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MANUFACTURER SERIES
Mercedes-Benz's Latkovski (Nik_Makozi) Wins Again!
2020 Series Manufacturer Series - Stage 2 (Oceania)
05/07/2020

The second stage of the 2020 Manufacturer Series got underway on July 4th.

The stage was dominated by Mercedes-Benz's Latkovski (Nik_Makozi), who never looked like relinquishing his place at the top of the leaderboard.

Instead, the most exciting battle turned out to be for second place, with Ford's Wilk (Adam_2167) duking it out with BMW's McDonald (Keeden231), often taking it in turns to outperform each other from race to race.

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The final race of Stage 2 took place on the Nürburgring's 24h layout, and featured Gr. 3 cars.

McDonald took pole position, with Latkovski starting in second place and Wilk in third.

The leading pack all opted to start the race on medium tyres. Proceedings got underway in an orderly fashion, with no major position changes in the opening stages.
Before long, the top three of McDonald, Latkovski and Wilk had opened up a significant gap between them and the rest of the field. All three seemed content to feel each other out in the early stages of the race, and no ambitious overtaking manoeuvres were attempted.

Things started to get interesting on the second lap's Döttinger Höhe straight, with Latkovski making use of McDonald's slipstream to move into the lead. Wilk, on the other hand, was starting to slow down as a result of fuel consumption problems, and was soon lagging far behind the leading pair.

The top three drivers all took a pit stop ahead of the final lap. Having conserved fuel early in the race by staying tight behind McDonald, Latkovski was able to complete his refuelling and re-emerge onto the track in double-quick time.
This meant that a 1.3 second gap had opened up between him and McDonald in second place.
But McDonald wasn't done yet. On the final Döttinger Höhe straight, he adjusted his line in order to make use of Latkovski's slipstream. This meant that both cars were side-by-side heading into the final corner, but McDonald wasn't able to find an opening to overtake in the end, and did not force the issue.
Given the corner's reputation as the scene of numerous reckless and ruinous overtaking attempts, the drivers are to be commended for ensuring that their battle remained a clean one throughout.

In the end, it was another impressive victory for Mercedes-Benz's Latkovski. Despite not dominating the race, and only winning by a whisker in the end, his win meant that he remained top of the overall leaderboard at the end of the stage, with a huge gap between him and the rest of the drivers.

Rank Driver DR SR Rd. 1 Rd. 2 Rd. 3 Rd. 4 Rd. 5 Rd. 6 Rd. 7 Rd. 8 Rd. 9 Rd. 10 Rd. 11 Rd. 12 Rd. 13 Rd. 14 Rd. 15 Rd. 16 Rd. 17 Rd. 18 Rd. 19 Rd. 20 Total
1 Mercedes-Benz Nik_Makozi S S 338 346 398 327 330 319 421 290 344 417 339 0 251 323 258 401 205 349 - 408 2045
2 Ford Adam_2167 S S 313 288 413 299 206 235 359 332 314 387 282 332 237 337 286 386 273 334 302 378 1923
3 BMW Keeden231 S S 324 272 383 242 310 - 374 274 329 371 311 - 265 309 287 372 246 273 - 393 1893
4 Lamborghini MetalGear9493 S S 285 332 292 - - - 405 286 301 402 325 293 335 260 299 342 267 - - - 1816
5 Toyota sidawg2 S S 299 216 337 313 303 331 390 277 215 341 - - 260 - 295 - 301 247 264 363 1762
6 Porsche MINT_Matt S S 326 274 256 341 324 - 281 318 288 356 113 306 - 295 322 - 287 298 247 310 1669
7 Audi emreeree S S 204 303 368 266 338 - 312 - 286 203 296 291 321 154 - 313 314 305 257 0 1654
8 Alfa Romeo AE_McEwen S S - 284 231 331 317 292 266 304 - - 113 0 - - 298 357 - 319 62 303 1628
9 Volkswagen JonoStan96 S S 258 260 352 170 248 - 189 238 209 279 289 268 192 225 274 269 328 159 323 333 1625
10 Nissan VLX_GTR S S - 317 322 - 226 270 251 286 258 325 277 242 271 266 309 298 - 261 226 348 1621

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