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
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