SEASON 9 RACE 6 A1 Ring RACE REPORT

Kennett Ylitalo · Oct 24, 2012

Q: Surprisingly good, my only light tank/super-soft laps. Started to get it about half lap left so i'm betting that lap could've been my 1:07.. First half was going with rain/damp brakecues, at the double left-hander i realized the grip.. Well, always nice to get better than expected.

Race: Start, really really good. Managed to keep spin to minimum, and could keep full throttle on 1st gear up til rev limit and avoid who ever was in front of me at the same time.. A bit scary but really felt good to keep in control. Kept enough space in T1, middle of track. P12 from P15. Gain another position in T2 and after a while i was 10th... Really good battle with those who were faster but got bad draw in the start-lottery. Kurt especially, really good and professional driving, just awesome battle. Couldn't keep that pace without you..

And then came... Update.. no connection issue but FPS dropped to ~5, which i know is the limit of even getting one clean lap on 80% pace (mind you, i started this game with system that did 15FPS tops, so i have a lot of lo framerate experience...) Immediately stopped battling and let anyone pass that caught me.. That 10th place was too precious for quitting and i was close to pitstop... I guess i was 14th when someone was really getting close, i was preparing to let pass, when i got huge hang spike, steered to gravel right away. Tried to ctrl+alt+del in safety (still in race, you have to decide was it right..) but PC blue screened..

I haven't changed anything but antivirus from AVG to MS essential. I'm betting that was the one who was starting to update.. Can't confirm, my main goal for ctrl+alt+del was to identify the program. . I didn't quit because if i could be fast, i would've lost ~20 seconds to solve it (unless it was MSE..) so i could've continued still with in pack. I did all i could to keep as much speed as possible during the trouble: to keep distance to anyone on the rear to avoid the number of possible incidents.. and of course to advance on track, it was so close to possible pitstop, just 2 laps more..

Really, really gutted. .My pace was awesome. Just so good, could keep it clean and push if needed. In total control of the situation, car setup was a bit risky.. Lo rear wing but i could keep it in driveline easier. Ther is a lot of off-camber corners, taking rear wing out is riskier but if i slip just a bit on off-camber corner, that's it.. No corrections possible, it just goes wide. Needed good throttle control, i did short shift a lot. Turn 1 on 2nd gear, last double with 4th gear etc. When tires were not prime, second hairpin on 2nd gear, unless Kurt was close.

Highlight was side by side battle with Kurt.. I went wide in T1 and he caught me. Two car wide in and out from second hairpin, both have close IRL locations so i knew there was no ping issues. I think it went all to way to double lefthander entry before i could get ahead (i can't see replays due to BSOD..). There was some minor contact both ways, don't consider it to be incident since both could advance. i won that battle but right after that the updatehell started.

Marko Vuori · Oct 24, 2012

Congrats to David and Reik! It was nice to race with you two

After a difficult season start, I wasn´t too motivated. However, already a couple of laps at A1 Ring was able to revive my driving spirit. This track seems to suit me for some reason.

Qualifying: 1:07.071 (3rd)
A bit too careful lap after rainy practice. But it brought me good enough result.

Race: 3rd

After seeing weather forecast (rainy) for the race, I changed my race strategy from 1 stop to 2 stops. It was not an easy decision as I had done most of my practice with one stop in mind.

I got worse than average race start despite of the light fuel load. Cars behind were still not able to overtake me, and when Reik overshoot the first corner, I found myself at P2 before T2 (Remus). The first laps of the first stint were pretty close fighting between me, David and Reik, after which David was able to build up a gap of 2-3 seconds, and I was left battling with Reik. Reik was never further back than 2 seconds, so I had to concentrate fully to be able to keep him behind, which I managed to do until Reik pitted on lap 18. David and I pitted one lap later on lap 19. At this point, race leader David was only 1.8 seconds ahead of me. Sadly, I overshoot my pit box slightly and didn´t notice it at first, so it took me some 5 seconds to move the car backwards.

At the beginning of my second stint, on lap 22 I overtook Nicolas Rouge, which I managed to do at the braking for T2. At this point, David and Reik were having a heavy battle for P3 (for the race win, as it turned out later), and that enabled me to catch them quite a bit. At the start of lap 23 I was only 2.9 seconds behind Reik. On lap 30, Tim and Dino pitted and I found myself on P3. On laps 38 and 39 Reik and David pitted, and I took the lead of the race until I pitted on lap 40. Thsi time pit stop went ok, but all of my competitors (Reik, David, Tim, and Dino) at this part of the race were able to overtake me. I knew it was going to be a hard battle up.

At the beginning of my third stint I was pushing as hard as I could to catch Dino, who was on P4. With the help was my fresh tyres I catched him on lap 46, but overtaking is quite another thing. A couple of times I was really close, but it always resulted in a loss of downforce and enough wheelspin to let Dino get away again. At the end of lap 48, David and Tim had incident which led to Tim joining the track with slow speed. This resulted Dino and I having a Häkkinen-Schumacher- Spa-2000 moment at the start/finish line, as Dino overtook Tim on the left and I overtook Tim on the right. At the braking for T1 I was able to overtake Dino as well, now running 3rd. After that I was pushing as hard I could to see if it was possible to catch Reik and David, but it seemed impossible to catch the 7 second gap they had been able to build up, as I was only able to catch 0.1 seconds per lap or so. After seeing that I eased up a bit just to be able to slowly widening the gap to Dino, who was behind me. On the very last lap I had a 180 degrees spin at T2, but it did not have any effect on my final position.

Conclusion: It seems like the decision to change strategy from 1 stop to 2 stops at the very last moment was a right thing to do. This race went pretty well, but it still haunts me what could have happened, if I didn´t mess up with my first pit stop.

Thanks to Presto GP, RaceDepartment, and all the competitors!

See you at Abu Dhabi!

Valerio Vinassa · Oct 24, 2012

strange night for me load game load car and join server but when upload the server my PC was blocked no one function is enable vain ctrl+alt+canc so brutally turn off PC was hard restart the PC but after 2 or 3 attempts PC restart join server and all seems good but in laps 38 a strange thing when I turn out of T2 in 1st gear put down gears and instead 2nd go in neutral and than in reverse gear

I dont know if is my fault or what is first time that happen so spin and lost a bit of time 8sec. of advantage on Bob Miley ( he was 1 pit strategy think ) again in lap 46 or 47 in last turn i see Tim in spin so i decided to pass wide for let Tim turn your car inside because I thought him cannot see me the car was perpendicular to curve so run a bit wide in the sand also behind me 2 car was lapping me Im on last place with big space from 12 place and no reason for take some risk for pass between Tim and barriers.
These the wrong/bad thing nice thing however first ~10 laps a pleasure behind Bob Luneski at 0,6 0,7sec. really fun and a little spot with Valter that pass me when I was in battle with Bob Luneski I tried many time to overtake him but without succes after this Bob take a bit of advantage and i see him go in pit think in lap 19 a I did 2 laps more and when i jump out of my pit Im in front him one place gained

but after fews laps him was dnf so I manage race for finish

Congratulation to guys and Thanks PrestpGP for event

see you at Abu

Bob Miley · Oct 25, 2012

I was way off the pace, but everything went smoothly with pit, so must not grumble. Had 2 episodes were game froze and minimised to desktopfor 7 seconds each but even without that my position would be the same. I have noticed in recent weeks my accelerator pedal seems to lose sensitivity/calibration the longer i use it, my top speed was 314kph at start and 289kph at the end and it was full on and full off like digital button not analogue pedal. I will have to do some playing around with them before the next race.

Kennett Ylitalo · Oct 25, 2012

Try putting some max end deadzone, i don't know what pedals you have but it sounds like the pots have become loose.. I got a bit of the same with my brake pedal but in other direction: when not used in a long time (+4h...) they get to max sooner than what they should be.. I added a bit of sponge type material so that if it starts to move, they move predictably, and i can get 100% no matter what (there's enough room in the minimum end so it doesn't start to drag). So in the end of stint, where brakes don't go to the floor anymore, i have to remember to pump it in pits...

I don't mind, it feels like it's a feature more than a bug

And i have to push brakes to max once per lap, i've checked my telemetry and start of the race 100% where at the end it was 80% max...Don't know why i start to ease up the brakes at the end but it's a good thing for me to reset both the pedal and myself once per lap... And it's been EXACTLY the same after the last overhaul, every lap, if anyone wonders.. And no, if i mod something, i have to try something new every time

Last time it was hydraulic link, now pretensioned pots..

But the main point was, it was a pain in the ass before i put that "sponge" there. Both pedals started to do the same what you experienced after 3 months or so of driving.. The "sponge" is sponge like material and twisted before it was inserted between pot and the hole where the pot goes. I got Momo black. Throttle works just differently enough, it didn't need such "sponge" spring ( i had so much movement outside the 0-100% range, there was almost 1cm of margins..Brake didn't have that, it had over 1cm on the minimum end but just few mm in the max end of movement..)

EDIT: Oh, yeah, i limited both pedals movement in the max end.. Stock Momo black tends to push the pots to their limits with the default movement range so i capped it.. And i can adjust the limit, takes just couple of turns with screwdriver.. I bought a brand new Momo for my brother, we'll be making the same mods to that too.. And my dad bought a decent camera so i can make that godangit tutorial.

Bob Miley · Oct 25, 2012

It's a DFGT and I have found a way to stiffen the springs in both pedals that should help and also give more resistance.

Dino Paolini · Oct 26, 2012

A1 Ring was a bit of a strange track with these cars. I think it fits better for slower cars, but I still had a good time here.

Q: Very lackluster lap. There was again no chance whatsoever to do a proper dry test with the rain in practice (third time in a row I think) and with the practice starts.
Every somewhat normal lap would have been p2, since apparently everyone (except Reik) suffered from the same problem than me. But p4 it was; ~1 second behind my pb

R: Decided to go for a 1 stopper because of the starting position. That was the only chance I had to maybe compete against the guys in front of me, as overtaking was not going to happen and the pace was a bit lacking on this track for me.
Lost my usual position at the start when Tim passed on the inside. Later on the first lap Elizier dived by too with a bit of contact.
Unfortunatly my pace was not like it should have been accoding to my practice stints, so Anthony could also apply some pressure and when he was alongside me on one turn, I've decided to let him go because I was scared of the sync-issues.
With normal pace I should have been able to stay near to Tim for the pitstop, but there were already around 5 secs between us and that stayed about the same when we came out again.

Second stint started with a bit of traffic and therefore Marko coming close too fast already. Atleast my pace was a bit better now, but still not where it should have been.
When Tim had his collision in front of me, I just saw a pile of smoke right on the last turn, so I slowed down enough to figure out where his car was standing, but with this slowing down, Marko went past me on the s/f straight.

There was a lot more in it with a good drive on this strategy, but instead it ended like a 2 stopper would have done for me anyway, except for Tim's incident which was very unfortunate for him.

q: 4th / r: 4th

See you guys next time, should be a good one

David Turnbull · Oct 26, 2012

qualifying - 2nd, went over the white lines at turn 5? for a slight cut, apologies

race - 1st

started decent enough, stayed away fromt he guys behind but reik managed a better start and would have led the race but for a small moment at turn 1, i managed to get past with marko and we stayed there until the first pits, when i came out on lap 19 reik was literally on my tail, we had a great few laps where i had to defend hard and reik attacked very fairly, was excellent racing, i managed to open a small gap to reik so that i didnt have to defend at every corner, the one stopping guys where getting closer now, at the 2nd pit reik managed to pass me for 3rd place, i managed to stay with him until we caught up with the one stoppers, we managed to get past them and it was me and reik within 1-3 seconds for a few laps until reik made a mistake at the hairpin and i managed to get past and pull away, i was nervously looking at the amount of laps left and knowing that reik would be comign at me hard i just tried to be as smooth as possible, at the end reik was 1.4 seconds behind, very close race with reik all the way from start to finish, first win of the season for me and only the 2nd overall with f1 cars so im pleased about it, although slightly marred by an incident with tim that i hadnt even thought was an incident, sorry again for that.

grats everyone who finished, cya at abu dahbi

Peter Marshall · Oct 27, 2012

Congratulations David, Reik and Marko.

...and too all who participated.

My race lasted only about 6 seconds. It's rare for me to not finish a race. Most importantly, I did not adversely affect anyone else's race.

I watched the race from the garage which is also a rare experience. There were two points that made me wonder, however:

- Anthony braking the tow of Eliezer every lap down the start finish straight. I am under the impression this move has been outlawed now for many seasons? See Nico's comments post Monza this season...

- Tim's track re-entry over the invisble bump on the final corner resulting in a spin 180 with oncoming traffic [after the David Vs Tim incident]. Personally, I thought this was a bit careless and unsafe.

B.S.T. ends this month, so the next races start an hour latter for me, Anthony and Tim. Perhaps Vincenzo, Bob L. and others may also need to check the start times.

Thank you all. I will be very uncompetitive again at Abu Dhabi this season although I will not cut the corners, chicanes or run wide... I have reserved a spot on the final row of the grid.

Tim McIver · Oct 27, 2012

Qual (P6) - My lap felt pretty smooth but I wasn't disappointed when I saw the time, and even more disappointed when I saw most of my rivals a tenth or two ahead (okay not Reik!).

Race (P5) - Starting from 6th, like Dino I felt like the 1 stopper was my only hope. I forgot my own golden rule. NEVER do a 1 stopper. It's a bad bad idea. I was just worried that other people would, in fact I was certain Marko would, the word in the pits was that he was very quick on 90L fuel. Spending the whole stint behind a 1 stopper would kill me. So I fuel up.

Weirdly, on 90L I got a great start and came out of T1 in 4th. It only took a lap or two for me to realise that top 3 were on 2 stoppers and I was going to have a clear track to make it work, though at that point I wished I was on a 2 stopper too.

From there my strategy worked out fairly smoothly. Dino was never far behind, and I was watching the gaps to the front 3. It was clear from early on that Dino and I were going to be slower overall but maybe we could hold an advantage when everyone was done with their stops.

That's how it turned out. After all the stops were said and done, I was in the lead, Dino 5 seconds back and the 3 quick guys bearing down fast. I hoped in a Monaco style we might be able to hold them off, I particularly hoped Dino would come out in front of them as well, but Reik and David managed to come out of their 2nd stops ahead of him.

When they got to me it was only a matter of time. Reik made a simple (but nice) move stick into T3. David got by (no need to repeat here) and I left the track. I thought I was re-entering the track safely but the curb made a fool of me and turned me round, leaving me in the middle of the track. At that point I had to decide whether to drive off the track on either side or stay still or get out of the way. I ended up turning the car around and trying to maintain a predictable line right in the middle of the track. As it turned out this was a good idea as Marko And Dino each chose a different side of me. I was past on both side and moved back to 5th.

From there I made it home safely. Without the incident I think I could have held off Dino and finished 4th, but there is no doubt David would have got me very soon and I more than likely Marko too. In the end 5th was pretty much where I deserved to be.

Big congratulations to David for his first win of the season. Congrats too to Reik and Marko. Thanks as always to Gunter for the mod, Racedepartment for the home, Nico for the heritage and continued patience and to Daniel for wonderful weather.

Looking forward to hitting the middle east.

Tim.

Nicolas Rouge · Oct 27, 2012

Q : 11th
PB as well as my first Q lap

R : 8th
This track was new for me and I only had a few hours of practice on it. I opted for a 1 stopper since I was not very faster when trying 2 stopper strategy.
My pace was good after all, and I only made one mistake towards the end when chased by Anthony. Good battle with other pilots, and a bit of luck at the end to finish 8th and not 10th.
I won't be there next race, so cu at Watkins.