Season 5 Race 8 Hockenheim - Post Race

[Peter Marshall]

Grats to everyone

Q 11th.

Race: DNF
I binned it on lap 2
It was looking to be a lot of fun until I got wide on a curb which through me into the barrier - stalled the engine

EDIT: Grats Reik, Mark and David.
It was great viewing from the garage.

 

[David Turnbull]

great race all, detailed report later, my arms are killing me lol

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

Im in back at start with Medium Tires , I cannot choose Intermediate too slow my drive and 2 pit too long time.First 10 laps very funny with Anthony M. after this a lonely race until finished race sometime I seen Bob and tried stay on track,now I'm going to dry
Congratulation All Racers and sure at WINNERS

Thanks Nico for event and see you all at Valencia

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

I had a lot of fun in this race, even though I made some mistakes. had good battles with Nicolas, Valter, Peter, Valerio, Kurt and Graham if I remember correctly.

I qualified 8th, but i had forgot to put it in gear (!) so I was passed by 7 cars and was 15th after a few seconds

After that I drove quite well, passed when people went off and I think I soon was 8th at least with my inters. I was chasing Nicolas' tail I think it was when he suddenly dove into the pits around lap 12. I looked at my telemetry and noticed that the tyres were very hot, so I decided to pit the following lap.

In the pit entry Bob spun his car and I hit him, receiving suspension damage. I am not sure if I should have reacted faster and avoided him, must study the replay. Sorry anyway Bob.

I decided to put on mediums and not add any fuel as I started with 100 liters and planned to stop again. I also repaired my newly damaged susp

The mediums were faster on the drying track, but after a while I noticed that they didn't warm up properly nor wear down fast. I decided to run them until i had no fuel left, then pit for 46liters of fuel and soft tyres.

When I pitted the second time I had to try to adjust the settings as I had not planned for soft tyres. As I was doing this I hit something in the pits and received both aero and susp damage. What a fool I was. And I was facing the wrong direction. This was a little blow to my race, but it turned out I had amazing pace when I left the pits.

I gained several seconds to the cars in front of me and passed Kurt after a few laps. it was maybe 12 laps to go and Graham was 25 sec ahead of me. With only a few laps left I had closed the gap (much thanks to Tim who allowed me to unlap myself uncontested) and was ready to challenge, but I braked to late and had to go off track to avoid hitting Graham. My mistake of course. I was 5 sec behind and there was 2,5 laps to go, so I started chasing again, and again Tim allowed me past uncontested (thanks again). but I had been lapped by Reik twice and the race ended two laps early for me, not allowing another try.

It was fun, but I need to make less mistakes. The weather was great I think, I had no clue how it would develop and stayed out with what I thought was the best tyre choice at the time(s). Thanks to Daniel!

And of course, grats to Reik, Mark and David for podium and all finishers. And thanks to those who were curtious to me on track, I really need to say Thank You during race, because it really upsets my consentration when I have to look at the keyboard But I am thinking "thanks" every time.

 

[Jim Hawley]

Well it was a fun race to watch

Q, PB and P4 (checked it! all good)

R, got away nicely and into P2, I was under pressure from David at first then Mark, Mark got buy at the hairpin on lap3, I tried to go s-b-s on the exit but inevitably (and quite rightly) got shoved wide which caused me to spin, I recovered in P6, then I had a major case of the "Christian Horner" in my right ankle, it was doing that bouncy thing and wouldn't stop:eek: I pressed on regardless and came up behind Andy, as I pulled out of his slip stream towards the hairpin there was another car in front and to the right, I'm still not sure what happened but in a split second i was heading for the back of it, I think I had missed the brake point and it had also slowed early to let us past, so I threw the car at the wall to avoid destroying him and that was that.

I'm relieved that I didn't hit either Andy or the other car so it could have been much worse.


Grats to Reik, Mark, etc and all that took part and got further than I did


Jim

 

[Graham Healey]

I qualified in 12th. I started on supersoft made what for me was a good start, only losing 2 positions, which I had made up again by the end of the lap.

I did the race on supersoft and medium with one pitstop on lap 20. I believe intermediates were the "right" tyre for most of the race for those like me that are not capable of getting heat into the dry tyres on a wet track. Unfortunately the intermediate tyres do not last long enough and combined with 24 secs to change tyres it makes them a difficult choice for changing track conditions.

The supersoft were ok for my mid pack pace, but stayed ice cold. I had a good fight with Kurt getting past him as what I presume were his inters wore out.

On lap 16 as everyone pitted I was in P2 until guys started coming up with fresh tyres first David then Mark. The next couple of laps the track was quite dry and it was the only time I had any heat in the tyres, but they were completely gone so the grip was not much better. I pitted from P4 on lap 20 and came out in P10.

The medium tyres were no easier to get warm and I new I had to make them last for 28 laps so I didnt feel I could push them either. I was able to keep a fairly constant gap up to Andy in 9th until I started getting lapped. I am still not good enough at letting people lap me without losing too much time, but I am working on it.

Towards the end of the race I was up in 7th, when Nicolai came out on fresh tyres and was catching me fast, as he describes. I was pretty sure he would pass me before the end of the race, but..

but I braked to late and had to go off track to avoid hitting Graham. My mistake of course.

So I finished in a very nice 7th. Thanks all for a tough and enjoyable race.

 

[Nicolas Rouge]

Q 9th
I almost did no training for that session, but I knew I could do a PB with 1'14"xxx with a dry track, and it's what I did. I the rain with a track like that, I don't think the starting position was very important.

R 5th
Very good race for me, and lucky with my strategy. I made a few mistakes but I'm overall happy of my driving there.

I joined the start lane with intermediate tires and 120l fuel, not knowing when I would have to pit, but my idea was to do only 1 pit stop. At the start, I passed Nicolai who was slow to start and then Valter in T2. In the Hairpin, there was a domino effect : David was hit by Anthony, who was hit by Tim, who I hit. I don't think there something I could do, since Tim's car brutally stopped in front of me. I got a suspension damage there but I didn't repair it, since it was driveable and had only an effect on heavy braking. I spun on T15, because of a too violent mass transfer effect, and lost 4 places, but Bob spun in the last turn, so I won a position and ended lap 1 in my starting position.

In lap 3 I was in Peter's rear wing in the Parabolika when there was a massive lag with him : he suddenly nearly stopped, I hit him, going in the grass but without spinning and without any additional damage. His car jumped forward after that, going back in its normal place, near Valter. I lost my position to Nicolai who was just behind me then.

In the next lap, I passed both Valter and Nicolai who did some mistakes in the second sector and was 6th. The next laps were a battle with Andy in front of me, and Nicolai behind. We were doing nearly the same lap times, and were about 2 seconds from each other.

The track then started to dry up at lap 10, and I pitted at the end of lap 12 for my unique pit stop (40l fuel + hards). I was back on the track in 10th position and hoped that it wouldn't rain again. I won 2 other positions in lap 15 since some pilots pitted then, and another one in T2 since Nicolai, in front of me, spun there. I passed Valerio after the Hairpin, after being wheel against wheel with him since the Parabolika : this was very fun!

A few lap laters, I reached Tim and tried to follow him, but he was too fast and my icy cold tires (I never could heat them, but they lasted 35 laps) were starting to wear a little. I was too wide in T12 at lap 22 and Nicolai took my position. I tried to win my position back at the Hairpin in the following lap but I missed my braking spot.

The rest of the race was not so eventful. I kept the 5th spot until lap 28, when Nicolai spun again in T2. Later, I had to leave the 4th spot to David who was much faster than me. I tried to defend it but this track has too many overtaking opportunities (and that's good, except when you're the one chased!).

Thanks again to Nicolai, Presto GP and RD for the organization. Congratulations to the podium.

See you in Spain!

 

[Reik Major]

Nico, your inbox is full. I just wanted to pm you, that I had no incidents at hockenheim. The e-mails I wrote to race director got back so I'm afraid the director didn't get notice?...

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Nico, your inbox is full. I just wanted to pm you, that I had no incidents at hockenheim. The e-mails I wrote to race director got back so I'm afraid the director didn't get notice?...

I have deleted pm's now. Not able to check the RD-email at the moment, but will let you know.

 

[Peter Marshall]

In lap 3 I was in Peter's rear wing in the Parabolika when there was a massive lag with him : he suddenly nearly stopped, I hit him, going in the grass but without spinning and without any additional damage. His car jumped forward after that, going back in its normal place, near Valter. I lost my position to Nicolai who was just behind me then.

I had a quick look at my 2 laps of racing using the server replay.

I did have some nasty lag that I was totally unaware of at the time. I watched your car jump over mine on the exit of turn 2. [did not happen that way on my screen real time]

In all my time racing at Presto [50+ races] I think that must have been the worst connection/ lag issue I have had in a league race.

Sorry about that. Pleased you survived.

Congrats all finishers

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

I did have some nasty lag that I was totally unaware of at the time. I watched your car jump over mine on the exit of turn 2. [did not happen that way on my screen real time

I was behind you and observed this live. I wasn't sure what was going on, and I wasn't sure if you (Peter) or both of you (Peter and Nicolas) crashed due to this or what happend. But it was some stressfull few seconds as one of the cars suddenly was forozen ahead of me and then suddenly disappeard.

btw, the servers are currently down

 

[Reik Major]

Race Report: Reik Major - Mc Laren / BRM

Guys, thank you all for your congratulations! :wink: Again a very good job by everyone in this conditions. The awereness on track was great!

Qualify (1st):

I decided to start it relaxed not to risk any cut or wide and to have a clean lap first. So the first flying lap was a 1:12:9xx and the following clean lap with a bit more pressure allready resulted in a 1:12:6xx. This remained to be the pole lap.

Race (1st):

From the practice start we all knew, that we start in damp conditions with some rain drops. Considering the forecast it could happen both, more rain or the rain ends. Experience has shown, that in the conditions we had at the start, intermediates would heat up very quick as long as it wouldn't rain more. I didn't want to bet on more rain, so I started on medium slicks with 85 L fuel.

I found a good throttle position at the start and could avoid too much wheel spin. So I could take T1 alone with a good line. In the mirror I noticed some fights behind me, which made me open a little gap to the following drivers.

A few laps and some driving mistakes later, Mark had closed up on me. It seemed to rain a little bit more and I had no chance defending long against Mark, who I asumed to be on intermediates (or he did an outstanding driving on slicks!). So he passed me around lap 4 or so.

I was worried if it would go on raining more and if I could hold it on track until rain decreases. I decided to stay out on slicks hoping that one stop would be enough, whilest others would eventually need two stopps because intermediates don't last long enough for a one stopper.

I did some more mistakes and Mark in first position increased the gap between us quickly. But after 10 laps or so, the track started to dry a little and things started to turn back. Now I was quicker and closed up on Mark. At lap 14 Mark made his pit stop which gave me back the lead and I knew it would be hard for him to finish the race without a second stop.

I tryed to push and to be smooth at the same time and not to break the white line rules, which I did allmost succesfully (I think ).

In the middle of the race I made my first and only pit stop. Again Meds and 80L fuel. I droped back behind Mark in 2nd again but was able to drive quicker because of the fresh tyres. After a while I closed up and chased him for some corners but missed the corner into the arena because of bad view in the spray and less downforce. But then Mark made is second pit stop and I brought it home safe for the rest of the race. Only some dangerouse moments here and there with nice slights but never too uncontrolled. It was a handfull but also funny to drive in this slippery conditions.

EDIT: Grats Reik, Mark and David.
It was great viewing from the garage.

Thank you mate! I tried my best to entertain you as much as possible. I felt very sorry to see you, Jim and Anthony being out of the race at such an early stage. :frown:

Q, PB and P4 (checked it! all good)

Yeah, your performance was realy good, especially in the damp race! I saw your accident in the replay - a very hard one. :frown: I can only recommend you to enable the names over the cars. I don't like it but, I do so. Also with spray or in a pack of cars I know where the cars are in front of me. btw: you really missed your breaking point not only by some inches and it is more wet besides the racing line... many things to deal with.

...but he was too fast and my icy cold tires (I never could heat them, but they lasted 35 laps) were starting to wear a little...

Grats for your good result Nicolas!

It's allways for sure, that the slicks, no matter if soft or hard, don't get warm in this conditions. But if it's not wet enough, the inters get too hot (not to speak about the wets!) and wear too quick. So it's a bad compromise to use cold and more slippery slicks. I wish there was a wider range given by the mod so it would make sense to use inters and also wets sometimes, so we would see more gambling and weather related stops.


Finally I want to thank everyone for making this wednesday races possible!!! Especially Nico, Daniel, MMG and RD!

C U all in sunny Valencia

 

[Jim Hawley]

you really missed your breaking point not only by some inches and it is more wet besides the racing line... many things to deal with

I really messed up, on the replay it looks like I didn't brake at all, I most certainly did but only for a few yards before I thought I was about to wear Joes gearbox for a vest, so I got off the brake and went right to avoid.

The main thing is I only screwed up my own race, I think Andy and Joe got a bit of a fright but not much more than that, so all's well


Jim

 

[Bob Laube]

I had a lot of fun in this race, even though I made some mistakes. had good battles with Nicolas, Valter, Peter, Valerio, Kurt and Graham if I remember correctly.

In the pit entry Bob spun his car and I hit him, receiving suspension damage. I am not sure if I should have reacted faster and avoided him, must study the replay. Sorry anyway Bob.

.

that was entirely my fault!
For this you need up yet
do not apologize!

sorry guys, have to do much at the moment
do not come to practice - let alone even in the rain.

had the wrong tires on it and I'm looking forward to the end
I persevered.
sorry, all of which I was in your way

cya at next event!

 

[Kurt Kjellin]

Hockenheim

Grats to podium Reik,Mark and David. And all others to.

Q13 R10 Started on inters, they were worn out when I pitted on L14.

Changed to medium tires and filled fuel for the rest of the race.

Did to much mistakes but it still was a enjoyable race, had some good battles with
Graham, Nicolai and Valter.

Thanks to Nico and Presto crew, and to Daniel for the weather.

Hope to see you all in Spain

 

[David Turnbull]

race report.....

qualifying: went terrible for the first 15 minutes, i was trying way too hard and had to give up laps a few times due to running wide, in the last few minutes i settled down and pipped Jim to 3rd place on the grid.

race: decent start, car came flying past me at the start, and with 3 or 4 of us bunched at t1 i went wider line to avoid, we all held position into t2, coming to the hairpin at the end of the straight jim makes a great pass and takes my 3rd place (damn you Jim) just as i turn in im smacked from the side, it was Anthony, he obviously well misjudged his braking and ran right into me, luckily i had no damage, and it didnt alter my line much, the resulting accident behind looked far more serious, so on we went, Reik, Mark, Jim then myself, they were starting to pull away slightly over the next lap but with Mark and Jim fighting it caused then to slow up slightly i think, then in the distance i saw clouds of spray and a car spinning, it was Jim(unlucky) so i was back in 3rd where id started, later Mark pitted which put me upto 2nd place until i pit myself, which only puts me back into 3rd as i only stuck on inters and no fuel at this stop (lap 14-15) i went out on the inters again but this time they lasted roughly 10 laps so i pits again on lap 24-25 for rest of fuel till the end and mediums, great discision, they were alot faster, id come out in 6th place after my 2nd pit and set about chasing back the positions which i managed to do with relative ease due to other folk struggling with tyres.

all in all a good race for me, i finally manage to turn a good qualifying into a good race result, bit late in the season but good all the same.

cya next race guys

 

[Valter Ostman]

Grats to Reik, Mark and David, and well done everybody!

This was a hard race. The wetness was tricky to judge and varied a little. Medium tyres were very slippery and inters got to hot. My left front intermediate tyre was 135 C when I looked up on the XD.

Q: Seventh
I did not expect to be in top ten. Endless practise sessions on this track made a difference for me. I managed a time only 0.5 slower than my lucky hotlap.

R: 9th
As usual I enjoyed the race very much. I had a little trouble with grip, but everyone had the same problem I guess.
I started on medium slicks. The launch was far from perfect and it was easy for Nicolas to overtake me in the second turn.

On lap one Superangelo came in behind me after the hairpin incident. He followed me to T12 where I got a bit wide and slow. He had the margins on his side and did not run in to my rear. Immediately after that, during straight acceleration we had a sync problem between us and he collided with my rear right tyre(with lot of air between us in the server replay).
I wish I could have made a better job in that turn so this wouldn't have happened. I saw that you had trouble in pits after that and overheated or something. Sorry m8.

On lap two I was in sixth position. My medium slicks stayed cold and guys on inters could easily overtake me. I made a lot of grip related mistakes after that and was hindering Peter. I'm very sorry for that, and that you got out of rhythm and went off after finally getting past me in hairpin.

On lap four Nicolai passed me when I was visiting the grass parts of the layout. I was tenth and pitted for some inters. I got out as thirteenth and was immediately lapped by Mark and Reik when driving out from the pit exit.

I was chasing Bob now. Inters gave me a bit more control and the car felt better for a while. On lap 11 something must have been broken on Bob's car, he just let me pass on start/finish straight.
My tyres was boiling the water, did you see the steam?

On lap sixteen I could see Nicolai in front of me. The tyres was badly worn down and it was no fun at all. I decided to pit, change to medium and fill up to last the race. Pos 9 in and Pos 11 back out.

With all that fuel on board the tyre temps wasn't to bad, I suspect the track had dried a bit too.

The remaining thirty laps was a bit lonely. At the end Kurt and I had a fight. I know that Kurt's tyres was totally gone and chased as hard as I could. He could not resist my attack and I overtook him braking for the hairpin, or he just let me by?

I went wide on numerous occasions. I guess I was the worst of all in this aspect. I like to apologise to you all for this and especially to Kurt who drove a very clean race. No wide turns was an instruction I got before the race and I should have respected that.

Thanks all for another fine competition!

CU in Valencia guys...

 

[Tim McIver]

Qualifying - I knew the top two spots weren't available but I had hoped to go a bit faster and finish in 3rd or 4th, but in the end had to settle for P6.

Race - I thought I would go for mediums at the start, however, I tried them in the practice start, and although they felt fine I managed to spin on my own. I should have decided to drive better, but instead I got scared and went for inters.

My start was okay, until the hairpin... The incident between Anthony and David quickly became my problem as I was confronted with Anthony's stationary car. I gained quite significant suspension damage but it was still drivable.

I continued on until on lap 12 my tires were done and I really wanted to straighten my suspension. I had also noticed the rain slowing and thought that slicks would very soon be essential. I put on mediums and filled up with fuel and had a confident feeling that this race would come to me quite nicely if I could get the best out of these mediums before the showers returned and I could grab some more inters for the last part of the race.

At the time I hadn't planned on staying on those mediums for the rest of the race. But as the end grew closer and no rain was coming I started to think about dashing in for some softs or even supersofts. In the end I decided to play it safe and nurse home my 36 lap old mediums. David had stopped to grab his tires much more recently and after he went past 4th it was clear that I wouldn't be able to hold him off. By then if it was too late so I tried to keep it together for 4th.

Congrats to Reik, Mark and David. Thanks as always to Nico and Presto, as well as Daniel for the weather. I do love the strategy side of these races, I just wish it has rained more!

See you all in Valencia.

Tim.

 

[Reik Major]

Thank you all for your nice reports guys, they're enjoyable to read! :wink:

...i finally manage to turn a good qualifying into a good race result, bit late in the season but good all the same...

Nice one David. With all the experience of this season, I'm very optimistic we'll see even greater and closer races in the future. I bet you and many other guys will be able to beat me next season allready from the start. But I also haev to warn you, I also learned much this season! :tongue: :wink: (Don't take me too seriouse!)

I hope we all stay for an other season...

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

I hope we all stay for an other season...

I hope so to I am always optimistic when it comes to future seasons, thinking that this time we'll have everything ready before the season starts (skins, rules, systems etc.) and that this time we only have members that are in for the whole season.

I feel that the most important factor is that all our members/drivers are motivated and well integrated in the system. If this is the case it is not the end of the world if we are not 25 drivers, although the more the marrier

Thanks for all the enjoyable reports!

Btw, the server is ALIVE again