2024 Phinbellan Nova Prix
 Race 3/16 in the 2024 Formula Micras World Championship | |
| Race details | |
|---|---|
| Host country |
 Phinbella |
| Circuit | Phinbella National Circuit, Providenciales |
| Dates | 5-7 April 2024 |
| Race length | 57 Laps |
| Podium | |
 First |
 George Hunt |
 Second |
 Trent Cooper |
 Third |
 Michele Spettacolo |
| Race statistics | |
| Pole Position |
George Hunt |
| Fastest Lap |
Trent Cooper |
The 2024 Phinbellan Nova Prix, officially presented as the Formula Micras Phinbellan Nova Prix 2024, is a Formula Micras World Championship race that was held on 7 April 2024 at the Phinbella National Circuit, a motor racing circuit in the city of Providenciales, Phinbella. It served as the third race of the 2024 Formula Micras World Championship, in the Formula Micras calendar for the second year, after skipping the 2023 season.
Background
The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list.
The Phinbellan Nova Prix was the third race of the 2024 calendar. It returned in the calendar in 2024, after being absent in the la 2023 season. It's the only race to be called Nova Prix instead of Grand Prix, at the explicit request of the Phinbellan federation, accepted by the Micras Federation of Motorsport.
The 2022 edition, the only previous one on this circuit, saw the triumph of Samira Khan, with Ottone Qualchempresario and Trent Cooper on the podium
Tyre Choices
The tyre manufacturers brought for this Grand Prix three choices of compounds for the teams: Soft (S), Medium (M) and Hard (H).
Practice Session
The practice session was held at the Grand Prix lasting an hour in length; it was scheduled on 5 April 2024, and started at 15:00 local time, having the following situation:
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Constructor | Time | Tyre | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 56 |  Max Treuenfeld
|
EMW MondoZoom Racing | 1:02.984 | S | - |
| 2 | 3 |  Ben Lloyd
|
Sburo Deliziosa FM Team | 1:03.267 | S | +0.282 |
| 3 | 50 | Jason Rhodes
|
Titan-Vivace Motorsports | 1:03.396 | S | +0.411 |
Qualifying
As clarified by the regulations, the qualifying session took place on 6 April 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 thrilling qualifying session characterized by rain, George Hunt starts from pole position alongside Treuenfeld; The two Sburo drivers are placed in the second row. Hunt and Treuenfeld both start well, firmly maintaining the first two positions, while behind them Ben Lloyd takes third position from Michele Spettacolo, who instead gets off to a terrible start and actually slips to seventh in just 3 corners. Unlike the driver from Vegno, however, Deschamps, Islwyn and Cooper immediately recovered several positions after just one lap of the race. On the third lap Cooper engages in a tough battle with teammate Rhodes, interrupted by the Titan team, which orders its driver to let the reigning world champion pass, generating controversy in the paddock. The following lap Baardwijk took advantage of Spettacolo's indecision and overtook him with a nice maneuver and moved into eighth position, only to be overtaken by the vegnese driver during the seventh lap.
On lap 11, the leading drivers began the first round of pit stops, with race leader Hunt stopping first to fit a set of new medium tires and even returning to 20th position. Lloyd, Rhodes, Islwyn and Nye stopped two laps later, while the other drivers tried to extend the stint as much as possible, with the specter of rain appearing to approach the circuit. Treuenfeld stops on lap 13 to put on soft tires and rejoins behind Hunt, who manages to make good use of the laps with new tyre. Deschamps and Cooper stopped on lap 15, with the former managing to gain position on Islwyn and rejoin in front of him after the pit, while Cooper rejoined extremely close to him, which allowed him to overtake him on the following lap. On lap 17 Hunt regained the lead of the Grand Prix, after having easily overtaken the drivers who started with the medium tire and after the pits of the others, with Treuenfeld and Lloyd quite far behind and struggling to overtake the drivers with 0 stops. On lap 21 the first drops of rain begin to arrive on the circuit and Tatsuyama-Xiang, Baardwijk and Herbertson-Panner get ahead of everyone, perhaps fitting wet tires too early.
On lap 22 almost all the drivers stop to put on intermediate tyres, except for Cooper, Islwyn, Rhodes and a few others who continue one more lap on their soft tyres. The gamble proved to be a winning one for Cooper who managed to return ahead of Deschamps and Lloyd, thus momentarily taking third place, while both Iswlyn and Rhodes struggled with dry tyres, returning behind Spettacolo and Tatsuyama-Xiang.
During lap 26 Herbertson-Panner missed the braking point at the last corner and, due to the increasing rain, ended up in the gravel, forced to retire.
On lap 35 the rain stopped and the track began to dry, with Tatsuyama-Xiang taking another strategic gamble and immediately putting on dry tyres, followed by Baardwijk. This gamble, however, does not seem to pay off, but on lap 39 Deschamps, who was firmly in fifth position, commits the same mistake made by Herbertson-Panner, finishing wide at the last corner, with a more violent crash than the previous one, which causes the entry of the safety car. At this point all the drivers make their pit stop taking advantage of the entry of the safety car, and put on dry tyres.
At the restart Cooper engaged in a close battle with Treuenfeld, overtaking him with a powerful braking at the bend of turn 5 and thus moving into second position. A few corners later Spettacolo also takes advantage of Treuenfeld's indecision and overtakes him at the last corner before the finishing straight. Hunt firmly maintains his lead, thanks to his excellent ability to heat up the tires of his Enigma, which allows him to make fast laps despite the medium tires performing less well than his rivals' softs. After three from the restart, Castro also takes full advantage of the capabilities of her Aldurian-Apex Motorsports to overtake Rhodes, Ottone Qualchempresarioand Toshio Sōma.
On lap 45 Spettacolo engages in a heated battle with Cooper: he overtakes him in turn 1, and is then passed again in the straight from turn 2 to turn 3, with the world champion managing to maintain second position. With 12 laps to go the rain returns to the circuit, forcing the drivers to make yet another pit stop to fit wet tires again. Islwyn Baardwijk and Patricia Nairn stopped too early, losing many positions. Cooper and Treuenfeld stopped first among the leading drivers, while Hunt, Spettacolo, Lloyd and Castro did so on the following lap. Thanks to the early pit, Cooper manages to gain several seconds on Spettacolo and thus maintain second place from the vegnese driver, while Treuenfeld is unable to stay ahead of Spettacolo by a few thousandths, who manages to maintain third position. However, Sburo's mistake in calling its two drivers to the pits at the same time cost Lloyd two positions, being overtaken by both Castro and Sōma.
With 6 laps to go Lloyd catches Toshio Sōma and overtakes him, thus recovering sixth position. In the final, Rhodes passed both Islwyn and Tatsuyama-Xiang and moved into ninth place, and Brólt did the same, also making a comeback, moving into tenth place. During the penultimate lap Rhodes showed obvious difficulties with his Titan and had to give up ninth position to the craitish driver.
George Hunt thus achieved his first victory of the season, dominating the grand prix in both dry and wet conditions and thanks to an excellent strategy from his team. The podium is completed by Cooper, who gets the better of Treuenfeld and Spettacolo thanks to Titan's excellent strategy, and Spettacolo, who secures the first podium of the season.
Result
1 Fastest Lap scored (2 extra point)
2 Pole Position scored (2 extra points)
Championship standings after the race
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