SEASON 16 RACE 9 - COTA-RACE REPORTS-

[Valerio Vinassa]

I say immediately I see short life for my front tires

 

[Vlad Dogar]

Was getting around 10-15fps.. It was impossible for me to race.

 

[Artyom Aslamazyan]

Very cool races for me, but sad about David's engine and our competition. I had a disaster in Malaysia when forgot to add fuel for feature race and stopped, and now David's disaster here
I'm happy to win COTA races, fortunately, did more testing this time. Especially pole position was a success, cause i never got it before here And started to work on my own setup so i can feel car how i want to feel it It will be posted in setup thread.
Thanks to everybody and see you on final race

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

Q last place

R1 I had a good chase whit Johannes and Anton along big part of race and finished 9th

R2 I knew I had problems with the front left tire I tried to save along the turns less slide and skidding on tires this led me to fight for the 3th position at lap 20 just before my only big mistake lost 2 place and finished in 6th.

Congratulations to winners and all us

 

[Kyran Parkin]

My lack of practice beyond today was apparent, even with an amazing set. So I'll gladly take two podiums.
Qualifying: P4
Set a PB so I can't be too disappointed. Even so, that gap stung a bit. ;w;

Sprint: P3
THIRD?! NUUUUU I thought I was going to avoid it this season! On a serious note though, great wheel-to-wheel action throughout. Good stuff at the end David, I did try and fight back but the car came alive a few laps too late.

Feature: P2
What I saw exiting the quadruple right hander in sector three was NSFW, poor April was probably concussed IRL. Pretty lucky to avoid the mayhem though, and eventually I got myself up into second with some good old lunges into turn 12. I know someone tried to outlunge me as I was lunging, brave but insane. I'll touch on that more in the incidents report. It briefly looked like I'd have to fight for second, but with Davids DNF, it was just a case of circulating to secure another second place.

Not sure how the standings look now, but I'll be going for that top three. Bring it on! See you all at Interlagos. (My favourite track, you're all screwed... )

 

[Martin Bulgin]

I qualified 8th and finished 6th in the sprint race, I cant remember too much else about R1 apart from getting a flat spot and suffering the T500RS Vibrator

The feature race I can remember a bit more about because I picked up a podium in 3rd place
I was really pleased with my 2nd stint because I didn't lock up or cause any flat spots, which makes a difference, had some good battles and managed to keep a decent gap over 4th and 5th for the last 5 laps or so, If they had got within DRS range of me I would have been a sitting duck as some drivers had rocket ships down the back straight.

 

[David Turnbull]

qualifying - 2nd

artyom popped up with a great lap right at the end to take pole from me.

race 1 - 2nd

had to fight back to make it to 2nd place, i cant remember if it was an incident that put me back or a mistake and my replay didnt save due to a crash after the race, anyhoo ended up back in the field a bit and had some good racing to get back to 2nd place at the end.

race 2 - DNF

started 2nd last due to reverse grid and tried to stay out the way of any incidents at turn 1, that lasted until midway through turn 1 when i got blocked by toms car, this put me last and quite a bit back already, then when i managed to get back into the group and make some passes i had a few incidents with nic, ill get to them later in incident report, i suffered damage in the biggest of the incidents with nic but managed to keep showing good pace to get back to 3rd place by the pit stops, i pitted a lap earlier than i planned to give me extra time to fight back, the pit was 16 seconds to fix damage so out i came and i would have to pass most of the guys i just did again that didnt come about due to my engine letting go, i wondered why it had happened at first as rad 4 is always reliable, but when i got back to the pits i realised that after the crash in race 1 i forgot to reload my setup and only changed fuel so i went into race 2 with rad 2 stupid mistake to make that ruins my championship chances but to be honest with interlagos being the last race i didnt stand much chance as i get nvidia crashes like mad there.

grats artyom on 2 great wins and your first pole grats the rest of the podium and all finishers, see yous at interlagos for the last round

 

[jego]

Race 1
Had a decent start, however due to avoiding cars in T1 and a slight contact with Martin Bulgin into T2 I had to go off throttle and ended up being P12. A few overtakes and spins in front of me later and I was back to P9. Had a little incident with Martin F in lap 7 which allowed Valerio to get closer again to me, but I managed to hold onto the position. Martin F had a DNF so I ended up in P8.


Race 2
Started in P4, lost on position but regained it from Anton Valle in Lap 2 in Turn 11. Kyran Parkin overtook me before the Start Finish line, so I was back in P5. At the hairpin T12 I tried my risky move, which had already worked in Race 1. I went to the inside and attempted to overtake Kyran and Martin B.
Slightly over the edge thought, because obviously Martin could not know that I was on the inside already and that Kyran could not fully commit to the corner, so the two had contact and I was in P3. April Dillon spun out in front and I was in P2.
Made a small mistake into Turn 11 and Artyom overtook me. Then in Lap 5 Kyran came back took revenge and passed me clean .
While I was following Valerio and getting closer, I had a little battle with Martin B and David, which David won in Lap 12 and Martin took advantage of a small error I made one lap later.
I pitted in Lap 14 together with Valerio, we exited the pit really close, I was behind him and bumped into his back as I misjudged the cold tyres and was keeping an look out for Nicolas who was just coming up T1.
So P7 after the pit, but managed to grab P6 from Valerio on the long straight. He overtook me again though. He spun out battling with Martin however, so I was in P4.
I tried to catch Martin B but my concentration was fading and so where my tyres. Also my back was stepping out a lot during my second stint, I noticed that the temperature of my rear tyres was really low so I had very little grip and was glad to hold onto p4 as Nicolas as getting closer and closer towards the end.


Overall I can't complain, never really felt that I managed to squeeze out a lot of the track in terms of grip and getting the apexes right. But I can already feel and see the improvements I made in my first Season here. Brazil .... here we come

 

[Nicolas Rouge]

Race 1
Nothing much to say, a long defense against David but he got me at the end, thanks to the DRS in the start/finish straight. 4th

Race 2
After another battle with David we had an incident at end of the esses, leaving me with terrible flatspot. I tried an undercut, pitting lap 11, and it was very close but it worked since I passed @jego at T1 when he leaved the pit, and @Valerio Vinassa a turn after, that was also leaving the pits, and also @Martin Bulgin a lap later thanks to my hot tires that allowed me to take the DRS, and a bit of luck in a terrible braking maneuver at the end of the back straigh. I made a mistake a few moments later and all those 3 pilots passed me, but thanks to a mistake from @Valerio Vinassa I passed him again, finishing with some scrapings with @jego but not succeeding in passing him. 5th

This seasons ends here for me, since I couldn't join you for the finale. I hope to see you soon!