Fraga beats Barrichello for title

Fraga youngest champ ever

A real thriller went on in Interlagos this Sunday morning in Sao Paulo for the final race of the Brazilian V8 Stock Car 2016 season. A light rain came on in the middle of the race, and it was a matter of choice to pit and put wet tires or to risk and stay on slicks. Strategy played an important role during the 40 minutes of the race, allowing Rubens Barrichello to dream with the title after staying on the wet track with slicks while his leading rival went to the pits.

However, it was not enough, since the Cimed Racing driver only need a 12th place to confirm himself as the 2016 champion. Fraga returned in 10th place after his pit stop and there he stayed until the checkered flag.

"For me, it is like I am talking about one more race in my career. I still don’t know for sure what I am feeling, because it did not click yet. Still, we are going to party tonight", said Fraga.

The race winner was Daniel Serra, in a perfect farewell for Red Bull. The company leaves the series in the end of the season. "It was sensational! If we could write what we wish for this goodbye, it would not be better that this. It is a team I race for eight years and a company that have backed me for ten years. So, to finish the season with a win is more than rewarding", told Serra.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Rubens Barrichello, after spinning on lap 6 after overtaking Ricardo Mauricio on the Senna S, dropped to 18th place and choose not to pit when the rain came. "That spin made my option easier because Fraga pitted. The conversation with my engineer was identical the one I had with Ross Brown at the German Grand Prix in 2000. The team told me to pit, I told them the track was dry, and when they said Fraga was in the pits, I decided to stay", said the runner-up.

He moved up to fourth place, overtook his teammate Allam Khodair and Julio Campos to engage a chase on the leader Daniel Serra. He smashed the seven-second gap to cross the line only 0s6 behind the winner. "We didn’t lose today. I turned on that final chicane like it was the last time in my life I was doing it", he highlighted.

"Even though", he continued, "winning or not, we could not take the championship because we needed Fraga to finish 13th or lower. Anyway, we fought hard as we always do. We had our problems, especially in the first races of the season. It was, however, a positive year, and we will come back even stronger", he finished.

Newly crowned champion Felipe Fraga is the youngest Stock Car champion in Brazil, taking the record from Giuliano Losacco, who won the 2004 championship at the age of 27 years. Fraga is only 21. "It was a tense race. During the early stages, I was driving calmly, in the lead, but when it started to rain, things got a little ugly. I almost ran over my mechanics in the pits, but we managed to come back in a position we would take the title. And that is what we did. I am enormously proud of the team, this title is theirs, too", told the Cimed driver.

Race start

Felipe Fraga is born in Jacunda, in the northern state of Para, and started his karting career in 2001 at the age of 6. He won five times the national karting championship when moved to single-seaters in 2012. Fraga raced in the Formula Renault Alps in Europe, but returned to Brazil the following year, becoming the Stock Car Light champion.

His debut in Brazil’s leading racing series came in 2014, and he won at his debut, becoming the youngest ever Stock Car winner at the age of 18 – he didn’t even had his driver’s license yet. In 2016, he won five races and took four pole positions. Another highlight of his season was his one-million reais victory in September. Felipe stays with the Cimed team for 2017.

Final Race – Results:
1. 29 Daniel Serra Red Bull Racing) – 23 laps in 42min03s324 (141,5 kph)
2. 111 Rubens Barrichello (Full Time Sports) – a 0s619
3. 90 Ricardo Mauricio (Eurofarma RC) – a 9s275
4. 0 Caca Bueno (Red Bull Racing) – a 10s983
5. 4 Julio Campos (C2 Axalta Racing) – a 10s996
6. 117 Guilherme Salas (RZ Motorsport) – a 21s479
7. 8 Rafael Suzuki (Vogel Motorsport) – a 24s761
8. 9 Guga Lima (TMG Racing) – 25s049
9. 77 Valdeno Brito (TMG Racing) – a 1min07s614
10. 88 Felipe Fraga (Cimed Racing) – 1min09s412
11. 5 Denis Navarro (Vogel Motorsport) – 1min10s749
12. 18 Allam Khodair (Full Time Sports) – 1min14s140
13. 10 Ricardo Zonta (Shell Racing) – 1min26s918
14. 51 Ã�tila Abreu (Shell Racing) – a 1min32s880
15. 80 Marcos Gomes (Cimed Racing) – 1min35s767
16. 70 Diego Nunes (Uniao QuÃmica Racing) – a 1 lap
17. 28 Galid Osman (Ipiranga-RCM) – a 1 lap
18. 110 Felipe Lapenna (Hot Car CompetiÃ§Ãµes) – a 1 lap
19. 25 Tuka Rocha (RZ Motorsport) – a 1 lap
20. 12 Lucas Foresti (Full Time-ProGP) – a 1 lap
21. 99 Xandynho NegrÃ£o (Cavaleiro Sports) – a 1 lap
22. 46 Vitor Genz (Eisenbahn Racing Team) – a 1 lap
23. 73 Sergio Jimenez (Cavaleiro Sports) – a 1 lap
DID NOT FINISH
24. 21 Thiago Camilo (Ipiranga-RCM) – a 7 laps
25. 65 Max Wilson (Eurofarma RC) – a 8 laps
26. 63 Nestor Girolami (Eisenbahn Racing Team) – a 17 laps
27. 3 Bia Figueiredo (UniÃ£o Quimica Racing) – a 21 laps
28. 83 Gabriel Casagrande (C2 Axalta Racing) – a 21 laps
29. 26 Raphael Abbate (Hot Car CompetiÃ§Ãµes) – a 17 laps
FASTEST LAP: Allam Khodair, 1min40s537 (154,4 kph)
*Official Results

FINAL STANDINGS – DRIVERS:
1 – Felipe Fraga 309 points
2 – Rubens Barrichello 295
3 – Daniel Serra 229
4 – Valdeno Brito 229
5 – Marcos Gomes 212
6 – Ricardo Mauricio 205
7 – Diego Nunes 189
8 – Ã�tila Abreu 187
9 – CacÃ¡ Bueno 186
10 – Allam Khodair 181
11 – Julio Campos 170
12 – Max Wilson 166
13 – Vitor Genz 158
14 – Galid Osman 142
15 – Thiago Camilo 141
16 – Ricardo Zonta 130
17 – Rafael Suzuki 117
18 – Denis Navarro 114
19 – Guga Lima 113
20 – Sergio Jimenez 109
21 – Gabriel Casagrande 89
22 – Nestor Girolami 77
23 – Raphael Abbate 67
24 – Lucas Foresti 67
25 – Bia Figueiredo 64
26 – Tuka Rocha 60
27 – Guilherme Salas 55
28 – Felipe GuimarÃ£es 51
29 – Felipe Lapenna 46
30 – PopÃ³ Bueno 30
31 – Danilo Dirani 23
32 – Xandinho Negrao11
33 – Luciano Burti 2
34 – Fabio Carbone 0
35 – Alceu Feldmann0
36 – Thiago Marques 0
37 – Beto Cavaleiro 0
38 – Cezar Ramos 0

TEAMS FINAL CLASSIFICATION:
1 – Cimed Racing 521 pontos – CAMPEA
2 – Full Time Sports 476
3 – Red Bull Racing 415
4 – Eurofarma RC 371
5 – TMG Racing 342
6 – Shell Racing 317
7 – Ipiranga RCM 283
8 – Axalta C2 Team 259
9 – UniÃ£o Quimica Racing 253
10 – Eisenbahn Racing Team 235
11 – Vogel Motorsport 231
12 – Cavaleiro Sports178
13 – RZ Motorsport 156
14 – Hot Car Competicoes 118
15 – Full Time Pro-GP 118
16 – Mico's Racing 2