SEASON 14 RACE 1 MALAYSIA RACE REPORT

[Valerio Vinassa]

good race and big fun

 

[Jim Hawley]

Parked it after 21 laps....really not enjoying it...

Jim

Edit: Just to quantify my reasons for not being in any good form tonight...... I have had 1 day off work in 6 weeks!...I've had a flu like virus since last Friday!...and I'm absolutely exhausted!, add to that no time to practice, I literally started at 10 past 7 this evening hoping to find a setup that felt comfortable enough to race with fairly quickly...not so....I struggled to get to grips with the slow corners and the braking, after a while a lost the will to fight it and took a deep breath...parked it after T1

Live to fight another day...when life gets back to normal

 

[Martin Oconnor]

well I was sure we were racing in auslol but anyways.got a few laps under my belt in practice.the car felt ok and I was learning the track.think I started 14th
got an ok start had a few fights here and there.then from lap 5 I was getting shed loads mof lag ahhh jeeez not easy when your close to others on track but kept focused anyway.
was having a good old fight with skyring I think his name is but one min I was touching his rear wing kinda ghost like and the next he was far away so was very off putting.but on lap 10 I think I passed him.on the main straight I think but not sure as the lag was bad.
the next lap I lost connection...the only race that meant something and I loose connection,im utterly gutted.can I say thanks to david and the guys for a great league.cya on track

 

[Nicolas Delamare]

So disappointed...but anyway, great race for me !

Started from 8th place and managed to be 4th after the 1st lap ! Then reducing the distance from the 1-2-3 guys for eventually taking the lead, but at that moment I knew they will finish in front of me at the end, because they are better than me in the tire management ! And in the same pace than me, so...

So after half distance, I go to the pit for a 28 seconds pit stop (I find those very long for just 47L and 4 tires, what about you guys ?), and get out just behind Artyom, with who I delivered a great battle for the 3rd place: I even overtook him on the 1st corner but too gently left him too much room in T2 !
At that moment, the big sensation came in my hand (the impression to handle a gigantic gamepad, the sensation (good but bad for the concentration) to be on the car, waahh ) !

So after a little mistake, the work must be done another time: reducing the gap, take the sliptstream,etc, for another overtake before T1 that time but...but...not enough fuel !!
It's strange because I really thought my calculation was good, I even put 4 more liters to be safe !

So it's an 11th place rather than a podium...on my favorite track......it hurts my butt when I take a seat !!
But the game worked well that night, no issue at all for me, and for most of you I hope ! thanks to ISI server, thanks to PresoGP server, thanks to the 1st April for haven't been foolish with the game !

 

[Dino Paolini]

Q: Great q lap for once, even though I crashed at my first attempt. There was a lot of rubber at the end making one very fast sector possible to get pole.

R: Was going very smooth for a long time, even though I lost too much on the pistop. I'll have to look into that at some point trying to minimize that.
The incident in the end, ended all that even though I was going extra cautious during that time using the gap a bit.
Came in p2 in the end driving 2 laps without one of my wings.
Shame as I have a long streak now on league events not fully working out and it almost ended

Gz and thanks to David for a good race and providing a good motivation throughout the race to stay concentrated and all that.

 

[MOOOOOOOOOSCHT]

Grats to podium All in all a great race
After Q i was sure some guys where transformed back to aliens

With Q i was quite unhappy, i was not able to put a good time
10 min can be a very short time ...

In race i had some great fights with Peter and Sean,
and a great pursuit of Steeve at the beginning
Because of the bad luck of Steeve and Peter i inherit P5 ...

Thx to the organizing team, it was a great event

Martin

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

Q: I did my pb never happened during the seasons
R: really nice first part of race battles and chase but around 12th lap my left front wheel whispers to me "i need help" so after one or two lap I pitted with 4% on tire.When i leave the pit I was alone then I met Phil that was front me a bit of good fight with him then he pitted , I did 4 or 5 laps then pit me too, may be lap 22 ? this time get back on the track and <phil is 6 or 7sec front me I push hard for chatch him .Taken, but seems that him was on bad tires so after a few of fight i pass him,in this awkward situation I have to say a little sorry to Tim he did a bit of lap behind us but me and Phil was on hard fight ( we were having fun ) I saw the blue flag on my cockpit, I wait the better chance ( for all ) for let pass you ,
Tim had passed ,we resume the fight but after a bit of lap I saw in mirrors Phil was wide lost a bit him, many sec.for the car ahead so at 5mins to the end I wait him for do together and in battle last laps.

Congratulations David Dino Artyom and all us

 

[David Turnbull]

Qualifying - 2nd

Very happy with that even though I'm sure I could've went a lot faster at the end, I ended up trying too hard and spun on a very good lap.

Race - 1st

Started badly like usual with these car's, that's something I need to learn quickly, Peter passed me into turn 1 and I was in 3rd place, it wasn't long before I was passed by a rapid Nicolas Delamare and he was off into the distance, Peter was also very fast in the opening stage's but made 2 small error's and I managed to get past eventually, we had 2 incident's too which sort of spoiled our little fight but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. At this point I thought Nicolas would be the winner, Dino second and me 3rd (maybe) but something happened to Nicolas in his pit's? and by the time me and Dino had done our he was in 1st and me in 2nd 4 seconds behind, I pushed so hard to catch Dino and the closest I got was 2.8 second's, it looked like Dino was managing the gap somewhat so I was prepared to settle for 2nd and hope my tyre's kept me on track until the end. A few lap's to go I got a huge surprise to see Dino at the side of the track obviously having a huge incident when lapping Mark, I was actually gutted for Dino as I could just imagine how he felt at that time the last few lap's were just managing the tyre's as Dino dropped further back with his damage, In the end this was a great race for me, happy to stay so close to Dino all race, happy to get the win obviously, sorry for the couple of incidents and looking forward to the next race now.

Thank's all for sticking by us, hopefully that's our problem's done now and we move onward's and upward's this season. Grats to all who finished and to Dino and Artyom on the other podium place's, See you all at China

 

[Nicolas Delamare]

but something happened to Nicolas in his pit's

As I said I have scheduled 1 pit stop with 47L to add and of course all 4 tires to change, so the fuel reload took 21 seconds and the 4 tires change added 7 seconds to that, for a 28 seconds pit stop

I really want to know what time yours have taken guys ! It's too long, not realistic...god damn with dino's incident I could have been the winner, who knows...

 

[Peter Decker]

Tim had passed ,we resume the fight but after a bit of lap I saw in mirrors Phil was wide lost a bit him, many sec.for the car ahead so at 5mins to the end I wait him for do together and in battle last laps.

Super-Vale!

 

[Jason]

Race was ok, nice fight with @Martin Oconnor during the opening stint and was trying to stay with @April Dillon, Martin and I had a coming together about 15 mins in caused by lag and then he had a disconnect so I got my place back, I then saw April pit after about 20 mins so I knew she had committed to a 2 stop or a very brave long final stint so I decided to hang on in there and get past the half way point before I made my stop. I decided to pit after about 30-35 mins as I could see April start to close in quickly as my tyres were shot, After my stop I came out around 14 seconds behind but with fresh rubber so I chipped away at the lead but she then pitted around 40 mins mark giving me 10th place wooo!! I was pretty excited as a top ten was my goal. The last ten mins were pretty intense as my tyres started to get a bit worse for wear I could see April closing in quick, the gap came down to about 3 seconds I past 2 cars in the final 2 laps who obviously had issues so it was a nice P8 for me in my PrestoGP debut!

Some nice points on the table so bring on China!

 

[Steeve Fournier]

As I said I have scheduled 1 pit stop with 47L to add and of course all 4 tires to change, so the fuel reload took 21 seconds and the 4 tires change added 7 seconds to that, for a 28 seconds pit stop

I really want to know what time yours have taken guys ! It's too long, not realistic...god damn with dino's incident I could have been the winner, who knows...

8 sec Nicolas, + 5-6 waiting behind you Sorry for bumping you, i didn'T know what was going on.

 

[Steeve Fournier]

Q: 5th, 1:41:7xx Quite happy with the lap.

R: 6th
Had a normal start, i.e. losing 1 or 2 places as usual. Better safe than sorry they say Had a side-by-side run with Sean for few corners, was good fun. Then i settle there for 2-3 laps, until he Sean was involve on a fight with Artyum, leading him to a spin. Then i was chasing Artyum the the whole 1st stint, rarely close enough for DRS so no overtaking chances.

Pit with about 33 minutes left, found my box filled by Nicolas Delamare, i didn't understand what was going on, lost some 6 sec there. Found out Sean right in my Mirror when I exit. He was 9 sec behind before the stops.

Frustrated and a bit angry, i spun in T4 the 2nd lap after pit, Sean and Martin F. could pass. I catch back and overtook Martin, and many laps later i had catch back Peter as well. We went into a good fight until we touch and i spun again, guess where.... T4 , amazing. Peter's brake failure got me back his spot, finish about 2 sec from Martin. So even the last lap i had to push to give me a chance for 1 more spot. Entertaining race, i like that

Gratx David, Unlucky Dino, Artyum for podium.

Thanks David for hosting this!

 

[Peter Decker]

Very nice report Steeve! Good reading before vid and then no need for commentating details! Also good fun too see you and my Honda-McLaren a lot I will make some coverage about us too

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

Q: 6th I think ? Didn't have anytime to practise so weds was my first session not bad considering and felt ok with David's setup right away.

R:4th

Ok start lost a couple positions early on through t1 and t2 but just tried to settle in pace I had. A further small mistake cost me another 2 positions and thanks to Steeve for keeping me straight lol.

Later into 1st stint I noticed tires pretty worn and pace dropping so decided to pit early with around 35 min's remaining and this allowed me to catch up quite a bit and gain back couple positions and hold out till the end. I was also fortunate Nicolas run out of fuel to get 4th, which considering no practise I was very lucky. Some good fights through race with Martin, Peter, Steeve and Nicolas all at different times making it good fun.

Grats to David, Dino and Artyom

Cyas in China ! ill be better prepared

 

[Peter Decker]

Q: 3rd, a whopping last lap utilizing the super rubbered track. I wasn't even that perfect but had a super exit from the uphill left hairpin

R: 10th. Could have been 5th if not for 2 things:
1. Front left brake failure on 3rd last lap
2. What I thought was my inlap was really the last lap!

The starting laps were intense! I pushed 100% and tried to leave 5-10% to save the tyres... I was amazed at my pace and thought I had too little fuel or something 2nd was eventually lost to Delamare who was rocketing! Then 3rd to David who at least had to fight a bit but sadly after his pass, I had lost around 10% at several tyres and a baaaad wheel vibration. Got really distracted and lost pace.

The rest became a game in defense and struggle for grip. In Motec afterwards I saw what huge difference in tyre deg I had through T5-8. Lots of lessons learned!

Pitted early due to FL at ~8%. Then learned the importance of both taking care of new tyres as well as push them at the right places... I didn't succeed with the 100% push + 5-10% save-strategy in stint 2 either

After all had pitted, I tried to settle my pace but was tempted to push closer to Sean ~2 secs in front. We were evenly paced but I had some FL deg already. A one lap push got me much closer, as well did the FL to its reincarnation. I was also chased so couldn't risk pushing too hard.

The moment of "glory" was when Steeve knocked on the door! I eventually "won" that fight.

Last laps I also learnt some things about brakes... and finish a'la rF2...

Hope someone enjoys!: (in 13 minutes )

Congratulations go to all who have endured until this 1st race of this challenging first season with rF2, phew! Now we're on the right track, lets help each others out and keep this team moving forward!

Special thanks for David who has told he even dreams about how to get us running.