Greg Gets The Win In Barcelona

It’s the weekend everyone has been waiting for, the first round of the Masters FIA Historic Formula One World Championship. Greg Thornton was meant to be racing the beautiful Lotus 77 this year’s championship but that was halted just before qualifying as the 77’s engine blew and was unable to race. Lucky for Greg and the team the ever so popular Lotus 91 was there to save the day. Greg had a great qualifying in the 91 getting on the front row in 2nd place with a time of 1.38.622, 0.735 seconds behind pole position Michael Lyons in the Williams FW07B.

The crowds started to gather on Saturday everyone made sure they had their seats to watch the first race of the year. As the cars gathered on the grid you could feel the excitement buzzing around the circuit. As the race got started Michael Lyons cleanly lead Greg and Loic Deman (Tyrrell 010) nto the first corner and on lap 2 Michael put in the fastest lap of the race to open up a 3 second gap between him and the rest of the pack. On lap 5 Loic started to close in on Greg as Michael began to slow down due to a broken throttle linkage which saw him retire from the race which gave Greg the lead. The new race leader Greg only stayed there until lap 8 as Loic had been lining up a pass and took his opportunity at the start of lap 8. On lap 12 Greg took advantage of a Loic spin and regained the lead and opened up a 4 second gap which saw him finish the race and take the first win of the 2017 Fia Masters Historic Formula One World Championship.

Greg had this to say the the Masters team after the race. “Loïc got me at the end of the straight. After that, I sat back hoping that something might happen – and it did!”, said a jubilant Thornton.

As Sunday came around there was a buzz surrounding Greg and the classic lotus team unfortunately some tweaks over night to the rear suspension did not have the desired effect as after starting 1st Greg had to come in after 1 lap as the he was unable to control the back end of the 91. After putting the rear suspension back to its original settings Greg went back out on the track for 7 laps but finished the race 5 laps behind the leader Michael Lyons.