NUR - Maserati 250F Round 6 - Nürburgring

A finish of the rarest kind

The final round of the Maserati 250F Championship produced a conclusion in which the race and the title were settled by different, though equally slender, margins. FMG took the victory in the common Maserati 250F 6 cylinder, only 0.020 seconds ahead of Valentin Knechtel after seven laps at NUR - Maserati 250F Round 6 - Nürburgring. It was a result to leave little room for certainty until the last possible instant, and one which gave the championship its proper final-race tension.

Knechtel had begun the evening at the head of the table, with 146 points to Florian Masse's 134 and FMG's 133. He could not add a victory to his advantage, but his nearest championship rival on the road was also the man who would deny FMG a decisive sweep of the points. Second place carried Knechtel to 183 points and the Championship. FMG's win brought him to 173, enough for second in the final order, while Flashor's third place secured 155 points and third overall.

The lead would not settle

For much of the race, FMG and Knechtel were inseparable in any practical sense. From the second lap onwards their contest remained within two seconds for six consecutive laps, a close and fluctuating affair over a distance that allowed no opportunity for either man to relax.

Knechtel held the advantage in the early running, only for FMG to move ahead by the end of lap three. Thereafter the pair continued their private argument at the head of the field. By the end of lap six Knechtel had reclaimed first place, appearing to have placed himself in the strongest possible position both for the race and for the title. But the final lap brought a last alteration. FMG won the lead back, and at the chequered flag had it by the almost absurd figure of two hundredths of a second.

The victory was FMG's second consecutive Championship success. It was not, however, enough to reverse the larger arithmetic of the season. Knechtel's second place was the measured answer required of a leader under pressure.

Tiergarten decides the order

The decisive change came on the last lap, when an incident involving FMG and Knechtel at Tiergarten coincided with Knechtel losing the lead and dropping to second. The circumstances cannot diminish the plain fact of the finish: FMG had found himself back in front when it mattered, while Knechtel was still sufficiently close to make the winner work for every fraction of his advantage.

There was no late retreat from the champion-elect. Knechtel remained in immediate reach through the closing phase, and the official margin records how narrowly FMG escaped being beaten. The contest had the character of a duel conducted on a long circuit, its order altered only at critical moments and never decisively settled until the flag.

Flashor completes the podium

Flashor came home third, completing a podium which had been part of a closely grouped leading contest in the middle portion of the race. He was near enough to FMG and Knechtel from laps two to five to give the battle a three-car complexion before the leading pair drew the principal focus. Third also elevated Flashor to third in the final Championship classification.

Behind them, DriK finished fourth and Alex Senna fifth. Senna lost a position on lap six after an incident at Ex-Mühle, while Marc Orós, who had run fifth at the beginning of the final lap, encountered trouble around Hatzenbach, Adenauer-Forst and Metgesfeld and fell to eighth. These were meaningful changes in a short race, but they could not intrude upon the argument at the front.