SEASON 15 RACE 2 -SINGAPORE- RACE REPORTS

[Valerio Vinassa]

will be an hard race between the barriers and walls

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR i have a really nice provider
was a nice race for only 6 or 7 laps

 

[April Dillon]

Wow. I have never worked so hard for a 6th place finish before. And I've never been so happy to get 6th. I had some seriously fast people behind me. Even though @David Turnbull started the race with issues, seeing him come up in my mirrors really put me in the zone. I started looking for that extra 110% in the car, and felt like I was getting microslides up every single exit curb as I got really greedy with the track just to hold the position. I'm surprised I made it to the end driving like that.

Hope you can forgive a few liberties with track limits, David, if needed... I can't really remember if I went a little far or not in places.

 

[Mark Breslin]

Worst race (personally) ever..!!!
Couldn't believe I spun in the first few laps in an area that I'd never spun in any practice/qual.!!
Annoyed with myself, I then proceeded to spin 4/5 more times while wondering if to quit or not.!!
Decided to carry on, not for the race but just to prove that I could lap consistently.
It took til the last 30 mins of race to achieve it, but glad I carried on........just for my own sanity!!

 

[David O'Reilly]

That was really intense and great fun.
I got a good start from P8/12 and ended sector 1 in P6.
The adrenaline was pumping so hard I had a really scrappy opening 2 laps and then settled down fortunately with the same position.

I managed to pull a tiny gap on Nicolas and April and occasionally saw David Turnbull close by. Was I driving out of my skin. Was I in that tunnel that Senna spoke of in Monaco? (No his gear selector wasnt working).

I was so enjoying this car on this track, as April said you seemed to need to get it near a slide and control it. I was particularly noticing if my exit under the hotel was using wheel spin I had nasty oversteer.

My fuel went into 1.4 litres negative so I needed to think aboiut fuel saving so did a little short shifting.
When some cars pitted I figured it was time for me too and I had about 8-9 sec lead over April and Nicolas. April pitted and that left Nicolas 8 sec up the road. Surely he would pit? No he didnt. I had to chase. The script had his tyres going away and me doing a heroic chase like Mansell (in Portugal?).
The gap came down from 8 sec to 6 sec but it was taking too many laps. Surely his tyres would abandon their duties soon? If I got him it was P5 for me!

In the meantime David T caught me and put a lot of pressure on. I tried to keep it tidy but after what felt like 10 laps (but was more likely 3-4 laps) I spun exit of T9 and tangled him up in my car. (sorry David) Now Nicolas was -20 sec an April through as well.

The test now was to remain unlapped (not done yet for me in Presto) so I abandoned fuel saving and pushed again. I figured I would save fuel in the last lap if I got to do it. I saved my face and was unlapped and sauntered home with the clutch in along the straights for P8.

I was sweating and really got into it. Thanks all drivers. See you soon.

 

[David Turnbull]

Qualifying - 3rd

Happy with that even though couldve been miles quicker I did qual with a double shifting and sometimes non-shifting upshift paddle, think I done the main straight in 5th, just couldnt get to 6th lol

Race - 7th? lol

What a race, partly for the wrong reasons and mainly for loads of the right reasons, my troubles are well documented with all my moaning on server and my hate of nvidia and paddles so I wont get into them again The right parts of the race were the countless battles with Artyom, Peter, April, David, and many more and even a few with myself.

Grats Dino, Artyom and Peter, well deserved podium

Hope to fix all my problems by next race then hopefully I can get back to some sort of normality, Singapore was a huge test for me and my equipment and both of us failed dramatically

See you all at Suzuka

 

[Peter Decker]

Q 2nd

During preparation in these cars for this race I realised I got some old good vibes back from my carting days and whops such quick lap times I managed! I've started to like these cars a lot after all When Q started I felt some pressure to outperform my PB but managed to progressively go from a safe lap to an almost perfect last one - I was 2-3 tenths up (or is it down? lol) but made 2 errors. Otherwise pole had been mine

Race 3rd

Well, I need to practice one or two things in particular. Coming to the race I was pretty sure to take 1 stop but thought I'll decide depending on how it looks in front. I felt I had the raw pace and confidence to go aggressive enough to gain more than go slower on 0-stop and balance the risk of making sliding mistakes.
Problem came right from start: I kept position and got stuck behind Dino who clearly was aiming to keep as for from the pits as possible. Only when straights were close, he put in some qualy lap overspeed. I was more into going power sliding and pitting and stuff and wanted to pass NOW...

In the end I felt it was one of my best races last year or so even tho I nearly hit Esc after the 3rd spin. I had such a great feel for what margins I had, that I've never experienced before

Grats to Dino and Artyom and thanks all who showed up!

 

[Nicolas Rouge]

Great race for me, even if I took few practice on this track, but I managed to build a good setup thanks to those shared.

Q 5th
The lap was so good I didn't think I could do better. It was like the 3rd lap I made with low fuel (never had the time to practice Q) so I was very happy with this unexpected result

R 5th
After a prudent start I was chasing David O'Reilly with April no far behind, but I spun on lap 6, so that allowed April and Vale to pass. After recovering, I slowly lost some time behind David : 10, 11, 12, 13 seconds and then the pit period began at mid-race. I check my tires : 70% on front - good, sounds like a plan I told myself (never tested tire wear on a stint but I suspected it was suitable for a no-stop race), so I stayed out and tried not to make mistakes. David was slowly gaining on me, but the other David (mr.T) was also coming from behind so I think it managed to keep them at a safe distance during their fight. I had a scary moment lap 26 when I spun just before the bridge, with both Davids coming very fast but managed just to recover before they joined me, and I pushed hard for a moment in order to maintain the gap. Fortunately for me, they had an incident one lap later so I was safe again. For the final lap, I had still good tires, almost even tire wear on back and front (40% front and 45% back) and a safe gap behind, so I pushed the hardest I could and made my fastest lap of the race (did the same at Monza!).

So great race for me, I could probably have been faster but it was not safe on this track (much too easy to make mistake) but very happy with the final result. Congrats to finishers! I hope to see more people at Suzuka

 

[Dino Paolini]

Q: Not easy doing such a short qualy on this track usually, but since there were so few drivers on track it went through without traffic. My last complete lap was a nearly optimal one and the best I could hope for with only 3 laps.
It gave me a much easier time here starting from pole, as starting from the inside line would have been brutal for t1.

R: Start and all went fine and I could aim for the same race as Monaco last season, staying away from the walls and letting the track do the defending for me
There wasn't really any normal way to pass, so I just went for a consistent pace which would allow to make it through with no stops.
First I had Peter following me close and afterwards Artyom (like always ).

I thought that it could get close again towards the end like in Monza, but this time it seems there was quite some stuff happening behind me so I could take it easier than normal.

Grats to all and I mean really all because I think we had only 2 dnf's due to disconnects and the rest made it.
Adding to that Mark was the only guy I saw once on track for a lapping, rest I never saw because they all stayed in the same lap, so that was something

Imo the car was really nice here in racetrim, but in qualy-trim it felt a bit silly how you could throw it around, but it was fun regardless.
Lastly here's a hotlap from Singapore, slightly faster than the one in q: