eRacing Magazine Vol 2. Issue 7 | Page 104

elated Bird, who took fastest lap away from Turvey for good measure.

“It’s been a mixed season for us at Virgin, but what a way to finish. Unbelievable!” he said.

Anxious to avoid a similar fate, Duval slowed dramatically on the final lap, presenting Buemi with his golden opportunity. As Senna tried to pick his way past the struggling Frenchman – who crossed the line with 1% remaining – Buemi barged his way alongside into turn 15, but Senna was not to be denied. Blissfully unaware of the ramifications of the fight, Senna held firm into 16, to score his best result of the year and deliver a grateful Piquet the title.

“I was determined to defend hard today and not let our friend overtake, so I didn’t!” he said afterwards. “I was doing my own race, racing for myself. [Buemi] put himself in that position anyway with the spin after the pitstop, so it’s too bad for him.

You know that you don’t go and brake in the same place you normally do unless you have something special in your car. We’re just happy that we finished the season with the best result we’ve had so far and hopefully next season we are going to have plenty more of those and maybe even better.”

As Buemi was left to rue what might have been, Piquet was struggling coming to terms with what he had just accomplished.

“It’s been an amazing year, to think that two weeks before the championship started I didn’t have a contract and when I signed the contract it was only a five-race contract,” he said.

“This morning pissing down with rain in group three right when I went out, I thought things couldn’t get any worse. But the team said to me ‘Nelson, don’t ask any questions, just drive, we’ll take care of the rest and tell you what to do, when to push, when to save, don’t ask where Lucas is, where Sebastien is, just drive’ and that’s what I did. I only knew I won the championship when the commentator came on the radio – the team didn’t know!”

“Congratulations to Nelson, in my opinion the most deserving champion,” Bird added. “The speed he showed in the middle of the year had us scratching our heads, it was horrible!”

Image: Richard Washbrooke