Season 8 Race 7 SHANGHAI RACE Report

[Peter Marshall]

Q: 8 ( i think)
R : 15

Most of my races are ruined because of my slow pitstops, lost over 20 sec today.
So that sucks.
Had some nice fights with lots of people tho.
I was P 7 i think before the pitstops, so a pretty dissapointing race for me.
How about we just fill our cars to the max and all on hard tyres, no pitstops ;-)
Probably no fans for this plan, but hey, cant blame me for trying
cya next race
And offcourse grats to Marko (well done mate) , Reik and Sean.

Perhaps I am being nostalgic, but I preferred the "old days" [Season 1] when we all used the Automatic Pit Stop setting allowing the car to drive itself down and out of the lane. Time to have a drink and even a quick stretch

 

[Andy Paries]

Perhaps I am being nostalgic, but I preferred the "old days" [Season 1] when we all used the Automatic Pit Stop setting allowing the car to drive itself down and out of the lane. Time to have a drink and even a quick stretch

Ahh yes, those where the days.
Don't get me wrong, i like the racing how it is now too.
But the 2 races system(with autopit on) from the old days where just more exiting in my opinion.
Just saying ey, don't want to start a "riot" here.
Omg Peter, whe're starting to sound like 2 old grumpy geezers.

 

[Reik Major]

Perhaps I am being nostalgic, but I preferred the "old days" [Season 1] when we all used the Automatic Pit Stop setting allowing the car to drive itself down and out of the lane. Time to have a drink and even a quick stretch

Where is the "dislike button"?! As an alternative I pressed "like" and immediately "unliked" then...

But seriously: I don't know about these old days. I only know that auto pit can cause some trouble on some tracks. I like our actual pit stop rule very much, because it's very much down to the driver to make it a success or a mess. Or in other words: Even an alien can make a mistake when pitting which gives other drivers a good opportunity to gain some time.

And it adds to the thrill like Super Pole does. Our skills are getting closer and closer. So like in real life a good (or bad) stop can make the difference.

Finally a sarcastic question to Peter: Do we race to relax? I'm extremely exhausted after most of the races, especially Shanghai proved that, because every second corner was a challenge to stay on the line and make no mistake under acceleration.

 

[Valter Ostman]

Like a few km of jogging can be relaxing for the mind I think my simracing is a relaxing anti stress activity.

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Qualify 10th:
I did a lap that was about 1 sec slower than my p.b. which is as expected for me, so I was happy with that

Race 10th:
I'll divide my race report into 4 parts:
-Start/1st lap
-Stint 1
-Stint 2
-Stint 3

Start/1st lap:

Stint 1 (soft/soft 60 liters, planned to do 14 laps)
On lap 2 I was 10th after just having passed Jim and Nicolas who were sliding in t1. I was chasing Vincenzo (with Jonas behind) who again was chasing Andy. At lap 7 I had a comfortable gap back to Jonas and close to Vince and Andy (the battle for 8th-10th) when Andy spun in the exit of the second last corner (hair pin) which allowed both Vince and me to pass him. (I was now 9th) Vince lost more time than me in that situation, so now I was right at his tail (and Andy on mine).

The next lap (lap 8) I was in Vince's slip stream on the back straight and decided to have a go on his inside. However, I didn't manage to get a as tight apex as I wanted and the pass felt slightly dirty. As a consequence I immediatly looked behind me (before I had finished exiting the hair pin) and spun straight into the wall and received suspension damage. I droped from 8th to 14th and decided to go straight to the pits to repair and slightly change my strategy.

Stint 2 (medium/medium, added 45 liters, planned to do 17 or 18 laps)
When I exited the pits (starting lap 9) I was last (20th), 28 seconds behind 19th place, but I had no-one in front and had already made my first pit stop, so now I needed to drive well to slot in as high as possible when most others would pit around lap 13/14.

On lap 13 I had caught up with Bob Laube (I assume he had made a mistake) and I chased him for half a lap before I managed to get side by side with him in the exit of the second last turn (hair pin). We went side by side through the last turn before I managed to get clear of him. Great racing Bob! I also passed 3 guys in the pits, so I was 16th starting lap 14.

At the end of the next lap Jim was exiting the pits and it looked like I would have to fight him for position. However, Jim let me take the position by slowing down a bit. I think this was "wrong". I think Jim should have gone for it, making sure he held the inside line, and then it would be up to me to decide if I would try to go on the outside or slot in behind him. Anyhoo, I was now 15th, and later on the same lap (lap 15) I passed Valter who had spun of the track, so now I was 14th. At the end of the lap I passed a car in the pits -> 13th place.

On lap 17 I made a mistake that cost me 2 sec and Jim who was chasing me closely passed me easily, back to 14th in a Jupiler sandwich (Andy was right behind me). At the hair pin the same lap Nicolas made a mistake and the whole sandwich got past him, I was 13th again.

(to be continued)

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

...continuing
At the end of lap 18 Jim passes bob Luneski at the end of back straight (hair pin) but I do not make it past although it is close. But I follow Bob closely and pass him in at the start of next lap (lap 19) at t1. Now I am 12th and have Andy on my tail (thats why I was worried about Bob, where did he go, why was Andy behind me?).

Nothing more happens for the rest of the stint except that I now have Jonas in front of me instead of Jim and I pass 2 cars in the pits so I am 10th when I make my second pit stop at the end of lap 26. At this time Andy was close behind and Jonas and Jim (who does not pit) 2 and 3 1/2 sec seconds ahead.

Stint 3 (medium/medium, added 45 liters.)
I leave the pits long before Andy on 14th place and I am starting lap 27. I suspect that Jim and Jonas will pit the next lap or the one after and know I must put down some killer laps to short cut them. At the end of lap 27 however I have caught up with Kennett and follow him closely into the hairpin. He looses tracktion on his rear wheels and I touch him slightly as I go past. I was so unsure of the situation that I allowed Kennet t to regain his position. I pass Kennett in t1 at lap 28 and have yet again clear air (and I am 13th).

At the start of lap 29 Jim exit the pits right ahead of me, I am now 12th, I guess Jonas was in the pits. At the end of lap 34 (hair pin) Bob Laube and Jim has a misunderstanding when Jim is about to lap Bob, and I sneak easily past both, so I am now 10th. (I must have passed somebody in the pits as well).

With 7 laps to go I am 6 seconds behind Peter on 9th and obviously I decide to start hunting and put pressure on the old geezer (name given by Andy ) But even though I got a bit closer every lap the old hound have been around the block before, made no mistakes that I could notice and instead I made small errors towards the end. I think I was 2,5 sec behind when the race finished. Well done Peter, u got me again

It was a magnificent race, especially the fact that when I came out of pits at start of lap 8 I was almost 30 sec behind 19th place, I knew that was a great sign for our race. 19 finishers, 12 completing all laps, 4 one lap behind and 3 2 laps behind; it is becomming very good I think. Thanks to all for a great race. And big congrats to Marko for his first win, very well deserved!

 

[Peter Marshall]

Where is the "dislike button"?! As an alternative I pressed "like" and immediately "unliked" then...

But seriously: I don't know about these old days. I only know that auto pit can cause some trouble on some tracks. I like our actual pit stop rule very much, because it's very much down to the driver to make it a success or a mess. Or in other words: Even an alien can make a mistake when pitting which gives other drivers a good opportunity to gain some time.

And it adds to the thrill like Super Pole does. Our skills are getting closer and closer. So like in real life a good (or bad) stop can make the difference.

Finally a sarcastic question to Peter: Do we race to relax? I'm extremely exhausted after most of the races, especially Shanghai proved that, because every second corner was a challenge to stay on the line and make no mistake under acceleration.

I didn't mean to provoke you or anyone else Reik. Mostly I was sympathising with Andy for his pit difficulties. Also, you might want to look at who was Season 1's champion. But there is no need to like to everything I write...

Every season of racing at PrestoGP is great. When the regs are the same for all it is a competiton. I did enjoy being able to jump out of the chair and do some running on the spot and stretch a few muscles to increase blood flow during the automated pit stop.

As for relaxing, you may ask my opponents about that. It is the very start of the day for me so I am on the "up"during our events. It is all about waking up. And I am an "old geezer".

Finally, I enjoy our long races as they are. I always vote in favour of the no pit lane limits, etc. And yes, Automated Pit Stops don't work at Spa and Sepang at the very least. So

 

[Nicolas Rouge]

Q 12th
Damn, where is the rain? I like rain.

R 12th
I started the race with 100l of fuel and mediums. I managed to make a rather good start and passed Nicolai and Jim in T1/T3, but Jim passed me in T6. After that I followed the train of car until lap 2 / T1 where Jim spun and I spun too when trying to avoid him (see incident report). I recovered quickly thanks to Nicolai and made my best to follow the other pilots with my heavy car. Peter passed me at lap 3 / T14. At lap 8 I regained 1 position after passing Nicolai who had just spun after T14. At lap 9 I started to see Valter in my mirrors. I got careful and managed a good T13 exit each lap so he was not a threat for me in T14 (the only overtaking spot at the end of a stint I think). That didn't last long since he pitted at the end of lap 11. In lap 14 I passed Eliezer who was on the grass after T14 and since everyone else was pitting or had pit, I found myself P1 (I had my lead lap then ). Marko passed me on the inside of T1 in lap 16 and I let Reik pass me in T6 because my tires were almost done and I didn't want to compromise this epic battle I watched with concern on my XD! driver list window.

I pitted at the end of this lap 16 for 60l of fuel and a set of mediums, and exited the pits in front of Nicolai at the 12th spot. Unfortunately I locked my tires shortly after in T14, spun and lost 3 places . Valter was once again behind me but with less fresh tires, so I was safe and could enjoy the fight in front of me : Bob vs Jim vs Nicolai vs Andy. In lap 19 / T2 Bob spun and I couldn't avoid him (racing incident). Shortly after I passed Andy in T14 after noticing that his car was faster than mine in the straight, unless I was under his slipstream. He almost passed me at the outside of T1 in lap 20, and finally after I made a mistake in T15 he passed me in the pit straight. Nice battle mate! At lap 25 Anthony exited the pits under my nose and I passed him on the outside but I braked too hard and lost my rear . Anthony and Valter passed me and shortly after almost all the other pilots when to pit so I made some laps alone on the track. In lap 28 I was too wide in T9 and David T. passed me. In lap 29 I misjudge the position of Vincenzo and position myself badly for T15 so he passed me easily there.

I pitted at the end of lap 31 for a set of softs (and no fuel !) and exited at the 13th spot, just behind Valter. I now had better tires and my car was much lighter, so I begun to make good lap times and closed the distance with him. In lap 33 / T14 I made a mistake, braking much too late and had the reflex to go in the grass, but apparently there was a contact even if I felt nothing then (see incident report). I finally made a proper pass on Valter in T14 one lap after, and pushed as hard as I could not to be lapped by Marko and to close the gap with Jim. My race fastest lap was my final lap, and that was enough not to be lapped, but Jim was still 3 second in front so I finished the race with my starting position : 12th.

Thank you everyone for this epic race, everyone was very competitive! Thank you Nicolai for creating this link between all those talented drivers.
CU on track.

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Since it was such a good race I made a video of the first lap

 

[Anthony Ishak]

Thx Nico for the video , so true, it was an amzing race with lots of track action ..

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

Nice vid Nico and great driving everyone

 

[Jonas Lex]

Great video and great race
Maybe a little off topic but it seems to me that tracks with at least one long straight result in more finishers and better races.

 

[Valter Ostman]

Great video Nicolai.
Yes Jonas. But there is a certain charm with the race in Monte Carlo, although it is crowded and dangerous, right?

 

[Jonas Lex]

Great video Nicolai.
Yes Jonas. But there is a certain charm with the race in Monte Carlo, although it is crowded and dangerous, right?

Yes defenitely, for me it will be hard but thats the race Im looking forward to the most right now.
I had my first Event at Monte Carlo on friday at the RD Mini Friday and even tough the cars are maybe 4 times
or so slower than an F1 car, it was a lot of fun.
I hope we can hold up the number of finishers there as well.

 

[Reik Major]

Big Congrats to Marko for his first victory at PrestoGP! Also congrats to Sean in 3rd! It's really cool to have such a close ranking in such a late phase of the championship.

And of course congrats to all of us, because such a high finishing rate is the best prove of our high standards. Top work guys!

Practice (13th or so...):

Again a practice session where I joined late to find completely wet conditions. I managed to drive a 1:39:4xx with intermediates, which was really fun to drive. Others had put in quicker laps before in different conditions, so for me it was a big challenge to head to the practice starts in the middle of the pack.

Qualify (1st):

Besides the practice starts I had no "quick" dry laps in qualy mode for the last few days. So it was a big challenge to put in a decent lap. To get used to this conditions I pushed hard in the out lap. I tryed to be clean and not too agressive which seems to be good at such tricky laps. But finally I was surprised myself to end up with a 1:29:7xx only 0,2 seconds slower than my PB.

Race (2nd):

1st stint: 14 laps / mediums / 60 liters
2nd stint: 14 laps / mediums / 60 liters
3rd stint: 13 laps / mediums / 45 liters

I carried some extra fuel in the first two stints to have an option to drive two 15 laps stints and the third stint for 11 laps on soft tyres...

I had a good start and saw Sean in the mirror falling back a little bit. So I had each turn for my own to drive them as clean as possible on cold tyres. Immediately I could open a small gap (~2-3 seconds) to Marko who had take 2nd position behind me.

I tryed to drive as good as possible but without too much risk. To my surprise I couldn't increase the gap to Marko but I didn't worry much at this stage of the race. In the last laps of the first stint the car was tricky to handle and I was very surprised to see Marko closing up on me. I was wondering if he was able to make the stint on softs. Finally we pitted together in the end of lap 14 (I think).

I remember doing a very good stop but nevertheless Marko overtook me in the pits! Now I know he made a tighter fuel calculation and only took 45 liters at this moment. So our positions where reversed now and I followed him be some seconds. After other driver's stops he was in the lead now and I in 2nd tryed to stay close to him. The gap was ~ 5 seconds and I really tryed hard to stay in touch with him. I honestly didn't want to believe that he could be that little bit quicker on the same strategy but he was.

For the second time I stoped one lap earlier to eventually gain on him by doing a good outlap on fresh tyres. I was pushing hard and touch the grass on the outside of the fast middle sector left-right-combination. I was close to fly off but catched it by smashing into the brakes and shifting down 2 gears. That was thrilling an the lap time only was average then, so when Marko left the pit after his second stop, I still was 5-6 seconds behind him.

Through the whole 3rd stint I pushed hard to make him eventually feel some pressure. I thought if he would make a small mistake I could be there - at least close to his tail to make him feel even more pressure. A few laps before the end of race Marko made such a mistake but it wasn't a big one and the gap still was ~ 2 seconds and he slightly pulled away again.

Finally Marko finished ~ 3 seconds infront of me and I'm really impressed about his speed and his strong nerves to bring it home this way. Very well deserved mate! I honestly give in that I couldn't have driven a better race, so I'm also satisfied with my 2nd position.

I was thinking about doing the 3rd stint on softs but I was afraid of the tyre temps and to loose more than I could gain so I decided to stay with my standard strategy to finish infront of Sean and to close the gap in the championship ranking a little bit again. I'm very curious what the last races will bring...

One more time I like to thank our admin Nicolai sooooo much for putting in so much work into this great league. The great performance from all of us is also a result of his work.

C U all in the desert!

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

----..Started for do 16laps Med Med 1st pit 2nd pit soft tires about 10 laps .........

.........

......1st stint: 14 laps / mediums / 60 liters
2nd stint: 14 laps / mediums / 60 liters
3rd stint: 13 laps / mediums / 45 liters

I carried some extra fuel in the first two stints to have an option to drive two 15 laps stints and the third stint for 11 laps on soft tyres.......

I thought like 1st of the class Im happy only 8 seasons for this result another 10 seasons and I can compete for 5th place