Race #5, Turkey: Post-Race Discussion

[David Dominguez]

Feel free to discuss the race in this thread, as long as it is within the forum rules.

 

[Tim Brook]

Disco'd in qualifying and couldnt get back in. I got back in in Warmup and disco'd on the grid. Pity because the car felt pretty good around here.

Congrats to the podium

 

[Sami Pesari]

meh..
Qualifying i was 6tenths off pb so couldnt make it to top 10
Race: start was good but then after 10 laps or so i made alot mistakes for some unknown reason and bit later spun so that costed alot cause i was 0 stopping and couldnt catch people who just got infront of me from pits

 

[Joona Lappaenen]

First of all congratulations to Mark for a great race, you deserved it! For myself, I was off my Q-pace today and only did a 25.1 which gave me P17, race started hectic as I almost got pushed to a wall in T1 but saved it through the grass and was able to take 5 positions through the lap. Race was okay, I had problems with the tyres in my first stint and I was slipping a little too much - which made a few corners hard and slow for me. As the race went along the tyres started to work much better and my speed was quite competitive. Unfortunatily as I was pitting I hit a wall and damaged my suspension and had to have a 19 sec pitstop which cost me atleast 2 positions today. After the pits I was in clean air and drove as fast as I could, catching up on the cars in front of me. Unfortunatily the race was a few laps too short for me as I ended up a couple of secs behind the cars in front of me ending with a P13. All in all I´m happy with the pace I was able to have especially during my second stint. I´m sure I´ll have a chance at breaking top10 one of these races in the near future, which I didn´t think would be possible a while back..

 

[Ben Phillips]

Q1 massivly slow... On my final run i was over2 tenths up but got all sideways out of last corner... Luckily i got thru to q2 on a 24.6.
Q2 didnt do the best lap i could of as i did yet another mistake in sector 1 so was 3 tenths off there.
Race start i think from p5?
Got a good start and got infront of kalamees into turn 1, later i over took juhani then andreas so i was p2 for a long time... This time my pitstops were good and i came out in p2. Mark Aalberts was too strong today! Also my topspeed cost me p2 as i was defensless on the straights! Epic battles with Andreas Nilsson and Juhani Alhman.

 

[Benjamin Chong]

Q1 was very poor from me as I just can't put all my sectors together. Then again even if I could it would be a longshot to get into top 10. All SL cars were way off pace today. P17

Race. I had a good start leaping two cars and was in the middle of the track. I braked slightly too late with the cold tyres, locked up and slid off. Got back on track and was P13. I was thinking hm, not bad. Then I lost it under acceleration and fell back to where I started 16,17. The tyres were cold and I didn't do enough to warm them up during the formation.

Had a brief fight with Danny Roberts then he pulled away. Around lap 15 Philipp Puschke had a spin and rejoined in front of me. From then on I had to battle with him but I just can't get pass him. And when I did, he came back on my in the last corners after the straight. This went on for some time till pitstop time. Just when I thought I overtook him, he dove right into the pits. It was perfect for him. I ran 1 lap longer than Puschke and tried to jump him. My entry to the pits was all good but then I screwed up with the exit. I was on 3rd gear and the car got away like a snail. Came out at the back of Puschke and the battled continued. Took a while for me to get back to his tail and again after so many tries I just can't get pass. The battle allowed Danny Roberts close in on us and eventually he got passed me. It soon became a 3 way battle for 11th place. After Danny got passed me I lost some momentum and took a few laps to get behind Danny. At first it was difficult to close in on Robert as he was in Puschke's slipstream. We switched positions a couple of times till I got a lucky break when Danny slide off right at the end. I tried to do 1 last push to pass Puschke but I messed up the exit before the long straight on the final lap and couldn't mount any attack. Almost put it in the wall in the final corner in the last lap.. haha

I had a lot of fun. Congrats to all.

 

[Petar Brljak]

Q1: Horrible... traffic on every lap... 1 crash on the outlap and I could do a 24:1-24:2 for sure. So P12(11 when Brook disconnected)

The start was ok... i got away with it on the outside and already side by side with Puoti through turns 4-5-6. Then out of turn 8 I was pretty close and i didn't pay enough attention on the metres mark... braked a little too late and hit Puoti in the back, he was going wide trying to set a move on the car in front and that surprised me and just lost my FW and had some damage.

The pit lasted 12 seconds, luckily not too long. I was hoping I could get close to P10 at the end... was on a charge... passed 3-4 cars and then the battle with Olivier. I was trying to squeeze on the inside for turn 12, he gave me just enough room... but then i don't know what happened, his car just went sideways and dragged me into the wall, he continued like nothing happened... looked like lag, and i had a trashed car again, 49 seconds in the pits and loss of any hope for getting close to top 10.

I had to do about 30 laps on my tyres, understeer of the damage and just nothing much I could do anymore. Just went to bring the car home and score those 10 points.

See you in Spain

 

[Ivar Kalamees]

Q1 - I got a good lap in. Was going for 23.8 but lost time on S3

Q2 - Fine lap , almost a PB but felt I could have gone 0.2-0.3 faster in S1

Race - Lost a place to Phillips on T1 and was stuck behind Aero guys. I'm never too brave to make an overtake. I guess that has been why I've finished all my races with 0 damage and 0 spins. Anyway. Whole 1st stint I was behind Linden who was stuck behind those Aero's. We could have almost matched Mark's pace. Nearly at the end of 1st stint Ahlman made a mistake fighting with Linden and we got past. Soon we were stuck behind Phillips and he pitted 1 lap before us. At the start of 2nd stint I was quite slow but picked up the pace after few laps and somewhere in the middle of the stint Linden overtook Phillips. After few laps I too got past and started to pull away from him. That was the first time I really could drive laps out of slipstream and in my own pace. I matched Linden's and Aalbert's pace untill the end.

 

[Mark Aalberts]

Finaly a race where everything felt togheter. Mayby not the fastes on a q lap but race was strong as usual, knew what laptime i had to do to do a pole lap and that was enough this time just had to conect a good lap togheter ofcourse.

Then race it was important to get a good start and make a good gap to 2nd in the first lap, this actualy happend managed to make almost a 1 sec gap when entering the straights so p2 was not able to get a slipstream. After that it was just building up a gap within the limits of the car, could have gone a little bit faster in terms of pace but that was not nescerey. No mistakes, finaly a trouble free race, pole lap and win without mistakes so yeah im happy.

 

[Ben Phillips]

Very good race from you mark, Its what you needed to restore your confidence
Very dominating... From p2 i had no answer to your laptimes in race (was doing similar in practise but not when it counted).
Very well done and im happy for you mate