The Race is FINISHED! (I simulated the rest of the turns as Fred Owen is away and can't change his pace, and Liuzzi was "give all" all the way.)
SCHUMACHER WINS ON HIS FAVORITE TRACK
Results
- M. Schumacher ------------------------------ 10 laps
- P. di Resta ------------------------------------- +1.412s
- N. Heidfeld ------------------------------------- +8.341s
- N. Hulkenberg --------------------------------- +9.893s
- V. Petrov ---------------------------------------- +14.412s
- P. Maldonado --------------------------------- +15.872s
- N. Rosberg ------------------------------------ +19.652s
- A. Sutil ------------------------------------------ +1 lap
- F. Massa --------------------------------------- +1 lap
- V. Liuzzi ---------------------------------------- +1 lap
- M. Webber ------------------------------------ +1 lap
- S. Vettel ---------------------------------------- +1 lap
- J. Button -------------------------------------- +2 laps
- L. Hamilton ----------------------------------- +2 laps
- F. Alonso -------------------------------------- +2 laps
- A. Yoong -------------------------------------- +3 laps
- J. Wilson -------------------------------------- +3 laps
- K. Raikkonen -------------------------------- +4 laps
- C. Klien ---------------------------------------- +4 laps
DNF
- N. Karthikeyan ------------------------------ lap 5
Race Review
The final race of the season at Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps circuit provided an exciting show for the spectators as the battle for the victory lasted till the final meters. With his 5th place finish, Vitaly Petrov took the title while his biggest rival, and his team-mate, Nick Heidfeld came 3rd and became the runner-up of the championship. The final title contender Lewis Hamilton's race was destroyed by McLaren pit-wall and he finished 2 laps down in a humiliating fashion.
Pole-sitter Petrov took a bad start as he descended to 4th. Williams drivers were epic in their launch as they moved to first two spots. Heidfeld gained 3rd from 6th and showed that he is up to title fight seriously. Starting in top six, Red Bull drivers disappointed with their slow starts and merged into mid-field.
As the mid-field was total chaos and position swaps, the leading battle was between Nico Hulkenberg and Heidfeld at the end of the first lap.
Around the end of lap 2, Webber and Adrian Sutil was pulling behind from the mid-pack. Heidfeld had a solid lead over Hulkenberg and Pastor Maldonado while McLarens, Michael Schumacher and Paul di Resta chased them. Petrov was also losing ground against his title rivals in the 9th place.
After overtaking Heidfeld, Hulkenberg managed to stay in the lead until the end of lap 4th as he pitted along with Heidfeld. Their pitstop gave the lead to Jenson Button and to Schumacher on his tail. Red Bulls, Nico Rosberg and Vitantonio Liuzzi pitted at lap 4 too.
At the end of lap 5, Schumacher and di Resta headed into the pits. Heidfeld gained a good lead over Hulkenberg as Lotus pitcrew was faster than Williams' boys. While all of these were happening, McLaren pitwall made a terrible decision and opted not to pit their drivers. They managed to lead the race until their tyres got completely destroyed. Petrov also opted to stay out a little longer as he pitted on lap 7. This gave him tyre advantage in the final laps as he climbed back to 5th.
Mercedes pitcrew did a wonderful job and sent him out ahead of Hulkenberg and Heidfeld and this was probably the move which gave him the victory in the end. Red Bull drivers were making a great job in following Williams, Lotus, Force India and Mercedes drivers, but their unupgraded cars and early pitstops made things harder for them and they descended down gradually.
In lap 7, di Resta was leading the race while the 2nd place was in between Maldonado, Hulkenberg and Schumacher. But in the end of the lap, the Venezuelan took the 2nd spot and opened a gap.
In lap 8, Williams drivers began to lose momentum as Hulkenberg downed to 5th behind Heidfeld and Maldonado lost his place to Schumacher as the German came very close to the leader, di Resta.
In lap 9, Heidfeld increased his pace and joined to the battle for the victory. As the Williams duo was getting far behind, the battle was a 3-way between Heidfeld, Schumacher and di Resta.
Schumacher entered to the final lap with a good lead while di Resta and Heidfeld was wing-by-wing battling. But after the middle of the lap, di Resta rose up and caught Schumacher. Yet his moves were in vain, and the German legend won the race. Heidfeld finished on 3rd, evading the last minute attacks from Hulkenberg. Petrov managed to spoil his fresh tyres and overtook Maldonado for 5th.
Standings
Driver's Championship
- Vitaly Petrov - Lotus Renault ---------------------------------- 132
- Nick Heidfeld - Lotus Renault --------------------------------- 121
- Lewis Hamilton - McLaren Mercedes ---------------------- 101
- Nico Hulkenberg - Williams Renault ------------------------ 88
- Adrian Sutil - Force India Mercedes------------------------- 70
- Paul di Resta - Force India Mercedes --------------------- 66
- Jenson Button - McLaren Mercedes ----------------------- 62
- Michael Schumacher - Mercedes --------------------------- 61
- Pastor Maldonado - Williams Renault --------------------- 60
- Nico Rosberg - Mercedes -------------------------------------- 53
- Christian Klien - Jaguar Renault ----------------------------- 39
- Mark Webber - Red Bull Infinity ------------------------------ 38
- Sergio Perez - Sauber Ferrari -------------------------------- 24
- Narain Karthikeyan - HRT Asiatech ----------------------- 24
- Kimi Raikkonen - Jaguar Renault -------------------------- 23
- Fernando Alonso - Ferrari ------------------------------------- 18
- Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber Ferrari ------------------------- 16
- Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull Infinity ------------------------- 14
- Vitantonio Liuzzi - HRT Asiatech ---------------------------- 9
- Heikki Kovalainen - Renault ----------------------------------- 4
- Rubens Barrichello - Honda ----------------------------------- 2
- Alex Yoong - Minardi Ferrari ---------------------------------- 2
- Felipe Massa - Ferrari ------------------------------------------ 2
- Takuma Sato - Honda ------------------------------------------- 1
Constructor's Championship
- Lotus Renault ------------------------- 253
- McLaren Mercedes ----------------- 163
- Williams Renault -------------------- 148
- Force India Mercedes -------------- 136
- Mercedes ------------------------------- 114
- Jaguar Renault ------------------------ 62
- Red Bull Infinity ----------------------- 52
- Sauber Ferrari ------------------------- 40
- HRT Asiatech ------------------------- 33
- Ferrari ------------------------------------ 20
- Renault ----------------------------------- 4
- Honda ------------------------------------- 3
- Minardi Ferrari ------------------------- 2
THANKS to all members played this game. Congrats Sebastien, winning both titles is great! But let's not forget that Sasha, Marcel, Aidan, Manolis and Fred joined mid-season and things might have been at least a little bit closer if they had played from the beginning. That was a great experience, a forum-game which has complicated algorithms must be something new. I wish to do a 2nd version and it's nearly all complete. Planned features are changing weather conditions, hard/soft tyres, sponsors, different driver levels, more paces, easier calculation of turns for a faster advancement of the game.
Please give me feedback on this game and the 2nd version. I'm sure you all have great ideas.
