...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.
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