Keterangan Pers - Chaotic Jeddah: Novikov with the early knockout blow?

After a thrilling finish in Bahrain which saw Pinto win with a last lap pass on Novikov, MRC F1 continued it's middle eastern leg in Saudi Arabia at the very challenging Jeddah Corniche Circuit.  Pole went to Chloe de Saint-Germain Jr, and with Novikov yet to finish below 2nd, combined with Campolargo's early season struggles, there was already a sense that CSG needed to convert this into a win to keep both championships close.

Early on however, such a result seemed inevitable.  She led every lap excluding pit stop cycles, whilst the rest of the "big 8" (RB/Ferrari/Lotus/Mercedes) dropped back and fought amongst themselves, or even the best of the rest in Gardner's case after a weak race start.  About halfway through however, the track started to show it's teeth...

On lap 31, Hamays on new, cold tyres spun off into the wall at turn 5 when trying to accelerate out of 4.  On lap 37, the Bahrain winner Pinto ran into trouble when the front fell off, which isn't supposed to happen and makes it impossible for an F1 car to continue.  But most crucially, CSG with what was effectively a 16 second lead lost control at turn 10 and barely failed to straighten up the car in time before meeting the wall at 11/12.  It was a devastating 32 point provisional swing, as Novikov would inherit the lead.

CSG's crash brought out a short safety car, and many observers now believed that Campolargo was the favourite, as he was on tyres that were both better and fresher, with 3 DRS zones to use.  Yet when the closing laps were actually raced, he could not capitalize on this advantage, and whilst 2nd would still be Campolargo's best finish this season, it left a lot of unanswered questions regarding his early season form.  Novikov would somehow hold on to win his 3rd race of the season and take a 40 point lead in the drivers standings.  The Lotus of Lau would complete the podium, whilst further back, a last lap error from Woeger would open the door for Gardner and Zupancic to also get their best results so far, finishing 4th and 5th respectively.

After this result, some are already proclaiming that Ferrari and Novikov are this seasons F1 champions, but we should remember that there is still almost 80% of the season still to be run.  It's a lot of points to make up when Red Bull has no obvious advantages over Ferrari, but a single mechanical fault or accident could drastically alter the championship again.