Last weekend the 2nd French F1 Grand Prix took place in Villerest in between Vichy and Lyon. The number of 42 pilots looked promising. But due to bad weather forecast id didn’t turned out that way. There were 2 classes planned ( 21,5T Rubber and 10,5T Foam, but foam class was cancelled due to lack of drivers ).

Arriving on Friday afternoon I quickly started unpacking and was inpatient hit the track. The track has a fast but still technical layout with medium to high grip surface. Overtaking is the most difficult part of this track because of the tight ideal race lines. After my first battery pack the F110 SF2 felted pretty good. Practice went on till sunset as weather for the weekend was not assured. Went back to the hotel with a pretty good feeling.

Saturday started sunny, there were 2 practice sessions with 1 controlled scheduled before starting the qualifying rounds. Everything was going as planned with aiming a top 3 start spot which I did in Q1, 3rd place in Q1.

Until the weather gods chose to interfere with it.

Most of the drivers were hoping for some improvement but it rained till late in the evening.

Sunday morning was totally different. With the sun trying to do it’s best to dry out the track, everybody had to start in wet conditions. The organization decided to only make a second round of qualifying to start a 3 round final straight after.

Round 2 of qualifying I managed to finish second behind Jeremy Limoges. Starting positions didn’t change due to slower results. So my spot was number 3 on the starting grid for the finals.

The finals were challenging because the track was changing quickly as it started to dry out quick. The first final was a mixed one as the car was quick, but I pushed too much and made some errors. I had to be satisfied with a 4th spot with Willy Voisanghrin, Ghislain Mantrans and Jeremy Limoges in front of me.

The second final the car was not turning enough and I couldn’t hang on with the others so I finished 5th.

For the third final, a 3rd place general was still possible as it was not secured yet,I changed my front tires and changed some minor settings to have more steering, the warm ups were much better and I finished 2nd.

The good news was announced, there was a 4th final after agreement with all drivers. This was the perfect moment to do something as I could start the chase for 2nd spot overall from Ghislain Mantrand. Changing my side springs to some harder ones and putting the Serpent front wing made the car more stable with a touch more steering. Jeremy started from the back to leave the competition open as he was secured for the 1st spot. With a knife between my teeth I started chasing Ghislain quickly. After some nice back and forth actions I pulled away from Ghislain and so I took the win, with a happy 2nd overall place.

This is the overall result:
Jeremy Limoges
Steve Deblaere
Ghislain Montrand

Would like to thank the organization of MRCV42 for this great event, and it was for sure a sunshine after the rain weekend.

Thanks for the support:
Team Serpent
DW Hobbyshop
PN Racing
Marka Racing

Kind regards,

Steve Deblaere