Sunday, October 28, 2012

F1 2012 Race Report - RaceDepartment Random Fun Series 3 New Delhi(Buddh Int'l)

Team: HRT
Participants: 5 + 7 Intermediate AI
Qualifying: Random Grid - P11 (last human driver)
Race: P2
Objective: Finish 11th or better PASSED



Lap 1 Good launch at lights out. Get in front of benny for P10. P7 coming out of turn 1, passing earmack. P5 exiting turn 3. P3 after exiting turn 4. Lap 2 Fast lap. Lap 3 Boothy off at turn 6-7 complex. Move up to P2. Lap 4 Bravo spins coming out of turn 11, letting me take over P1. Lap 7 Fast lap. Lap 12 Pit 1 lap early from P1 for primes. Rejoin P2. Lap 22 Fast lap. Lap 24 Pass earmack while he's pitted to take back P1. Lap 31 Outbrake myself and go wide into the gravel at turn 3, letting earmack past to take back the lead. Drop to P2. Lap 35 Pit stop 1 lap early from P2 for primes. Final stop. Rejoin P2. Lap 60 Finish P2 on the lead lap +5.677

Both Bravo and boothy got disconnected after about 1/3 of the race, BUT both of them were behind me and not closing in. My mistake on Lap 31 at turn 3 was moot; considering how much faster earmack was, he would have gotten me soon anyway. I did get back to within about 6 sec of him when I lost the use of KERS for laps 53-54...I slipped back to +13sec but at race finish found myself just about 6sec behind because he had run out of fuel at the end of the final lap. If not for that KERS failure, I could very well have passed him for a win. It would have been much closer, to say the least! Still, I think P2 is about what I deserved. No less than P3. I was very happy to collect several fast laps, and also have a clean race free of any contact or spins. Much improved over race 1. F1 2012 definitely requires more care and discipline, but I think that makes it more like real life and therefore more fun. Feels more like we're doing what the real guys do. Definitely more of a challenge to hold it all together over 100% distance though!



RD Lifetime F1 Games Club Stats

Starts: 18
Finishes: 16
Best Grid: P3 (x2)
Best Race: P1
Podiums: 7
Wins: 1
Points: 198
--------------------------------
RD F1 2012 Club Stats

Starts: 5
Finishes: 5
Best Grid: P4
Best Race: P1
Podiums: 2
Wins: 1
Points: 63
----------------------------------------
RD F1 2012 Random Fun Series

Starts: 2
Finishes: 2
Best Grid: P5
Best Race: P2
Podiums: 1
Wins: 0
Points: 30
League table rank 2nd of 11

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

F1 2012 Career Season 1 - Round 3 China

Team: Williams
Season Objective: Finish 10th in Driver's Championship





Q1 Results (Dry)

Knocked out in Q2 (Wet)







Season Results:

Australia Q-P18 R-P16
Malaysia Q-P17 R-P4
China Q-P15 R-P7
-------------------------
Career Progress-Playthrough 1:

Season 1
Team: Williams
Professional AI
Starts 3
Best Grid P15
Best Finish P4
Podiums 0
Wins 0
Points 18
WDC 0
ABS/Full TC/Auto gearbox/Dynamic racing line/penalties realistic/damage full/tire & sim/long race weekend/50% distance

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

F1 2012 Career Season 1 - Round 2 Malaysia

Team: Williams
Season Objective: Finish 10th in Driver's Championship

Weather Report:
Practice-Clear
Q1-Clear
Q2-Wet
Race-Clear




Q1 Results

Knocked out in Q2




Sunday, October 14, 2012

F1 2012 Career Season 1 - Round 1 Australia

Team: Williams
Season Objective Finish 10th in WDC

Qualifying Objective Qualify 10th FAILED
Race Objective Finish 12th FAILED










F1 2012 Season Challenge Mode

This was my experience with the Season Challenge mode, and what I discovered about how to win the WDC on Hard difficulty.

You can think of F1 2012's Season Challenge mode as "Quick Career". You have just one season of 10 races to try and win the Driver's Championship. Assuming you choose to play on the Hard difficulty setting like I did, you will get to choose one of the 3 lowest tier (tier 4) teams to start with: HRT, Marussia, or Caterham. Medium difficulty adds the next tier (tier 3) up, Williams, Torro Rosso, Sauber or Force India, while easy lets you choose any team. You advance through the team ranks by selecting a rival driver on the team you wish to join and beating them in a best two out of three races scenario. Conceivably you can get to a better team every two races with this format, affording you the opportunity to race with up to 5 different teams over the course of the season.

In keeping with the quick theme, your race weekend consists of one-shot qualifying (just one lap to do the best time you can) and a 5 lap race. You also only have the use of the engineer presets for your car setup. Due to parc ferme rules, this means you can only make an adjustment to your front wing before rolling out to go race. Its hard to meet the qualifying goals your team sets for you when you are in the lower teams because of this. Its a fair trade however since a front wing adjustment can make a massive difference in your race pace and that's what really counts in this mode.

My first time through, my career path was:

Caterham --> Williams (beat Maldonado) --> Lotus (beat Grosjean) --> Red Bull (beat Vettel)

In all cases, I was able to achieve the ideal outcome of beating my rival in back to back races to take their seat*. I reached a top tier team with 4 races still to go in the season. Now that I was with Red Bull Racing, winning races was a foregone conclusion. However, winning the Driver's Championship would not be. While I was tooling around in the lower teams working my way up, the top drivers, Alonso in particular, had been collecting a fair amount of points. I had only scored one win, with Lotus at Austin, and just one other podium, a P3. I only had a small handful of points in addition to that from my time at Caterham and Williams. I realize now that I could have won the championship by taking Alonso's seat at Ferrari after beating him in the rival challenge after my two races with Red Bull. But loving Red Bull I stayed there, and while I won all of those last 4 races, I lost out on the championship because Alonso collected enough points finishing 4th or so behind me to stay in the points lead. Mission failed, but I did come away from it knowing exactly what I wanted to try for my next playthrough.

(*Another important improvement for this years game is actually taking over for the driver you beat in a rival challenge, rather than defaulting to the number 2 driver seat with the number 1 driver still on the team, even if the number 1 driver was the rival you beat. ie If you choose Vettel as your rival and beat him, Mark Webber will now be your teammate, rather than getting Webber's seat by default when you join the team. Nice for us folks that care about which driver is our teammate.)

I noticed as I was playing through the first time that "number 2" drivers from the tier 2 teams were finishing within striking distance of my lower team during the course of the season, namely Grosjean and Rosberg. I had finished ahead of them when I was racing at Caterham. So I decided for my second play to pick Rosberg as my first rival (because I didn't have much success with the pace of the Lotus in my first play). If things unfolded in a similar fashion as last time, I could take his seat at Mercedes and after just two races be in a position to challenge a rival from one of the big 3 (Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari), effectively leapfrogging an entire tier and having a chance to take serious points off of a leading driver while gunning for their seat. I could potentially have a seat at a top tier team with a whole 6 races to go, rather than just 4.

My second playthrough path was:

Caterham --> Mercedes (beat Rosberg) --> Red Bull (beat Vettel)

The Mercedes was a vastly improved choice for me vs the Lotus. I was able to absolutely dominate with it in races 3 and 4, at Silverstone and Montreal respectively, bagging an unexpected 50pts. The silver arrow was particularly lights out at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Wow!

So, Rosberg beaten in two races to move from Caterham to Mercedes. Then Vettel beaten in two races to take his seat at Red Bull. I picked Vettel mainly because he was lagging in the standings and seemed easiest to pick off for my coveted Red Bull seat, but truthfully I wanted Webber as my teammate anyway. Webber was also the much stronger driver and so would be a big help taking points away from the drivers I was chasing in the championship. This time, I was going to a top team just 14pts adrift of championship leader Alonso. For insurance I chose him to be my rival. I win the next 4 races, then take 2nd at Hockenheim in the rain which is enough to mathematically eliminate all challengers and clinch the Driver's Championship with the final race at Abu Dhabi yet to be run. All without having to resort to stealing Alonso's ride at Ferrari.

I really really enjoyed my time with this mode. You get to enjoy the thrill of a season and moving up through the teams in a nice condensed format that is fabulous for those of us that don't have as much time to play. Now I'm not saying I would rather have this than the full career. What I am saying is this is an awesome thing to have available as an option when you want to play and don't have the time for one of your full career race weekends. Really good addition. Much more satisfying than simple quick race.

The path I've presented here is the easiest way. If you are looking for more of a challenge, pick either Marussia or HRT, as neither team has the use of the KERS system. Then try moving on to Lotus. I imagine it would be quite the gamble to see if you could beat either a Mercedes or a Lotus in one of those cars, but there you have it. I declare HRT/Marussia --> Lotus --> Ferrari the proper 'hardest' mode.

F1 2012 Race Report - RaceDepartment Random Fun Series 1 Silverstone

Team: Lotus
Participants: 9+3 Intermediate AI
Qualifying: P5
Race: P4
Objective: Finish 9th or better PASSED


Qualifying: 
Run 1 1:35.583 on options. Good for provisional pole, but I dropped to P4 by the time I returned to the garage. Run 2 On options, no improvement. End session in P5.

Race:
Lap 1 Initially lose a position to winky going around turn 1. I'm taking extra care to be safe, leave enough room, and stay out of contact. Winky goes wide at turn 4 letting me take back P5. Someone is off at turn 6, giving me P4. Winky passes me on the outside into turn 15, dropping me back to P5. Ash has pitted and I pass him to move back into P4. Lap 2 Chasing winky. He goes too deep at turn 16, letting me past to take P3. Lap 6 Calzonie gets DRS but goes too deep into turn 6 giving the position back. Lap 8 Make a mistake chasing Sentry Bravo through Maggotts/Becketts and get a bit wide onto the grass. Lose traction as my wheels come back onto the tarmac and get sideways, taking my front wing off in the barrier. Pit from P5 for a new wing and ask for primes. Come out P8. Lap 10 Trying to pass down straight into turn 6, but I'm blocked with Alonso AI inside and benny outside. Benny goes off onto the grass at turn 13 and I go past for P6. Lap 12 Pass Calzonie while he's pitted for P5. Lap 13 Battling Irish. Lap 14 On Irish's tail through Maggotts/Becketts, getting the pass finally at turn 13 for P4. Lap 16 Calzonie taps me on the inside going around turn 6 and I start to get sideways but am able to save it. He gets by in the process, dropping me to P5. Then he gets on the grass at turn 13 and I take back P4. Lap 17 Calzonie gets a clean pass on me this time into turn 6. Drop back to P5. We're fighting it out down the old pit straight. He moves offline to block the inside. I try to go outside, and he moves back to block me. I then try to dive inside only to have him turn in and hit me, which sends me sideways, but at least my front wing doesn't get destroyed this time. Irish gets past and I'm down to P6. Lap 18 Get wide around turn 1 and lose traction as wheels come back onto the tarmac (just like earlier incident). I almost save it but end up spinning. Get back underway still in P6. Lap 21 Pass Irish while he's pitted to take back P5. Next lap Calzonie gets disconnected, giving me P4. Lap 25 Pit stop for another set of primes that I hope will make it to the end of the race. Irish passes me and I come out P5. Lap 33 Catch Irish while he's pitted for P4. Lap 51 Finish in P4, one lap down.

----------------------------------------
RD F1 2012 Random Fun Series
Starts: 1
Finishes: 1
Best Grid: P5
Best Race: P4
Podiums: 0
Wins: 0
Points: 12
--------------------------------
RD F1 2012 Club Stats
Starts: 4
Finishes: 4
Best Grid: P4
Best Race: P1
Podiums: 1
Wins: 1
Points: 45
------------------------------------------
RD Lifetime F1 Games Club Stats
Starts: 17
Finishes: 15
Best Grid: P3 (x2)
Best Race: P1
Podiums: 6
Wins: 1
Points: 180

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

F1 2011 Race Report - RaceDepartment Random Fun 10 Spa 100%

Team: Sauber
Participants: 3 + 21 Legend AI
Qualifying: P20
Race: P2
Objective: Finish 19th or better PASSED



Qualifying:
Disastrous...Run 1 Setup was all wrong, and I think also I might have been struggling due to using a different television than I learned to play the game on. I got into the wall going wide coming up to the top of Eau Rouge, taking off my front wing in the tire wall. Run 2 Best I could manage on 1 hot lap was 1:49.610, which was only good enough for P19. By the time I got back to the garage I had slipped to P20. Worst of all, I did not have enough time for another run. I was stuck well down the grid behind a lot of AI. Work would be cut out for me in this final round of the series. The only good news was that benny had waited until the last minute to roll out for his run and then made an error that disqualified him from the session. He would start behind me dead last in P24 having set no time.

Race:
I decided to stick with the recommended tire strategy, which was option-option-prime (and starting on options). If I could be good and fast on the softer rubber, I might be able to continually undercut the drivers ahead to pass them when they pit after me, then have a nice long run on primes for my final stint to at least keep me in position if not catch anyone still ahead that would need be stopping after me to end on options. Lap 1 I get an excellent start and come away from the first turn in P7, in spite of coming in way hotter than I intended. What matters is I got through spin and penalty free! I am however experiencing a lot of lag with the AI cars, watching them bouncing and popping in and out ahead of me. I'm struggling a bit on high fuel and then have an incident coming around turn 16 where it seemed like the AI car behind suddenly lagged forward, slamming into me on the inside. I slide sideways into the gravel trap and get up on two wheels, nearly flipping over. Somehow, I escape damage and get back underway in P10. Lap 5 Bizzare AI weirdness courtesy of network lag. Luckily, I don't get crashed out. It looks like my front wing gets destroyed, but status shows its ok. Passing the lagged AI carefully enough to not crash is going to be tough. Lap 6 Button & Rosberg AI both overshoot turn 7 at the end of the Kemmel straight and nearly take me out when they re-enter unsafely. Lap 8 Button AI is giving me hell but I get DRS on him and get him on the inside at turn 7. I'm now P5 with a couple of laps to go in my first stint. FrenziedSine has long since disappeared off into the distance, but benny is still somewhere back behind. Lap 10 Pit stop for options. Come out P11 with benny having gone past. Lap 15 My undercut strategy has worked. I've caught all the AI drivers and am P3 when benny ahead hits pit lane. I pass him to take over P2. Lap 20 Pit stop for options. Come out still in P2. Benny was behind me in P3 but has dropped to P4 behind Vettel AI. A couple laps later he's dropped even further back. Maybe a pit stop for damage? Lap 29 Around Lap 24 benny starts setting blinding laps, setting fast lap several times in a row. He is about 2sec behind me when I decide to hit pit lane one lap early for my final stop to fit primes. I'm hoping to undercut him and get by when he makes his last stop. I come out P3. Lap 34 I am able to stay within the pit delta and pass benny when he stops to take back P2. Lap 35 Benny is a lot faster than I am on his options. He has closed the gap and gets DRS on me down Kemmel. Unfortunately I am lagged out and getting hit going around turn 7 so I have to let him pass or risk crashing. Drop back to P3. Lap 43 Benny has pulled out a 23sec lead, even getting another fast lap, and though I know P3 is probably where I will finish, I am still pushing in the hopes that I could take advantage if he makes some kind of mistake. Then I hear him say over my headset that he's got a puncture. He has to do a whole lap on the bad tire. I catch him at turn 15 where he has gone off into the gravel and go by to once again take back P2. He pits behind me, and I have a clear run to the end. Lap 44 Finish in P2 on the lead lap to clinch third place in the series!


RaceDepartment Random Fun League Stats

Starts: 8
Finishes: 7
Best Grid: P3 (x2)
Best Race: P2 (x2)
Podiums: 4
Wins: 0
Points: 98
3rd place in series
---------------------------------
RaceDepartment Lifetime F1 Games Club Stats

Starts: 16
Finishes: 14
Best Grid: P3 (x2)
Best Race: P1
Podiums: 6
Wins: 1
Points: 168

Saturday, October 6, 2012

F1 2012 - Redemption at Monaco Test!

...And I didn't record it!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! lol.

It was the third of three 25% distance test races that we were doing for the new Random Fun Series that my club is putting together for F1 2012. As fate would have it, the randomly selected track was Monaco, which has thus far proven to be my multiplayer nemesis. I've had two races there (in F1 2011), and both ended early with crash out DNFs. My first hint of a change of fortune came in being placed in the McLaren, a car that I had setup and driving experience with at this track from doing one of the previous RaceNet events. The next hint came when I saw my grid assignment. For this test we were using a no quali, random grid assignment, and the computer had chosen to put me on pole! A car I knew what to do with, and pole...I've had some bad luck at this track, but I am still a Monaco specialist, and this time I aimed to show it, especially with the amazing car/grid gift I had been given. All I had to do was get through 20 laps. Easier said than done. No margin for error. It might be "easiest" from pole, but it is very very far from "easy".

Starting on options. At lights out I get a fabulous jump. Perfect KERS boost start! I slam the door on the inside around St. Devote, no one gets around on the outside, and I accelerate cleanly away up the hill in first place. As the laps tick off, I maintain a 10-12sec gap over the car behind. I am scheduled to stop on lap 9, but my lap times have started going off as of lap 7. The car behind is starting to reel me in, with gap down to around 7sec. I know from my engineer chatter (and timing and scoring) that he has not stopped yet. He is still on the options he started with and will need to pit, so I make the call to pit early on lap 8 before he gets any closer, hoping to undercut him and then pass him by when he eventually goes in. He does not follow me in to the pits. I can't remember if I came out in P2, or if it was further down the field. If I did come out lower than P2, I caught drivers in front while they were pitted in the laps after my stop, and stayed within 10-12sec of Giles before passing him when he finally pitted to take back the lead. I crank up the engine temporarily to try and build more of a gap while Giles is running on cold tires and try to just drive smoothly. It is all going well until someone destroys their car and brings out the safety car, totally buggering the gap I had built over Giles. We do maybe 2 or 3 laps under the safety car, and its set to go in with about 5 laps to go. I've been studiously warming my tires, and turn the engine back up as we come to the pit entrance. The safety car dives into the pits, the lights go green, and I get a great jump at the restart. I streak down start/finish with Giles hot on my tail and once again slam the door on him at St. Devote, keeping him behind. He is literally up my tailpipe, applying enormous pressure. Any mistake will let him past. DRS is reactivated, and I start switching to mix 3 and dumping KERS down start/finish to keep him from making a run on me into St. Devote. The rest of the lap I'm aggressively defending the inside for insurance. No question I'm feeling the pressure, and there are a few close calls going around the Leows hairpin, where I wasn't so sure that he wasn't going to squeeze past me on the inside, but I'm still keeping him behind me. On the last lap something happens to Giles (I think he went into St. Devote too hot trying to get a run on me with DRS) and I find myself heading up the hill with some breathing room. I keep the final lap quick enough, but careful, and cross the finish line safely for the win! Woo hoo!!!

I know it was only a test race, but I really wish I had recorded it. Error free driving from me, epic outfoxing with my stop strategy call, and what a battle to the end with Giles. He had me terrified the whole way to the end! Finally got redemption for those two DNFs. Knew I could do it, and it was so awesome to pull it off!

It seems too that I had no lag at all during any of the three races we ran today, and that was with at least 2 americans present and combined with several UK folks. Even with a small grid I have always had lag issues with Giles, and they seem to be gone and least with this smaller grid that we had. Hard to say if I will lag out again or not when there are 8-16 players. So far so good though. Miles better than F1 2011. It was such a difference that I'm actually not sure now if I'm going to go back to playing F1 2011 online. We will see.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

F1 2011 Race Report-Weekly Fun Silverstone & Random Fun 9 Brazil

Weekly Fun Series Silverstone

Team: Red Bull
Participants: 4+7 Legend AI
Qualifying: P4
Race: P2

Qualifying:
We had wet weather for qualifying, on inters. I decided to go with my dry setup as it would be a dry race, so my times were going to be a bit compromised. Run 1 After spending 4 laps getting tires warmed up and feeling out grip levels I did a hot lap on mix 3 to get a 1:35.926 Run 2 Went back out on the scrubbed inters from run one since I knew I wouldn't need them for the race. I had enough time for 1 warmup lap and 1 mix 3 hot lap and improved to 1:34.610, P4 but last of human drivers.

Race:
Lap 1 Get Jaegermeister on the inside under braking going into turn 3 to steal P3. Lap 2-3 Defending against Jaegermeister. Lap 4 Jaegermeister gets me when I go wide braking too late into turn 15. Drop to P4. I almost get the position back at turn 16, but I can't quite get the advantage. Lap 10 Pit stop for primes. Come out P5. Lap 13 Jaeger has had an off at turn 3 or 4. I go past for P3. My hope at this point is to stay in front of him and out run his next pit stop. Lap 18 Pass Warleb while he is in the pits for P2. Lap 20 Warleb is hot on my tail, but I keep him behind me at turn 15. Lap 21 Warleb makes contact with me coming into turn 6 and upsets my car, sending me off track. Fortunately car is undamaged and I only drop to P3. Lap 23 Warleb is disqualified over an incident with the AI, and I move back up to P2. Lap 28 I've been keeping a gap of around 10-12sec over Jaegermeister behind me in P3. He pitted at the end of lap 27, and I have cranked up my engine to mix 3 to try and get even more of a gap for the stop I will make at the end of this lap in immediate response to his. Jaegermeister is 40sec behind when I hit the pit lane for my final stop, to fit options. I come out still in P2, with Jaegermeister around 13sec behind. Lap 39 Jaegermeister had gotten as close as 7sec, but I'm able to hold him off until the finish, taking P2 with a nice 11sec cusion.

This race was a rematch of the Random Fun race between Eric and I, so I was keen to beat him. I knew what I had done wrong last time, my setup was tuned, and I had an improved tire strategy. I needed him to make a mistake as well, but I have learned that he frequently does, and I was really ready to pounce on him this time if and when he did. I was really proud of the job I did this time around. Let me tell you, he kept me honest in the 2nd and especially the final stint. I was doing a lot of fancy fuel mix switching to give me a little boost where I needed it every single lap during that time. I still thought for sure he was going to catch me, but he never did. It was almost a perfect reversal of our last race against each other here. Key decision of the race was outlasting his pit stop and then making mine immediately after  on the next lap while he was still slow on cold tires. I had to be quick on that lap as well, and I was able to pull off the gap and get back out before he could get too close. That was THE moment where I beat him.

After the race there was a big tantrum from someone about how they didn't join RD to race AI and how they were refusing from this point to participate in any races with AI. They're sick of getting crashed into blah blah throwing their toys. My response to people that whine about the AI is that you have to learn to drive around them safely. That's the game. We all know how they behave. It should be in your skill set to be able to overtake them with enough care not to have an incident. To me a driver that's always getting into it with the AI can't adjust to the difference of their driving, and its just not that hard. To me, if you can't do that, then you aren't as good a driver as you think you are. I'm no hotshot, but I'm able to deal with the AI just fine and usually it causes barely a ripple in my race. But I have the discipline to use the proper care, and the ability to respond and adapt to the way the AI behaves. Now of course I would rather race with all humans and no AI, but when the grid is small I feel like some AI need to be there or its just too easy for the fastest guys to run away with it. If they are so good, dealing with the traffic should be no problem. And if they can't do that, they deserve the consequence of their inability to handle it. Plus an empty track is just way too boring.

Race Department Weekly Fun Series Stats
Starts: 5
Finishes: 4
Best Grid: P4
Best Race: P2
Podiums: 1
Wins: 0
Points: 37


Random Fun Series 9 Brazil

Team: HRT
Participants: 3+8 Legend AI
Qualifying: P3
Race: P3


Qualifying:
Took two different runs in dry conditions and just could not do better than P3, last among human drivers. Though my setup was good the other two human drivers were 1-2sec better than me on dry pace, even the driver that was on primes like me. I didn't make major adjustments for the wet race since the forecast said 27% chance of rain.

Race:
Lap 1 Mistake at the start as I carry a bit too much speed through the Senna S while trying to safely pass FrenziedSine who has gone off and is re-entering. I bump the wall and spin. Down to P11, dead last. Lap 7 I've made it back up to P3. Ahead, FrenziedSine is making mistakes. My wet pace is good. I'm catching up, and he gets wide at turn 12, letting me past for P2. Lap 25 I've kept FrenziedSine behind me. I pit and ask for inters since its still very wet on track even though the rain has pretty much stopped. Its just too wet for me to risk primes. I come out still in P2. Lap 36 The drier it gets, the more pace FrenziedSine is finding. He's been reeling me in all through the stint. Benny has long ago disappeared into the distance, so I know at this point my race is for P2. I pit at the end of the lap for primes to go to the end. FrenziedSine goes past, and I come out in P3. Lap 39 Fast lap! Lap 40 Improve fast lap and pass FrenziedSine while he's pitted to take back P2. Lap 41 Another fast lap! Lap 43 FrenziedSine gets DRS on me down start/finish and make the pass under braking down the inside going into turn 1, putting me back to P3. I just don't have the pace now that its dry. Lap 53 Finish 1 lap down.

I would have of course loved to beat a real human driver in this one, but I'm not disappointed because I had great fun racing FrenziedSine this time around. I held him off all race until there were just 9 laps to go. I can't be too upset about that when I know how much better he is than me. It was just a shame that I suffered from such lack of pace once it was dry. I also got another great compliment from FrenziedSine post race:

"I had a great enjoyable battle or battles with SLIDERZ for pretty much the rest of the race. I spent probably about 15 or 20 laps on your tail trying to get by or hoping I can pressure you into a mistake but that never happened. Beautiful defensive driving on your part."

So next week is the 10th and final race in the series, and there's a nice little 3 way battle for third place in the standings which I currently occupy. Depending on whether or not the one guy shows up (I'm thinking not), its pretty much going to be between me and benny to duke it out, but as long as I don't DNF and finish say top 3, third place should be mine.


Race Department Random Fun League Stats
Starts: 7
Finishes: 6
Best Grid: P3 (x2)
Best Race: P2
Podiums: 3
Wins: 0
Points: 83
League table rank: 3rd of 10

--------------------------------------------------
Race Department Lifetime Club Stats
Starts: 12
Finishes: 10
Best Grid: P3 (x2)
Best Race: P2 (x2)
Podiums: 4
Wins: 0
Points: 120