SEASON 17 RACE 4 - CHINA - RACE REPORTS-

[Valerio Vinassa]

will be an interesting race i think

 

[Vlad Dogar]

what an evening...

Q: P3
My best ever lap offline was 1:43.9xx. However, today I was not able to do that... but 44.1 was ok to secure P3, as P2 or P1 was anyway nearly impossible for me. I still have to practice `the one` fast lap.

R1: P2
The start went kind of bad, as I dropped to P4 after turn 1. But in the first hairpin I managed to dive inside Artyom and regained P3. At the hairpin after the straight, I also managed to outbrake Martin, and got up to second place, but I missed the final corner and lost the position. After that, for some laps I was within 3-4 seconds from Martin and David, until I made a mistake at the exit of the final hairpin, and Francisco (if I remember corectly) managed to overtake me. For some laps there was some swapping of positions, and after that I ended up P3. This was until the final lap, when out of nowhere I found out I finished P2, because Martin killed the tyres.

R2: P2 (what a race...)
The start was disastrous. I was caught in the pile-up in T2, dropped to dead last, and was 10 seconds behind David after the first lap. But from then on, the race was a blast...By the end of the first stint I was around P5, and 3 seconds behind David, as I think he made an error or something. But I managed to make a mistake also on my in lap, and lost some 5 seconds. In the pits, to my surprise, I found out I had the same spot with David... Fortunately, because of my mistake , I did not lose too much time in the pits.
Starting the stint, I had a hard time passing Nicolas, as I think he was on the medium downforce package, and was very fast on the straight. After him, I don`t remember who it was, but again I needed 2 laps to pass, and after I outbraked him in the hairpin, I guess he was not expecting me to brake when I did for the last corner, and hit me. No damage on my side, but flatspots were done.
By that time I was P4, with some 4-5 laps to go. Top 3 were David, April and Martin Vindis (I think), who kept on swapping places. David made a mistake, and April was 1st, Martin 2nd, and me 3rd. I managed to get up to P1, but right on our tales was David. I was battling with April in the final corner, and thus compromised my top speed down the start finish straight. David had DRS and managed to pass me on the outside of turn 1, with a very nice move. I managed to keep in touch, and next lap was my turn to use the DRS. But the speed difference was not so big this time, and I could not get through, even after some hard wheel to wheel racing. After that, adding to my flatspots, the tires were kind of gone, so for the last lap I just did my best to keep P2 from Artyom.


The practice that I did for this race really paid off, and hopefully next time I`ll be able to take my first win in Presto. For today, I`m happy with equalling my best qualy position, 2 podiums on a step upwards, and the fastest lap in R2.

If any of you guys have the time and pacience to record my Race 2, it would be awesome, as it was full of action. I don`t have the replay, and even after Peter uploads it, my PC can't handle very well recording, even on a replay.

See you next time, and waiting for Davids video review.

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

Quali bad 1sec from mine pb
Race 1: huge,intense, fun,nice I enjoyed much this race no big problem with tires with Nicolas R back me for 4 or 5 laps that pass me in last lap with DRS.

Race 2: like i write in incidents report ,lostconnection for 3-4sec this thing that happened took away a bit of concentration so first 2 laps my mind was on April i was sorry so entire disaster lost positions at start at 1st hairpin wrong brake point ithink was in last place tried push hard for recover someone for battle but result is lap 8 i was on 16% FL tire and i tell me I must drive until lap 14 I have had some battles but I do not enjoyed it like race1 I was with displeasure for the incident before the start.Thank goodness that it's over

Congratulations David and all us
Thanks organizers

 

[jego]

Q: Went better then expected. P8 was good for me with the missing practice.

Race 1
Got off the line just a little slow but avoided an incident in the hairpin and was behind Tom in P7.
Rest of the race I had a good battle with Martin Vindis. I was sneaky and drove with very little downforce, because I saw that my top speed was very low in Quali.
Martin had no chance in picking me up on the long straight even when he had his DRS open.
In lap 9 I went wide in T10 and Martin got past me, however on the long straight with my Topspeed, I got past him before the Thrustmaster shield even.
This must have been very frustrating for you @Martin Vindis
I just had a endurance race on Saturday and our setup had too much downforce and I could not get past cars on the straight, so it was revenge time sort of
I finished P5 which was a good result overall.

Race 2
Due to the lower downforce I had higher tyre wear in Race 1, so I decided it would be wise to add a little more wing for Race 2.
When I came to the grid suddenly all other cars disappeared. I thought I had a Time Out and was about to press ESC when suddenly all cars came back, I saw Valerio move forward. Which almost made me jump away too.
From this on I thought there would be a restart, due to a server hiccup.
Lacking concentration, I got away really bad when the light was green, and was then caught up in a chain reaction in T1. Francisco Valle and Valerio touched and Francisco turned sideways right in front of me, I tried to avoid him but I was sort of stuck to his back.
When I got loose and rolled back I hit Vlad and got stuck to him. When we separated and I turned around I was P12. (Still hoping for a restart )
Vlad passed me in Lap 2. I was still lacking concentration due to the start troubles and the pileup. However I tried to stick to him to get back to the rest of the field.
In Lap 7 I had contact with Martin Floeck and spun out, so I was back to being last. Yeeeeeh
By lap 12 I was in P11 after passing Valerio, which was very important for me because I knew we shared the same pit box so I wanted to be in front of him to be able to control when I pit.
I pitted in Lap 13 and by lap 16 I was catching the guys in front of me, unfortunately I had made an unforced error and spun out.
In Lap 28 Turn 4 Tom spun out in front of me and we had contact, his tyres left him I think a few corners later and I finished in P8.


Overall Race 1 was cool, but Race 2 was slightly frustrating from time to time.
But the track as boring as it seemed in practice is actually fun for racing. At least its wide enough for us non alien super drivers to try relatively risk free overtakes.

See you on the server guys! Next race I have more time to practice plus I know the track already.

 

[David Turnbull]

Qualifying - 1st

Set a great lap on my first attempt after having a moment at turn 1, the lap was better than anything I'd produced in practise.

Race 1 - 1st

Managed a decent start and held the lead for the whole race, it was very close with Martin nearly all the way but at the end I had a small gap to be comfortable which really helped as my tyres were terrible.

Race 2 - 1st

(Badly edited vid)

What a race! I started last and got to 1st, went backwards then forwards and repeat for nearly the whole race. The last 10 laps or so with the top 5 so close was amazing. Great racing by all involved...April, Vlad, Martin, Artyom and more. One of the most exciting races I can remember in Presto.

I started well enough but stayed back to stay out of trouble, I picked up places along the way until the long battles for 1st place occured, this race I was severely hampered by a too long 5th and 6th gear, I figured I'd need them to be able to pass and not blow my engine up. My first Race setup was geared towards being in front this time for being behind. I worked well in that I could pass without any problems with DRS but other than that it made me a sitting duck on every straight.

I had learned from race 1 that my tyre management was rubbish so I tried to keep my pace in check so they would last the distance for me with only 1 stop, with tyre management and the rubbish gear selection I struggled coming towards the end and made a mistake, on lap 24 or so I was back in 4th and thinking that was it but I took those tyres to the point of melting in those last few laps and managed to get the win.

One of, if not the most exciting races in Presto history, so much passing and repassing, so many diffrent leaders it was a pleasure to be part of it.

Grats all podium and everyone who finished looking forward to the next race lets hope we can repeat that