SEASON 12 Race 3 SEPANG RACE REPORT

[Valerio Vinassa]

mmmmm will be wet race?

 

[Bob Miley]

Set up for wet that never came. So disappointed.

 

[Guus]

I had a very busy week and only started practicing about 1.5h before the race. I was pleasantly suprised with my 2nd in qualy, but I knew that that was probably luck and I expected to be nowhere near David, Reik and Sean in race pace. So I decided to go for a 3 stop, because I expected there to be lots of action and fun if I did
And indeed I had some nice battles, especially with David. I made a lot of little mistakes all the time, my 21 20 wings probably had something to do with that, my car tried to kill me all the time. In the end I was catching up to Jim rapidly, but when driving behind Kennett I was wondering whether his red car was his skin or whether I missed it. While focusing on his car trying to figure it out, I missed a corner and lost a lot of time Finished 4th in the end, could have been better but Im very happy with the eventful race that I had. Its about fun after all
Grats Reik David and Jim and see you all next time. I hope to be better prepared next week

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Dry like my mouth now...

EDIT: Race fuel 60/75/55. Long second stop and stint so i didn't have to think about tires after start. Costed me one position, perhaps, but good tactic.

Really good race. I love my new drivingstyle, so much more consistent. And those brakedistances are on par with the rest of you, that makes hell of a lot of difference. For a moment, i was faster than some and had to pass them... Weird feeling. Now i know that i can take anyone of you in 1 vs 1 run down to hairpin: we still come out in the previous order but i can take the apex in confidence, that's really a big step.

Qualy: did a banker lap, just optimal, nothing too flashy or risky. Around one tenth from pb, i think. One twitch in T4, had to bounce over curbs a bit, no delta advantage, no losses either.. Rest of the lap with 95% attack, avoiding riks and thinking ahead. I had probably the best slot in the track, 1/3 lap to closest cars fron and behind, David came close when i had to do some burnout to warm my rear but he spun later, didn't have to think about him (sorry, i would've not yeilded unless i did major mistake.. glad it didn't come to that, sorry you had to spin for that to happen.. )

The top slots were a real thriller, i think it was 0.052 and 0.19 in the end separating the top three.. Really great stuff to watch.

Race: Had good confidence, if i just keep the car straight under braking, have motivation to keep that place, damn, if you can pass me so easy anymore.. Even had to slow down not to overtake Jim in the final laps (it did slow me down a bit too much, i was hunting Aprils position on track, didn't make a difference in the end)... I don't even need the racingline to do it, of course then apex suffers but it gives one so much more options.. First sector was strong, i had totally different idea than the rest how to launch out from T2.. Everyone made it smooth, i just pivoted on apex and floored it, car straight.. Same in T14, taking it in two parts, hugging T13 as long as possible, straighten the car and brake LATE, then coast with 2nd and again, floor it before apex... Just wonderful to drive like that... Griplevels could be measured in meters, same speed on each braking, same marks then adjust with grip and fuel load. I could push and save tires at the same time, or just take all the life from them.. Straight line deceleration, low speed turn and straight line acceleration evens out the tire load, my left front had marginally more wear. The Kimi way of driving, is it then Kimi-Fu?

Had great battles, too bad i started attacking April a lap too late.. I was counting on more mistakes. .Those last lap lounges, i had it over the limit in each turn.. Rear wheel spun on each acceleration zone. Really on the raged edge but 1.5s only srhunk to 0.1.... Huge risks but i had 25 to the next so...

 

[Alberto Casado]

I was also a bit surprised not a single drop! But I guess surprising weather is the point of it.

I did not practice much this one, and I hate Sepang in every game I've ever played. Those autobahn-wide turns where I cannot find a good reference are my nemesis.

Thus, Q dead last. For race I went for a potential 1-stopper on the basis that if rain came I would have more flexibility to adapt. Front wear was more than I expected and I suffered on the last laps of first stint. After my stop I decided to drive smooth and preserve tyre, I knew I had little chance of catching up with anybody and if my tyres were shot by then it would not make any sense. I got Kennet out of his second stop right in front, but could not keep up. I could jump Kobe since he lost some time right before his stop.

From there, It was just a matter of keeping it tidy to manage the gap with Kobe and his fresher tyres. Very near the end, I got another position from Bob who lost it in the last turn.

A bit boring race, but better results than I expected. And only +1 lap from the winner. I hope next one I do a bit better and fight on the track.

 

[Kobe Claes]

2 spins in T11, totally my own fold, no incidents, glad to finish my first race Had a small fight with Bob, was really plesant See you guys next time.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Oh, one small detail.. I took the first cone out from last turn, saw some lockups on the next lap Honest mistake, was hunting Valerio, i was sure he was one stopper again..

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Results are out and server replay soon uploaded to mydrive
http://prestogp.com/index.php?view=standings&season=12&league=1

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

another fun race good battles in first laps with Kennett a nice and hard wheel to wheel then a long fight with Richard very nice mate, at lap 19 did a pit when I leave pits I met April nice overtakes was fun, after this a bit alone race and finish at 15th place.

Congratulations Reik David and Jim and all participants

Thanks PrestoGP,RD and Daniel the forecast man

 

[David Turnbull]

qualifying - 4th

had a spin at t5 on my first lap so had to just hope to get a decent enough lap in on my 2nd try, good enough for 4th but a pretty rubbish lap.

race - 2nd

started well but was in 4th come t3, at t8 sean had guus run into the back of him taking both out of the game at that point, i managed to slip through past both and tried to catch reik, not long after guus was pressuring me and i thought at the time that he was very fast, most of this first stint was between 2-4 seconds behind reik and it couldve been closer if i didnt have to defend guus nearly every lap, after the pits it was same again, very close to reik but having to defend guus, at the last stops there was only 1.7 seconds seperating me and reik but yet again i had to defend guus for a lot of laps, half way through this stint i saw guus pit for a 3rd time and it annoyed me slightly that it couldve been alot closer with reik but not for having to fight a lighter car for 3/4 of the race, same happened last race with peters 3 stop, again i got held up when it couldve been alot better outcome for me, no worries though reiks pace and consistancy made him good value for the win and thoroughly deserved lights to flag victory


great racing all as usual, hope bahrain is as good fun, cya all in the desert (where its never rained since 1972 so lets hope it doesnt start now)

 

[Richard Hill]

Really good race had fun and done better than I thought.
Quali went well sort of as I thought I would go for a 2 lap stint for the first time in this format. First times lap was a banker but the second I made an error in t 5-6 tried to make up for lost time but spun exiting t7-8 at quite high speed.

The race went well I thought that it would rain so I opted to have more of a wet setup and knew that it would compromise me at the start as I had more understeer ready for the wet.
The initial start was good but was at the back I think going into t3 maybe had a few cars behind I not see the replay yet. So I tyres to push as hard as I could to make up lost ground and was in p15/16 battling jan, vale and Kenner had a real great fight with you guys really enjoyable. My pace dropped off abit after that and me and vale carried on fighting. I was going for a one stopper to try and reduce time spent in the pit lane but my front tyres were dead towards my pitstop so I couldn't keep up. I apologise to Vincenzo when he was lapping me or I was letting him past as my car just snapped on me my mistake completely.
After my pitstop the car felt really good but I lost a lot of time with my spin so I took everything out of my tyres still waiting for the rain as I was going to dive straight to the pits and change but it didn't come and I took too much out my tyres but thought I would control my pace to the end as I couldn't catch Kurt no more. Then on the final lap Kurt slowed dramatically looked like fuel was too low or tyres were shot not sure.
Although the rain didn't come (nico has already explained which I'm not bothered that it is dry as I prefer it, just thought I would try something different as I normally suck in the wet) I finished better than I thought and had fun that's all that matters.
Looking forward the Bahrain forgot that it's next week
See you all soon

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Fortunately Bahrain is very similar track, same setup should be ok with some tweaks.

 

[Jim Hawley]

My race

Q, P5 reasonable lap, a PB wouldn't have put me any further up so cant complain

R, P3

Start went well, I tried to hang on to the back of the leaders for a while but alas I was too heavy, I had some battles with Tim into T1, great fun, also with Peter and Vinny along the way

Started with 93ltrs, pitted end of lap 18 and took on 88ltrs, finished with 1ltr! after much fuel saving, I didn't expect to have do the full 36 laps !

I was mostly managing fuel and tyres for the second stint!...zzzzz

Grats to Reik and all, Nico as usual

Jim

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

^^ No wonder you were in no hurry in the end, really had to resist my urge to unlap myself..

 

[David Turnbull]

Heres a video of my race, forgot to make one and thought id may as well it was a good race, hope you enjoy

 

[Valter Ostman]

Grats Reik David and Jim and all finishing pilotes!

One stop on L18 98/82 liters. Same setup again with less front wing and more rake. April's tables of downforce are interesting.

Q. 10th

R. 9th
The start was nice. I had the pleasure of driving wheel to wheel with both Kurt and Peter
On lap seven Julius gave me a couple of rounds that was very fun It ended when Julius was bumped off, right behind me, on lap 8.
On lap 12 Guus passed me easily, like he had a set of new supersoft fitted

Pitstop L18 in P5. Out again in P14.

Some racing against myself for a while, boring.
At last, on lap 24 Peter shows up and starts to attack. I lost my P7 to him on L26
I like one stoppers. It's the strategy where I can race some of the two stoppers again at the end of the race. Only downside is that they have more rubber left.
L29. Vincenzo overtakes me after a lap of close racing
L33. Sean takes my P9. I'm lucky at the end of this race, I'm in the middle of the action
L34. Julius and Nicolas are on my tail. Thanks for a good fight, I enjoyed it very much
Best race in a long time. I wasn't lapped

Thanks Nicolai. Daniel and David for arranging races. And thx all drivers.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

That video is awesome, that battle with Guus.. Man, everything this league represents is seen on those laps, ridiculously close and fair racing. Legendary laps.

 

[Peter Decker]

First off - sterling effort Reik! From what I've seen, such incredible stability and precision.

And thanks to Valter for the fun and fair wheel to wheel! We held some stable ground us all Swedes for a while

I went for 55 / 63 / 63 as a new experiment since last 3 stopper Went pretty good but I have other experiments scheduled so dont think Peter always will start light

The night before I had a report-deadline i.e. lack of sleep, too litte practice, was too upset after a bad quali, no rain came and what else. Due to lack of simultaneous capacity, I shut my XD off, didnt have no energy to check RTT or anything but just drove and focused on every single corner. Went better than expected - maybe a new strategy

The following sums up the last part.

See you at Bahrain!

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

I know some drivers that turn HUD to minimal to keep the information flow manageable. I do that on offline practice sometimes too, just drive and try to feel what is happening.

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

Q.3rd couple errors first lap just managed a 2nd with very slight mistakes.

R.8th 65 65 65

I got a ok start and was able to get into 2nd, after Gus ran into rear it was quite hard contact and had rear susp damage and it was slight tricky to put power on wasn't fully able to use higher wing as a advantage, gap to David and Reik was steadily increasing around .5/6 a lap probably because of this though I was still quite comfortable with pace to finish 3rd or 4th.
After stop and game hang up I lost a lot of time grid position and audio, which audio was definetly the worst. After checking rtt I was consistently doing 1m49/50secs after this from 47s and surprising just how hard it is to drive with no audio. I think it was some problem with NVidia, I haven't had a problem any other track, in practise I lost screens and regained a few times without loss of audio after just a few laps so I changed some settings and things id found on google to help and in further practise it never happened so thought id cured it until it happened in race lol.

In the end just glad to finished

Grats to Reik well done to David and really well done to Jim for completing the podium awesome drive

Thanks to RD, Nico and PrestoGP!

Cyas in Bahrain ! Hopefully its just as amazing race as f1 just had having just finished watching it