2024 Hurmu Grand Prix
 Race 2/16 in the 2024 Formula Micras World Championship | |
| Race details | |
|---|---|
| Host country |
 Order of the Holy Lakes |
| Circuit | Datret Park Circuit, Datret |
| Dates | 22-24 March 2023 |
| Race length | 54 Laps |
| Podium | |
 First |
 Ben Lloyd |
 Second |
 Trent Cooper |
 Third |
 Max Treuenfeld |
| Race statistics | |
| Pole Position |
Ben Lloyd |
| Fastest Lap |
Trent Cooper |
The 2024 Hurmu Grand Prix, officially presented as the Formula Micras Hurmu Grand Prix 2024, is a Formula Micras World Championship race that will be held on 24 March 2024 at the Datret Park Circuit, a motor racing circuit in the city of Datret, Hurmu. It served as the second race of the 2024 Formula Micras World Championship, in the Formula Micras calendar for the third year in a row.
Background
The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list.
The Vegnese GP was the second race of the 2024 calendar.
The 2022 edition saw the triumph of Vorgeņ Brólt, with Maddox Islwyn and Toshio Sōma on the podium, while the 2023 edition saw the win of the two-time world champion, Trent Cooper, with Albretch Kransk on the second spot.
Tyre Choices
The tyre manufacturers brought for this Grand Prix three choices of compounds for the teams: SuperSoft (SS), Soft (S) and Medium (M).
Practice Session
The practice session was held at the Grand Prix lasting an hour in length; it was scheduled on 22 March 2024, and started at 15:00 local time, having the following situation:
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Constructor | Time | Tyre | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 42 |  Michele Spettacolo
|
Sburo Deliziosa FM Team | 1:22.638 | M | - |
| 2 | 69 |  Maddox Islwyn
|
Ddraig-Llywelyn Racing | 1:22.862 | SS | +0.224 |
| 3 | 10 |  Ottone Qualchempresario
|
Scuderia DaeZoom FM | 1:22.867 | SS | +0.229 |
Qualifying
As clarified by the regulations, the qualifying session took place on 23 March 2024, with a 3-manche sessions: the 15 fastest drivers had access to Q2, then the 10 fastest acceded to Q3, where they fought for pole-position.
Race
Report
After a chaotic qualifying session in which the rain showers dominated, rewarding those who recorded a time in the short period of dry track, the race was no less exciting in terms of emotions.
In the front row the Mercurian Ben Lloyd of Sburo, flanked by the championship leader and winner of the last race, Max Treuenfeld, while in the second row is finally the Craitish Vorgeņ Brólt, finally back to competing for the top positions after a difficult year , accompanied by reigning champion Trent Cooper; surprise of the day Yoshihiko Tatsuyama-Xiang who, after an excellent performance in qualifying, starts in 11th place close to the points zone.
At the start, a light rain hits the track and Ben Lloyd starts decidedly better than all the others in the front rows and already gains an excellent gap just at the start. Behind him, Hunt, thanks to an excellent start and a powerful braking in turn 1, manages to pass both Trent Cooper and Brólt, joining Treuenfeld in the snake of turns 2 and 3, where he also manages to overtake the Etzeland driver and move into second place. During the first lap Brólt overtakes Treuenfeld and conquers the podium area, while the two Ddraig Llewyns fight each other for fifth and sixth positions, both having overtaken the reigning champion Cooper, who was having difficulty controlling the car in the rain. After only one lap behind the two Calbain team drivers, Cooper manages to regain the two lost positions, overtaking Islwyn on the finish straight and Osian 3 corners later. Meanwhile, in the rear, Spettacolo found himself already twelfth during the third lap, even overtaking 9 drivers, as was similarly done by Luisa Castro, 13th at the end of the third lap; Toshio Sōma and Pierre Deschamps were more in difficulty in their comeback.
At the beginning of the sixth lap, due to the increasing rain, Lloyd stops in the pit to put on extreme wet tyres, followed by the most of other drivers. At the end of the next lap Treuenfeld is in third, managing to gain a position on Brólt, who was having difficulty getting his wet tires up to temperature on the out lap. During the following lap, however, Treuenfeld also suffered from the same temperature problems and, after having engaged in an exciting battle with Brólt and Cooper, had to give way to both, finishing in fifth position.
During the 15th lap the rain begins to decrease until it stops completely, the track begins to dry out and some drivers, including Qualchempresario, Herbertson-Panner, Yi Gao and Pierre Deschamps, bring forward the stop, fitting intermediate tyres, aiming for a very rapid drainage of the asphalt. On the following lap all the others also stop to fit a new set of intermediates, except for Treuenfeld, Xiang, Islwyn, Nye and Spettacolo, who instead decide to delay the stop until the next lap. At the end of the chaotic round of pit stops, the positions of the top 10 remain unchanged, with the sole exception of Cooper, who, thanks to an excellent stop by his mechanics and a good dose of luck, manages to overtake Brólt in third position, forced to lose more time due to other drivers in the pitlane.
On lap 19 Pierre Deschamps miscalculated his braking on a track that was gradually drying out and ended up off the track, forced into his first retirement in the Formula Micras.
On lap 25, Spettacolo, involved in his comeback from a bad qualifying and in full battle with Qualchempresario for ninth place, miscalculated his braking, went wide and cut a corner, being penalized by the race direction with a 10 second penalty added at the end of the race. On the same lap it's time for another pit stop again for all the drivers, who switch to dry tires for the first time in this race, all fitting supersoft compounds. George Hunt, unfortunately, was forced to stop in the pits for as long as 20 seconds due to a tear-off that had ended up in the rear brake duct, which prevented it from cooling. At the end of the second round of pit stops on dry tires Lloyd is leading the race, followed by Cooper, Brólt and Treuenfeld, who have all overtaken Hunt due to the pit stop problem. Osian remains in sixth position, while Spettacolo, thanks to an excellent stop by the Sburo mechanics and the chaos of the pits, overtakes both Islwyn and Qualchempresario to reach eighth position.
On lap 37, the rain incredibly returns, forcing all the drivers to make a new pit stop to fit the intermediate tires. On lap 41 Michele Spettacolo overtakes Yoshihiko Tatsuyama-Xiang for seventh position and the following lap he also completes the overtaking on Osian after having engaged in a tough battle with the latter. The last 10 laps saw Brólt and Treuenfeld battle it out for the last step of the podium, with the Mondozoom driver resisting a couple of attacks from the CräiteAuto driver and consolidating third place.
The victory in this chaotic race, characterized by rain and 4 pit stops per driver, was won by Ben Lloyd on Sburo, followed by Trent Cooper, who scored the first points after retiring in the last race, and Max Treuenfeld, who remains at the top of the drivers' standings; to be metioned is that one of the two Matsculorians scored points for the second consecutive race, this time with Yoshihiko Tatsuyama-Xiang finishing eighth.
Result
1 Fastest Lap scored (2 extra point)
2 Pole Position scored (2 extra points)
- ^ Michele Spettacolo is penalized 10 seconds on the race time for having cut a corner and gained an advantage during lap 25.
Championship standings after the race
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