
9	89	Francesco Giocatore	Sburo	70	+2 Laps	10th	2
10	13	Martino Garrics	Sota Racing Team	70	+2 Laps	14th	1
11	63	Giorgio Russo	Omega Romeo	70	+2 Laps	8th
12	3	Luca Ricagni	McPapu FV	69	+3 Laps	15th
13	5	Giuseppe Veterani	Ripamonti Racing	69	+3 Laps	13th
14	47	Marco Schiavelli	McPapu FV	69	+3 Laps	16th
15	69	Nicola Lode	Sota Racing Team	48	RET	11th
16	14	Nicola Alocci	Ripamonti Racing	18	RET	12th

Championship standings after the race

Drivers Standings

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos.	Driver	Points
1	Alberto Saiani	25
2	Carlo Lecce	18
3	Massimo Veraldi	16
4	Luigi Hamel	14
5	Michele Spettacolo	10

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos.	Constructor	Points
1	Scuderia Rossini	43
2	Blue Bull Racing	22
3	Puredes Racing	22
4	Sburo	12
5	Omega Romeo	4