Michael Lyons Thrilled With Double F1 Masters Victory‏

Michael Lyons enjoyed a famously successful outing at Zandvoort in The Netherlands over the weekend, 30th/31st August, with an outstanding double win in the FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship in front of more than 50,000 spectators.After his headline-grabbing win from a pitlane start at a rain-hit Nurburgring in Germany last month, the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) member had a much more straightforward weekend’s racing on his return to Zandvoort as part of the annual ‘Historic Grand Prix’ event at the Dutch track.Piloting his trusty Hesketh 308E, Michael lapped over a second faster than anyone else in the FIA Masters Historic F1 free practice session but had to settle for second on the grid for the opening race, having qualified 0.2 seconds shy of the pole position time of Simon Fish’s Ensign N180.Surging into the lead at the start, Michael was never headed throughout the 16 lap duration and went on to claim an incredibly comfortable 11.6 second winning margin over his closest challenger, Gregory Thornton at the wheel of a Lotus 91/5.Race two was a much closer run affair due to the appearance of the Safety Car after a driver made contact with the barriers, but the 23-year-old British driver still took the flag on lap 13 almost four seconds to the good having led throughout from pole position. Michael also posted the fastest lap with a time of 1m37.951 seconds (131.34mph)“Zandvoort is one of my favourite historic events in the world, a lot of the others could learn a thing or two from them as the Historic Grand Prix is always fantastic”, commented the double winner, “I really enjoyed the entire weekend and it’s great to have won both of the F1 races, I’m really happy we’ve got reliability back on our side after a couple of issues earlier in the year.“It was a shame to miss out on pole position for race one, Simon [Fish] did a great job though in qualifying. The car felt great all weekend and was a joy to drive, all in all it’s been a very strong weekend and a really enjoyable one. Taking the wins is the icing on the cake.”As well as his F1 successes, Michael and his father Frank also emerged victorious in the Group C/GTP Racing Championship encounter at the wheel of a Gebhardt C91. With legendary team owner Fritz Gebhardt watching on, Michael qualified the C91 on pole position for race two and the father and son pairing went on to win the race, as well as securing fastest lap.Next on the FIA Masters Historic Formula One schedule for Michael is a trip to the Singapore Grand Prix where the classic F1 cars will provide support to the FIA Formula One World Championship over the weekend 20th/21st September. One week prior to that, he will return to action in contemporary racing during round four of the European Le Mans Series at Paul Ricard HTTT in southern France.Taking place on Sunday, 14th September, the penultimate race of the ELMS season will see the Briton once again partner Italian drivers Marco Cioci and Piergiuseppe Perazzini at the AF Corse team in the No.54 Ferrari 458 Italia.

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