FPES S4 - Round 1: Interlagos - Feb 10th, 2010

I had made a good deal of laps at the track, but not enough in the days leading up to the race. I have been too busy and not taken the time for sim racing, which I have to split between RDCCC and FPES.

Had to do a lot of things yesterday night before the race so I ended up turning on the computer with 30 min to go to Q. And then I had to read the mail from mr Race Director and dowload the skins. That took ages so I had to cancel it halfway through. Also lowered my graphics settings to avoid a nasty nvidia freeze like the one I got in the practise race.

So, Q: not fast at all. This has always been my weak point. I really have to practise to be fast here. 22:nd on the well filled grid.

Start: Made an ass out of myself :( . I am so embarrased. I spun off the line and hit Kemal that also made Per suffer. I'm soooo sorry guys. I'm happy that I started so far back. Otherwise it would have been a major car pile-up. I will do everything I can to stop that from happening again.

The first laps where a bit shaky and I messed up more times. First I tapped Kemal (again!) and then Nicolai. So sorry. I'm so angry with myself. That is not acceptable here! I'm lucky that these guys are such gentlemen and taking it with such grace.

Then i made the mistake that cost me any chance of a resnoable point scoring position when I put two wheels on the grass entering the sweeping double apex right hander. Got off the track and hit the barrier, removing my front wing and bend my suspention badly in the process. Managed to get back to the pit and rapaired. Feuled and changed tyres to medium, but i should have chosen hard to make me have a chanse to survive that remaining 40 laps. So I had to pit another time.

For the rest of the race I was like 2 laps back and just building my race pace. Only one or two spins for the remainder of the race and catched up to Artyom and Valter who were on a different lap. It was very hard to unlap myself so I just cruised behind them and watched some grade A formula one battle close up. Arty made a mistake so I finished behind my team mate, but 2 laps back in 16:th.

No points. My performance in the beginning of the race caused that, but had a nice time in the end. On the positive side I had no game freeze.


I will step up my game to Abu Dhabi.
 
Hey David, I'm feeling a lot cooler now too. Thanks for the apology I do appriciate it. I'm sure both our seasons will only improve from here! See you out there.
 
  • Robert Adair

And I am using Nvidia 8800GTS. I know it is the source of my freeze problem, I'm just a little tight on the money to buy an ATI atm.

If I thought it would help I would donate my 'used' 9800gt , would the cards be compatible SLI ?
 
(div 2)
Here's my race report :

Qual :
Qualified 13th, 0.2 sec slower than my PB. I wasn't expecting very much here

Race :
Very careful start. Nearly ran into Alfonso that was just in front of me, since he was very slow to start. I tried to stay on my line and it went well at T1, but I've already lost 5 positions since I was P18 in T1 entry. That allowed me to see most of the action in the first turns. I then made my first moves, trying no to go too fast since my tyres were cold, and quickly began to pass the other pilots that were make mistakes : P17 after T2, P16 after T4, P15 after T7. I nearly ran into Anthony and Alfonso in T8, since they were having serious problems there. P13 at the end of the first lap, my qualification position.

At the beginning of the second lap, in T1, Alfonso passed me on the inside but went too fast and was in the grass, nearly being hit by Tom that spun there. Francesco was also in trouble there, and I managed to pass all them with a bit of luck, I admit. So P11 after T3, then P10 at the end of my second lap.

Then a long run where I was spectator on the battle between Bob and Romain that lasted 3 laps. In lap 6, I was gaining on Bob but keep my distance because he was sometimes locking his tyres. In lap 7, I passed Romain, and was surprised to see Bob braking very early in T13. I blocked my tyres, spun and Romain passed me again, but crashed shortly after. I was, at the moment, then very nervous, and made lots of mistakes in lap 8, and lost 4 positions. Fortunately, no one was hit during my bad moves. I then put myself together, and tried not to push too hard.

I passed Tom in lap 12, and gaining on Alessio. He had a different pace than me, especially in the double apex T6&T7. In lap 16, he turned too late there, and as I was close to him at that moment, turned too late too, and hit him. I have no excuse here (sorry again Alessio !), and watching the replay showed that I was too close, and my move was too risky. Anyway, I wasn't damaged, but I kept my distance behind Alessio, letting him to recover his pace. After a few laps, I pushed again and passed him after T13, since he had some wheelspin there.

P5 in lap 20 after overtaking Olli and pit stops from other pilots, I finished my first run in a nearly empty track, and pitted P2 at the end of lap 25 (was P1 during a few moment in that lap). My pit crew was as slow as the others to refuel and change tyres, so I won't blame them :wink:

Exited P6 on an empty track, until the end of lap 31 where I joined some other pilots. In the same move, Rob let me pass since I lapped him (thanks), and also Coen that was P1 and close behind me. I let Coen pass me at the end of the finish lane two laps later, and tried to follow his pace to close Phil, not very far from me. In lap 36, as I was battling with Phil, I saw Alfonso in T8 that was recovering from a spin and frightened me a bit. One lap later, I saw the famous helicopter crash of Werner on my right in T6. I was gaining on Phil again, but he seemed to crash in the pit lane entry in lap 39.

Entering lap 40, I saw that I was P5, and decided that it should be a nice result to end like that, so I concentrated on making clean laps, but in lap 43, I nearly ran into Coen that had crashed into Alfonso.

In the final laps, I noticed that my tyres were still fine, I was 4 second after Joe and closing him, so I decided to push harder to see what will happen. I wasn't risking much, since P6 was 30 seconds or more after me. In the final turn of the final lap, Joe made a mistake and I was able to pass him to finish 4th. I wasn't expecting that !

So, to summarize, my first race went very fine. My objectives were to finish this one, but I think I was very lucky to finish that good.

Thanks to the PrestoGP and RaceDepartment staff for the organization.

See you at Abu.
 
  • Luca Filippini

I'm using Nvidia 9600M GT 512 Mb. The M signals that it's a laptop version.
Hey Daniel can you post (or pm me to not going off topic) your GTR's video config (shadows, level of detail, resolution, AA, number of visible vehicles ecc)?? because i've a very similar graphic card: 9650m GT 1GB and i don't know already which is the best combination of these factors.... thanks a lot :)
 
I don't know what the best setup is. Ran max at the practise race and it runs pretty good then, but I had a big freeze 2 laps into the race. In the main event I put it on medium with no reflections. It worked there but not when I started to do some laps at abu dhabi when the game froze again.
 

Latest News

Online or Offline racing?

  • 100% online racing

    Votes: 105 7.9%
  • 75% online 25% offline

    Votes: 138 10.4%
  • 50% online 50% offline

    Votes: 191 14.3%
  • 25% online 75% offline

    Votes: 377 28.3%
  • 100% offline racing

    Votes: 517 38.8%
  • Something else, explain in comment

    Votes: 5 0.4%
Back
Top