Race: Grand Prix of Belgium at Spa - Round 12
Weather Report:
Practice - Light Rain
Qualifying - Light Cloud
Race - Heavy Rain
Results:
Practice - P1 1:46.003 on Option tire (P2 +0.601)
No R&D
Qualifying - P1 1:46.169 on Option tire (P2 +1.222)
Objective - Qualify P4 or better completed
Race - P1
22 laps
2 stops - Option-Intermediate-Intermediate
Fast Lap 1:47.733
Objective - Finish P1 completed
Podium:
1st - Me Q-P1 42:13.680
2nd - Maldonado Q-P13 +11.906
3rd - Webber Q-P8 +22.015
When would the rain come. That was the question. My first bit of luck in this race came when I was able to make the options I started on last 2 more laps than my scheduled stop. It started to rain during those last 2 laps. When I pitted on lap 7, I asked for inters. Vettel came in right behind me, and though he got into his box first, my crew was speedy and realeased me just in front of him! It was perhaps one lap too early for inters, but it was wet enough not to hurt them, and as it turned out, the cars in front began pitting as I finished up lap 8, giving me back a number of places. The next question was, how long would these inters last? I had 17 laps to go... could I make them go to the end of the race? I got another bit of luck in that some of the field chose slicks at their first stops instead of inters, and so had to stop again within just a lap or 2, helping me get a bit of a gap. Vettel, whom I had been defending against since leaving pit lane, was one of those unlucky drivers. It wasn't long before I jumped everyone while they pitted and regained 1st place.
My perfectly timed pit stop and their tire mistakes gave me around a 20 sec gap to Massa and Vettel, but...I was losing time every lap to them, as I knew I would, a second or more per lap. The AI here is particularly fast, and much faster than me in sector 2, allowing it to always catch me up eventually and keep me defending. As my run on inters is winding down, Massa has caught up to me and is pushing me hard. Its taking my best defending to keep him behind. My engineer has told me that Massa will be pitting soon. I'm hoping that he and perhaps Vettel also will pit before I have to, letting me significantly gap them in preparation for my stop, but it is not to be.
I pit on lap 15 and ask for another set of inters. I drop to P4, with Vettel having just passed me as I was leaving pit lane. I'm close enough to the driver in front (don't remember who it was) to get on him and I blow by on the Kemmel straight. His inters must be pretty worn because he drops back and is never a threat. I'm in a podium position now, and if that's where I'll finish I'm ok with it, but... Vettel has run pretty long on his inters, too, and I'm catching up to him. Eventually I can see him out in front of me, and I'm even getting right up behind him in the slow corners, but he's quick accelerating and I can't quite seem to get close enough. He's just that little bit faster and able to get away. Then we start getting into back marker traffic. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be slowing him up much. He's getting lucky and encountering them in places where he can get an easy pass. Fortunately its much the same for me and I keep driving steady but pushing after him. That's when perhaps the best luck I would get all race comes along, a gift in the form of Trulli, who is the next back marker in line to be overtaken by Vettel. He catches Trulli just as they come up on Eau Rouge...and he lifts, falling in behind! I came flying up on them - I actually thought the car I saw behind was Trulli, that Vettel had gotten the pass...but it was Vettel behind! I almost crash into Trulli as I'm coming out onto the straight. Had to lift a bit to slow down and maneuver around him, but I did it without crashing and left them both WAY behind!!! Full speed Eau Rouge pass executed HAHAHA!Massa is still in 1st, but he is going to have to stop. A few laps to go, and I jump him while he's in the pits to take 1st, but he comes out right behind me. In no time at all he is all over me. I'm frantically defending, almost losing the position going a bit wide in a few turns. On lap 21 he almost gets me coming through Blanchimont. Final lap. Streaking down Kemmel straight. Massa is making a move to go down the outside. I move to shut the door... I don't know if Massa took his wing off or what, but he collided with me, and after that he disappeared. On the penultimate lap!!! I finish the rest of the lap without incident and bring it home for the win!!!Truly one of the best races I have ever had! Thank you Spa...it was EPIC!!! :D
Rival Selection: Button
Contract Offers:
•Torro Rosso renewal
•Virgin
Drivers Championship
1st - Me 261pts
2nd - Petrov 124pts
3rd - Button 108pts
Constructors Championship
1st - Torro Rosso 272pts
2nd - McLaren 215pts
3rd - Ferrari 178pts
Season 2 Results
Australia: Q-P16 R-P5
Malaysia: Q-P16 R-P1
China: Q-P8 R-P2
Turkey: Q-P15 R-P3
Spain: Q-P1 R-P1 FL-1:21.627
Monte Carlo: Q-P1 R-P1
Canada: Q-P4 R-P1
Europe: Q-P1 R-P1
Britain: Q-P1 R-P1
Germany: Q-P1 R-P2
Hungary: Q-P1 R-P1
Belgium: Q-P1 R-P1
F1 2011 Career Progress - playthrough 1 (season 1 excluded)
Season: 2
Team: Torro Rosso
Nationality: American
Professional AI
Career Starts: 12
Career Best Grid Result: 1 (x7)
Career Best Race Finish: 1 (x8)
Career Podiums: 11
Career Points: 261
Wins: 8
WDC: 0
ABS/Full TCS/Auto gearbox/Dynamic racing line/penalties reduced/damage full/tire sim/short race weekend/50% distance/custom setups
Monday, July 30, 2012
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Race Report-Race Department Weekly Fun Series at Istanbul Park
Team: Red Bull
Participants: 16
Qualifying: 7th
Race: 10th
Objective: Finish 14th or better PASSED
This was my very first race after signing up to race with the folks at Race Department, and only my second multiplayer race ever. I have stayed away from multiplayer up until now mainly because it isn't any fun. Random online racers have no respect for the rules and have no qualms about punting you off the track since there is no consequence for them if they do. Pleased to report that this race with RD folks was the opposite - lots of fun and a lot of good clean racing. I expected that anything other than last place would be a fabulous result. I wasn't really expecting to get a points scoring result today, so that was a treat. However, I admit that it didn't all quite go the way I would have liked...
Qualifying:
I put down a great on my first run, somewhere in the low 1:24s, doing 2 hot laps on that set of options. I felt I could be faster, and between a bit of traffic and not being comfortable with the wear on the first set I used, I put on a fresh set of options and headed back out for another go. I set a 1:24.004 on just one hot lap, my fastest lap to date at this track. I think I could have gotten into the 1:23s but again a slight bit of traffic coming through turn 8 spoiled a chance at my very fastest lap. I still had P7 and was pleased with that. I was a bit disappointed to see that the fastest driver was 1.5sec better than I was. I should have expected that somewhat, seeing as in testing against the computer I was not even a full second faster than the AI with this setup (1-2 sec faster than fastest Legend AI driver is considered to be the range of the fastest human drivers).
Race:
It started off less than perfectly when I botched things coming into turn 1. I had gotten a good launch and good position, but got on the brakes too early and suddenly found myself down in 12th. Not so bad, except that over the next few laps, in battles for position, I would be spun out 3 different times, one of which I know for sure was an illegal collision from another driver who then failed to yield the position after he disadvantaged me. I believe that driver was kicked out of the race after doing the same to some other drivers. I escaped all of those incidents without damage though, and was able to press on, however the chance of getting back P7, for now at least, had gone.
I had some great strategic racing against the other Red Bull driver, as well as a couple of other people around me. My choice to run long, on primes, in the second stint paid some dividends and I got up to 9th with good strategy and good smooth driving, passing a couple of people in the pits. When I made my last pit stop, I came out JUST behind my fellow Red Bull. We had a good chase around the track, with me switching to rich fuel mix to try and get him. We hit DRS activation and I let fly with DRS open and full KERS. Braking slightly late I got down on the inside of him and the slow corner - unfortunately there was some contact there as I couldn't see that he was still partly alongside, so there was a bump when I turned into the next slow speed corner. Racing incident-move along! lol. I did feel bad about it though. Fortunately he was not disadvantaged by it. It was pretty uneventful after that, until the leaders came up behind me, and the blue flags came out. While I did move offline, I made an error in forgetting that I also needed to lift, and was given a drive through penalty. At this point, I had gotten up to 8th jumping another guy that pitted, Unfortunately, I didn't have enough of a gap and the drive through dropped me back to 10th, letting my fellow Red Bull back out in front of me.
P10 wasn't bad at all - a points position in my very first ever race like this. The only thing I was truly disappointed with was the drive through penalty. But I came away knowing that an imperfect setup is mostly what cost me here, rather than anything I did wrong. I have a great idea of what I need to do to improve next time I race at Istanbul Park. I finished in the points AND achieved my multiplayer objective to do better than 14th. All in all a decent day.
Race Department Weekly Fun Series Stats:
Starts: 1
Finishes: 1
Best Grid: 7th
Best Race: 10th
Podiums: 0
Wins: 0
Points: 1
ABS/TC/Auto Gears/Dynamic Racing Line/Penalties Realistic/Damage Full/Tire Sim/Fuel Sim
Participants: 16
Qualifying: 7th
Race: 10th
Objective: Finish 14th or better PASSED
This was my very first race after signing up to race with the folks at Race Department, and only my second multiplayer race ever. I have stayed away from multiplayer up until now mainly because it isn't any fun. Random online racers have no respect for the rules and have no qualms about punting you off the track since there is no consequence for them if they do. Pleased to report that this race with RD folks was the opposite - lots of fun and a lot of good clean racing. I expected that anything other than last place would be a fabulous result. I wasn't really expecting to get a points scoring result today, so that was a treat. However, I admit that it didn't all quite go the way I would have liked...
Qualifying:
I put down a great on my first run, somewhere in the low 1:24s, doing 2 hot laps on that set of options. I felt I could be faster, and between a bit of traffic and not being comfortable with the wear on the first set I used, I put on a fresh set of options and headed back out for another go. I set a 1:24.004 on just one hot lap, my fastest lap to date at this track. I think I could have gotten into the 1:23s but again a slight bit of traffic coming through turn 8 spoiled a chance at my very fastest lap. I still had P7 and was pleased with that. I was a bit disappointed to see that the fastest driver was 1.5sec better than I was. I should have expected that somewhat, seeing as in testing against the computer I was not even a full second faster than the AI with this setup (1-2 sec faster than fastest Legend AI driver is considered to be the range of the fastest human drivers).
Race:
It started off less than perfectly when I botched things coming into turn 1. I had gotten a good launch and good position, but got on the brakes too early and suddenly found myself down in 12th. Not so bad, except that over the next few laps, in battles for position, I would be spun out 3 different times, one of which I know for sure was an illegal collision from another driver who then failed to yield the position after he disadvantaged me. I believe that driver was kicked out of the race after doing the same to some other drivers. I escaped all of those incidents without damage though, and was able to press on, however the chance of getting back P7, for now at least, had gone.
I had some great strategic racing against the other Red Bull driver, as well as a couple of other people around me. My choice to run long, on primes, in the second stint paid some dividends and I got up to 9th with good strategy and good smooth driving, passing a couple of people in the pits. When I made my last pit stop, I came out JUST behind my fellow Red Bull. We had a good chase around the track, with me switching to rich fuel mix to try and get him. We hit DRS activation and I let fly with DRS open and full KERS. Braking slightly late I got down on the inside of him and the slow corner - unfortunately there was some contact there as I couldn't see that he was still partly alongside, so there was a bump when I turned into the next slow speed corner. Racing incident-move along! lol. I did feel bad about it though. Fortunately he was not disadvantaged by it. It was pretty uneventful after that, until the leaders came up behind me, and the blue flags came out. While I did move offline, I made an error in forgetting that I also needed to lift, and was given a drive through penalty. At this point, I had gotten up to 8th jumping another guy that pitted, Unfortunately, I didn't have enough of a gap and the drive through dropped me back to 10th, letting my fellow Red Bull back out in front of me.
P10 wasn't bad at all - a points position in my very first ever race like this. The only thing I was truly disappointed with was the drive through penalty. But I came away knowing that an imperfect setup is mostly what cost me here, rather than anything I did wrong. I have a great idea of what I need to do to improve next time I race at Istanbul Park. I finished in the points AND achieved my multiplayer objective to do better than 14th. All in all a decent day.
Race Department Weekly Fun Series Stats:
Starts: 1
Finishes: 1
Best Grid: 7th
Best Race: 10th
Podiums: 0
Wins: 0
Points: 1
ABS/TC/Auto Gears/Dynamic Racing Line/Penalties Realistic/Damage Full/Tire Sim/Fuel Sim
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