SEASON 11 Race 1 SPA RACE REPORT

[Valerio Vinassa]

I think will be a nice/fun season start for all

 

[Bob Laube]

at 21:42 german time - all opponents were invisible
i press esc

T.S. = 467.05 LAP 3

after replay , all others are still in Lap 2 ??????
it was really Lap 3 really, really !!!

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

Vroom vroom crash bang wallop pretty much mine, hope you guys had a good 1

 

[Richard Hill]

Same as Sean really had a cracking start too

 

[Bob Luneski]

Ditto

 

[Alberto Casado]

First event completed! only +1 LAP, so quite satisfied.

I had a strategy compatible with 1 or 2 stops. I felt comfortable with the tyres and since the pit stops are my worse moment, decided for 1.

During this first half I had some nice racing moments with Kurt, but after his pit I never saw him again.

Pit in lap 15 and spun on pit entry when the pit limited activated (?) If I would have pushed it a couple laps extra I would have seen the rain starting and get an awesome strategy with a second stint in wets, but by lap 15 everything was bone dry so.. slicks

A couple laps later, of course, rain started. I had no time to program the pit so I had to make another lap, then I saw the rain decreasing. I decided to man up and go until the end with slicks. The next 5 laps were.... blood and tears. I was committed anyway, so I had to soldier on and hope the slicks would give me an edge at the very end.

I believe all in all it worked, though I lost loads of time, I did not lose any position and by the end I caught up with Valter, who was with wets (I think). Last couple of laps was a constant coin flip, I would hit a wet patch and spin, then Valter would do the same I guess for the overheating tyres. By sheer luck the clock run out/leader crossing gave me an extra lap were I could recover from my last error, pass Valter and keep the position

So all good for a first race, wet, with 100% slicks and a single stop, I would say. Managed to not even damage the car.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Huh.. what a race.. Lots of mistakes off track..

Qualy: didn't expect anything and wasn't disappointed. Slowest time on the second attempt, which was a bit surprising for what it felt in the cockpit.

 

[Alex Galyutin]

Grats podium!
I am glad to be here back at PrestoGP! Thank you guys for good racing!

Here's my short report.

Q=22
Spun on my attempt. There were some cars behind me on their hotlap, so I decided to press ESC to let guys have a clean lap without me on their way

R=DNF
I was on 1 stop strategy. But when rain had started, I decided to change my tyres to wet ones. While entering the pitlane I was clicking buttons to change the pit-settings and hit something (still don't know what was that, need to watch the replay), one wheel off... And when I reached my pit-crew they said I could not continue because of big damage.
That's pity because I could finish in top-10 I think. I will give more time on pit-stop trainings


P.S. Nice photo-finish by David and Jim. I was watching your battle on last laps

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Here are the results:
http://prestogp.com/index.php?view=standings&season=11&league=1

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Damn pressed send.. well let's continue here as new posts most certainly will appear before i press send again..

Started the race with qualy fuel. fck.. I then gambled that it would be dry for a long time, and start to rain when it's time to do scheduled second stop.. Plan F it was called. It could work..

So long stop on lap 4 and 85l, dry tires of course. Lost a little bit of time dialing the pitmenu to add 40 more liters. I'm using Nostromo keypad and it's D-Pad. It's not build for accuracy so accidentally set left front to wet and then had to change that back, tap more fuel..Stop went ok and returned to my place, 18th.. It messed up my rhythm and was off pace for the rest off the race. Much too cautious as i tried to save tires. Then the half way point started to get closer and i heard rain dropping on the helmet..

"Yes" he said to himself loudly, "plan F FTW!"

Driving to pits, the rain stopped...

"Well" he thought, " Daniel was sneaky".. Quick change to dry tires before the pitbox. D-Pad was great this time.

Then few laps after that it started to rain again. I just knew i had to go to pits very soon, it felt very intense shower. Pitted at the right moment, i saw people slipping a lot when i came out. Tire temps were a bit too high but manageable. And then the rain stopped, way too soon.

"This is it" he said, "plan F.. it's a disaster."

Had to go with those tires to the end. Nobody was close by but Henrik was struggling in front. Gap kept getting smaller every lap and finally he took a long pit stop. After the race i heard that he had his limiter on on all stops.. Bad luck but that's the only position that i got so i can't complain. Sorry, that's racing.

Track got more dry and dry line emerged. Having old wets, narrow dryline and wet offline.. Well, i'm most certain you know how it's to drive there. I had 40 second gap that just shrunk and shrunk. Last three laps were excruciating.

"Don't mess up now" our hero said and prayed to the Gods above and below.

There was no grip at all and veering offline was not an option. Just had to drive as slow as i dared. tried to estimate the time left and took very very slow lap, drove Kemmel straight with 5th gear as my tire temps were dangerously high. Crossed the line with 7 seconds on the clock. The race leader was close by but Henrik was in between. Had to drive one more lap.

Next line uttered by our poor protagonist is not for family audience so let's just imagine a pile of bovine excrement hitting a revolving object instead as he realized he ain't the hero but cautionary example instead.

Turn 1... Braking long. Car just plowed forward. Into the runoff. Which i know is material called marbles that has 40% grip in the wet. Tires below 70%. Total grip under 28%. That's snow. Snow on ice. Car stopped at tirewall, brakes locked 10m before at 20km/h. No damage but had to hit antistall which is my sequential gearstick forward. Reverse engaged, nothing happened.. Slowly car started moving and got out with 8 seconds to spare. I had lost more on the previous two laps.

...

Drove as fast as i could, far faster than what is considered safe in Chinese lumberyard. Fortunately i didn't have to think about tire temps anymore. For some reason Henrik was slow too so by the time we hit the finish straight, i had free time in my hand. 2 seconds to be exact. Crossed the line and finally breathed out.

So that the story of my race. Hope you had as much fun as i had. We are masochists to do this for leisure.

EDIT: Didn't know i finished 14th... Was busy keeping myself alive. That's far better what i expected.

 

[David Turnbull]

qualifying - 3rd

couldve been so much better if id been allowed to create a gap during the outlap but seemed a few folk were in too much of a rush and would rather force you out of the way to get their lap in, then i was blocked off during my second attempt when on a much better lap, dont know how the rest of open qualifying will go but i see problems ahead.

race - 4th

dissappointed with myself for a couple of silly mistakes, to start with i had a great start, managed to get past dino into turn 1 and set myself up behind reik nicely in the run through eau rouge, managed to pass reik around the les combes corners and then started opening a gap, at one point i had the gap upto 8 seconds but some silly small mistakes brought it back a bit, when i made my first pit i was some 47 seconds in front of dino so it shouldve been enough time to come out just in front or at the very least level, but for some stupid reason i left the pit limiter on and lost a huge amount of time, i came out 8 seconds behind dino and dino was extending his lead, when it started raining i weighed up the options and at 28% wet i made the choice to pit again for wets, wrong choice, dino was miles away now and i was being caught by guus and reik, before long yet another stupid mistake and i spun, both managed to pass me and i was back in 4th cursing my luck, from there i tried to hold it to the end with a set of roasting hot red things masquerading as tyres bolted to the corners of my car, last lap jim about had me, im sure i even **** myself a little bit in that run to the line , photo finish for 4th place, ill take it, but couldve been alot better .

big grats to dino and his first win, sets him up nicely for the season, always a consistant performer so its good to see, grats to guus for the second and well done reik, always up there as usual.

cya all at singapore

 

[Anthony Ishak]

Q 11th, not too bad with so little practice .
R 7th..
I was on Reik setup with 13/16 wings, a bit understeer setup ( I tested with 13/14 was perfect) but I had to increase the rear a bit to keep the car on track in case rain hit the track. thanks Reik

I started with 96 fuel planning for 1 stop strategy and kept driving and was hoping for rain to fall before my planned stop ,rain did not fall and I pitted on lap 16 I guess or something and the moment I confirmed the menu for slicks and 100 litres of fuel and start refueling and right then the rain start falling .

by the time I left the pit it was around 25% wet or something , and kept increasing and reached 40% , it was very hard to drive the car with 107 litres and slicks , at that time Nico was chasing me , he passed me then he went strait to pit , was it for wet tires Nico ? but you were very fast , I opted to stay out for another lap as my telemetry indicated that rain had stopped and intensity was dropping, i was right so I kept the slicks till the end and finished the race 7th ..
grats to everyone

cu at sing

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

Q 14th
Race 11th I am started with extra caution for avoid any contact in T1 lost a bit of place but front me an entire race and that race a lot of battles this time Kennett, Alex,Valter the pressure of Henrik was fun guys really enjoied this race dry then semi wet then wet run always with slick only 2 laps with wet tires at end of lap 2 I gone in pit and put new slicks so I did 3 pits my strategy was start with 80lit. then 2pits 52lit .

Congratulations all guys and like always Thanks PrestoGP and RD
C U on track

 

[Jim Hawley]

roasting hot red things masquerading as tyres bolted to the corners of my car, last lap jim about had me, im sure i even **** myself a little bit in that run to the line , photo finish for 4th place, ill take it, but couldve been alot better .

F**k me it was close.. 0.029" (buttox were clenched!!!)

Good race overall, I had some fun

Grats to all that finished in tricky conditions

Maybe more detailed report to follow:..............................


Jim

 

[Steeve Fournier]

Q: 10 i think

R: 16th, last on track with 3 laps down. I need a new crew cheif

I ruin my race before it even started. I gamble wet tires thinking rain will come soon but it did not. I didn't had any info on our much slower per lap will i be on wet tires on a dry track. After 3-4 laps, i realised my choice was . Then thunder's roaring sound starts and i thought "Rain will be here in less than 2 laps so i better keep going..... naaahhh no rain.... at lap 8 tires were all gone so it was time to pit. Another choice to make bleaaahh wet, dry wet dry ?|?|? I once again pick wrong and was REALLY crying for rain, i put wet tires again. Someone cannot make more stupid choices than that.

Around lap 10-11 i figured i must put some slick. Ahhhh releiving, traction, that feels so good !! By then i was 1 lap down on everyone. As i was doing normal times now, i had a few overtakes on valter, alberto, maybe someone else too, but i was only getting my lap back so.... Blue flag warning of course, but i care not about it and i don't think guys lose some time when i overtook them. Soon i was off track and getting passed again

Last pit stop i put wets again and it was the good choice this time for me.

Let me tell you, i like dry tracks!!

Hope to see the sun in singapore!

 

[Guus]

Qualified 6th, actually quite happy with that. I had a horrid framerate and a lot of traffic. There was just no hope to get a good lap in. Luckily for me not many people did Im not sure about this type of qualy with this amount of cars, superpole is better imo

After the practice starts and the qualy I was very frustrated with my framerate and wondered if I could even get through the 1st lap properly since I had about 10fps at the start, slideshow with a lot of input delay with that many cars around = nightmare. I took it easy at the start and in the 1st corner and managed to get through without any problems in 7th behind Tim. Tim made a mistake on the 1st lap and I got in 6th behind Nicolai, who forgot to bring his wings and was impossible to pass as a result. Not that much of a problem since we closed in on the group in front. In lap 4 I made a mistake in Pouhon which allowed Tim back past. He made a little mistake later and I was in 6th behind Nikolai again. Peter & Reiks little moment promoted me to 4th. I pitted on the same moment as Nikolai so I was behind him again after the stop, but he crashed in lap 11 which freed me up. From that point on I was very lonely until the very end when I was closing in on David with Reik hot on my tail. David made a little mistake and I got in 2nd. Dino was way out of reach so I just focused on keeping Reik behind.
Very happy with a 2nd place in my first Presto event Grats Dino on your first Presto win and thanks everybody for racing. Really looking forward to the next one

Im still confused about the framerate though (30-40fps in the race when on my own is not exactly nice), never had problems like this even with larger grids. Changing the graphics settings did not seem to make any difference. Is it caused by all those beautiful skins?

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Im still confused about the framerate though (30-40fps in the race when on my own is not exactly nice), never had problems like this even with larger grids. Changing the graphics settings did not seem to make any difference. Is it caused by all those beautiful skins?

In the past I remember that from time to time when I enter server the framrate is terrible. I knew no reason for it and treated it as some sort of bug. My solution was to restart the game/PC until it had disappeared. I have not experienced this in a long time thoguh.

Having said that I started, on reccomendation from others, to use game booster*. Maybe that is why it always works smoothly for me now?

*freeware that shuts down all uneccessary processes while in-game

 

[Henrik Jordfald Olsen]

I had a fantastic race-pace (to my standards).
Had some great racing before first pit-stop with someone (have no idea who as the button for nametags did not work).

The race was all ruined by 3 pitstops where I was stuck with pit-limiter engaged, must have lost 3 x 20 seconds at least. It was not possible to disengage even when I hit the assigned button for pit-limiter. Still I did not finish last 15th overall

Should have been closer to 11th place.

There must be something with my game-setup thats not right - cause everyone else just rushed past me in the pits.

 

[Dino Paolini]

Q: Decided to try give me room by timing a 2 lap run, hopefully crossing the line on the last second.
But my huge gap in front of me dissappeared when Peter waited on the last chicane.
I didn't realize it early enough to leave a bit more of a gap to start my first lap, thinking too much about how closely I was timing this qualy-run

Had 2 bad sectors, but I got dragged by Peter with his slipstream to an epic last sector which turned the lap into an ok one in the end
I've tried to do my second lap too, trying to overtake him on the long straight, but it did not quite work out.
Should have aborted the lap after that, but I tried a second overtake and only aborted after that. Sorry for the second overtaking-try Peter, this one made no sense

P2 on the grid was crazy with this below avarage laptime, but I'll take it

R: I coudn't decide for a strategy before the race and only the unexpected good grid-position led to the decision for a 2 stopper.

The start was not very good as my revs dropped too early and David passed right away.
No big deal I thought, as David would have gotten me on the long straight anyway.

After the incident with Reik, we both drove behind Peter for multiple laps. First I tried to pass him a couple of times and than it was Reiks turn to try it, but Peter defended very well and we simply coudn't do it.
I was speculating on taking advantage of that maybe and they did me that favor by colliding and I went through

Finally I've got a few free laps until the first pitstop came. I was really cursing my strategy to not have more fuel on board at that moment as I thought that I would never see David and some others ever again in this race.

For the second stint I simply prayed for rain the entire time as that would fit in prefectly for me and that's what happened

Last stint on wet-tires was very easygoing as I had an unexpected lead due to David's pit problems and the car was very safe and easy to drive with the wet-tires even when they were overheating.
Compared to that, the slicks on a half-wet track were a nightmare with the wierd non-progressive slipping during Practice.

q: 2nd / r: 1st

Crazy unexpected first win for me at Presto; I always knew that I would need a race with weather chaos to do that

Well done to all and see you guys next time

 

[Guus]

In the past I remember that from time to time when I enter server the framrate is terrible. I knew no reason for it and treated it as some sort of bug. My solution was to restart the game/PC until it had disappeared. I have not experienced this in a long time thoguh.

Having said that I started, on reccomendation from others, to use game booster*. Maybe that is why it always works smoothly for me now?

*freeware that shuts down all uneccessary processes while in-game

I found it, I fired up a game of battlefield 3 after the race and my framerate was ****. Restarted my PC and its fine now, so i guess my pc was just not in the mood on raceday