Formula Sim Racing Winter Series De Wit wins incident packed Round 3 at Hungary

David O'Reilly

A bad quali means I can go forwards in the race.

Sunday 22nd February.
In an incident packed race De Wit defends hard to steal the win, Guillermo Prieto takes second and Jim Parisis third. Kuba Brzezinski suffers technical failure and ends P8.


Seasoned FSR World Championship drivers and new faces alike took to the grid as 18 drivers in the Formula Renault 3.5 fought it out for round three.
Qualifying was dominated again by the Polish speedster Kuba Brzezinski. Title rival Patrick De Wit accompanied him on the front row and Guillermo Prieto was third.


At the start De Wit attacked hard, knowing that later with dirty air and a tight track overtaking would not be straight forward. Despite a lot of pressure and slight contact at turn one Kuba held his nerve and first place.
There was a big lap one incident in Sector two as Norbert Leitner cannoned off into the guard rail. The ensuing me-lee caught several other drivers causing some delay and some slight damage. Meanwhile Brzezinski showed his full fuel pace on cold tyres and by lap four had built a 3 second gap to second place. Positions second to fourth were in a tight group controlled by De Wit.

There was talk in some quarters of Hungary not providing opportunities to overtake. There were a few drivers who hadn't read that script.
In fact a driver being somewhat out of position created the excitement of the next phase as further back, FSR World Championship driver Blair Disley from ninth on the grid started to get comfortable in the unfamiliar Formula Renault 3.5 and began delivering consistent and quick laps. This meant that soon he was on the chasing pack including Pashalis Gergis, Georg, Winter and Alari Algpeus. On lap 16 Disley delivered his first overtake as he put Winter under a lot of pressure at the end of sector three and managed a clean pass into the pit straight as Winter suffered from a big over-steer moment.

The story of the middle of the race was things staying quite stable except Disley chasing down his next target. It was lap 18 he closed on Algpeus and in sequence that started at Turn twelve and ended at Turn three on the next lap the job was done. It seems passing was quite do-able if you a) had the pace and b) set the move up nicely.

The shock of the race occurred, also the flavour and tempo for the final 8 laps was set when from the lead Brzezinski suffered a technical failure of a few seconds duration at the start of lap 20 causing him to leave the track. He went from 3.5 sec ahead to .6 sec behind as De Wit drove by.

Once again a fast driver slightly out of position created some drama. The previously orderly group with De Wit at the front was now resembling a compressed spring with Kuba at the back of it. Unknown to Brzezinski, De Wit was having to manage fuel. Had he been aware he might have played it a little cooler. There were eight laps to go. Brzezinski attacked hard like he had two laps to go. First with a DRS assisted move the very next time around on lap 21 into Turn one.

De Wit tested the rules to the limit and some might say overstepped them with a late swerve in the braking area to cover the inside. It resulted in contact but with no apparent damage. Next time around Brzezinski attacked and managed a Ricciardo-like move on the outside of Turn three gaining significant overlap, this became the inside of Turn four as he held position alongside De Wit. De Wit went for the apex and contact again ensued.

The spring was compressing and on lap 24 the top four were separated by just 1.4 seconds.

The final lap ended with yet more drama as Brzezinski left the track at T1 and his hasty rejoin ended in tears for both him and Sander Kallas.
The chequered flag fell with the top three separated by an amazing .884 sec.
Further down the order David Cook the, last of the runners on the lead lap, scored his first points with ninth place as did Martin Bulgin with tenth and the cherished final points paying position.


Finishing Order
  1. Patrick De Wit
  2. Guillermo Prieto
  3. Jim Parisis
  4. Alari Agpeus
  5. Blair Disley
  6. Sander Kallas
  7. Georg Winter
  8. Kuba Brzezinski
  9. David Cook
  10. Martin Bulgin
  11. David O'Reilly
Post race podium interviews.

Winner Interview - Patrick De Wit.

How did the preparations, qualifying and the race evolve for you?

I started too late with Q testing but as the session was progressing was getting more confident But it was just not good enough for pole

Well in Q I expected where I should be although I struggled in q in S3 where I was a bit too careful and lost some time to pole-man Kuba, but in the end the gap was around 0.150 so it was OK to me,

About the race I was very surprised in lap 18 that I was gifted the lead. Kuba,s car had some sort of electrical failure and the car came back to life somehow and he was right behind me.


Were you surprised when Kuba suddenly slowed?

Well his car had some sort of gremlins indeed and yes I was very surprised as I got the lead on a silver plate:)

What was the story with fuel?

Well I was coasting as I got scared my team was too aggressive with the fuel amounted on my car in the end I had around 0.050 left in the car I was very conservative the last 5 laps

How do you feel your defence went once Kuba was on the attack once more?

About the 1st attack into turn 1 well I made a very late defensive move although still legal
and he had simply no time to react any more I guess I don,t know but we both could continue,the 2nd attack came 2 laps later and he pulled to the outside into turn 2 and I gave him room and then we went into turn 3 side by side me a mere in front and there was simply no more room for 2 cars there and unfortunate he spun off and I could continue without any drama it was just 1 of those incidents that can happen in racing and we are going to see more of this in future I am sure.

Do you like this track?

Hungary is for sure not one of my favourites because there is simply no room for overtaking.
It was different maybe yesterday but I find the track pretty boring.


Its Istanbul in two weeks. What are your plans and expectations for Turkey.

Well the goal is set now 2 victories 1 3rd place the aim now is the Winter series title.
Its still not over as I have a 18 point lead over Kuba and 19 points to Jim.
So the battle is still on nothing is for certain yet,,,

Turkey is a track I like also a track where I won my only WC victory with Faster Than Speed back in 2007!! I like Turkey way more then Hungary and actually I am glad that track is done now:
It should suit me better there.

Anything else you would like to say.

Really want to thank the guys that make the Broadcast available also the commentators!
They are doing a great job willing to spend time to do this sort of things so thank you guys!
Also the Winter series is a great series to drive in hope next year there are more competitors!



Second place Interview-Guillermo (Will) Prieto

Have you raced any of the other guys before?

No, I’ve never raced against all this great drivers. I did my first race in Monza last season in Ace, so literally I did four races here in FSR and none of them against WC drivers.

How did qualifying and the race evolve for you?

Well, I knew Kuba and Patrick were unbeatable in Qualifying, so I tried to set a fast enough lap to be in second row at least. Being in front of Jim Parisis was very important in such a curvy track, so I was happy with Third.

Then in the race I started good enough to not lose position and even have a go on Patrick in Turn two. but I stayed in third. Basically, the first 20 laps consisted in trying to keep the tyres and keep Jim behind. In lap 20 or so, Kuba lost the lead and Patrick and him started to fight each other, that was perfect for both Jim and I. When Kuba spun, suddenly I had a chance in winning the race so I went for it, but the tyres were in bad shape and overtaking in Hungary is pretty difficult. So the last two laps I was "struggling like a pig" (as Barrichello ) so second was fine to me, lot of pressure from Jim trying to overtake me in Turn one1, but finally I managed to stay in second place.

How did your result compare with expectations?

That was pretty above any expectations I could have. After crashing and have suspension damage in Magny Cours and destroy the car in Barcelone, I wanted just to finish the race and get some points, the podium was the final target but I would never expected to be in second place.

Is it a track you like?

Not especially, more like a "kartodrome" than a track but I take profit of it by blocking Parisis who I think was slightly faster than me.

Third place Interview- Jim Parisis

How did you see the race from your perspective?

The race was pretty fun, a bit boring in the first stages but at the end the battle was on.
Quali went very good considering I only tested 2-3 hours in total as a preparation for the weekend.

How did your result compare with expectations?

As I said, preparation was limited so my expectations were a top 5 finish at best as many other drivers were faster than me at free practice. In the race now my pace wasn't as bad as I expected so yeah I'm glad with myself.

Is it a track you like?


The track is fine yeah, the combination of mod-track was the most arcade thing I have ever driven in rF2 though.


For a full results page click here

http://gpcos.formula-simracing.net/results.php?eventid=730&leagueid=18&menu=season&menuoption=2



For seasons standings click here

http://gpcos.formula-simracing.net/league.php?leagueid=18&type=introduction&menu=season



To enter for the final race click here

http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/fsr-winter-series-2015-announced-enter-now.99508/
 

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