SEASON 14 RACE 4 - (re)MELBOURNE-RACE REPORT

[Valerio Vinassa]

....green green green.....

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

Q: back
R: 9th
Im sweat and happy,
in first stint I met @Mark Breslin and April it was a long chase until half race,then when I leave the box I met again @Mark Breslin for two time but in second time I was on no rubber front left 13% so weak defence and Mark pass April was at 5/6sec so I tried to managed the second stint for save the tires this help me for stay in front at April that in last lap was just just behind me.

Congratulations Sean Dino David and all us

cu at Monaco

 

[Nicolas Delamare]

So, 1st time with a wheel, and it has been a hard one.

Qualifying: 11th (I think, already forgotten !), 3 seconds at least behind the pole seater...

Race: I run a little more than half the way to the checkered flag !

The contact with O'Reilly at T4 send me to the back after a good start: rear-left suspension damaged, impossible to go fast on quick corners (especially T10 the fast left-handed), so I spun at T10 at lap 1, 2 and 3, after understanding the issue I left the throttle in it...and made life hard for David O'Reilly (at this time I didn't know he was the man who've touched me at first lap ).

Many spuns for me tonight (about 10) here and there sorry for blue flag when the McLaren passed me I wasn't scared about that but I spun...and lost the front wing...37 seconds for repair immediately...ok race is almost finish !

So I decided to be a bit more agressive and immediately spun at T1 ! Few minutes later I DNFed, because result wouldn't have been there, and I didn't want to make life harder than that for leaders of the race, who was in a intense battle.

 

[Mark Breslin]

The race was both GOOD and BAD!!
Bad, that I received damage to the front left suspension on the 1st lap resulting in me having to drive the car with my steering wheel at the 10 o clock position down the straight!! GOOD that even at the back of the pack I stuck it out learning to drive the car again marvelling at RF2's physics! BAD that with the damage I had, required me to pit twice because the front left tyre wore away while the other 3 tyres were still at 80%..!!!
BAD that having pitted the first time for 35secs for tyres and the repair, only to find that the car was still the same!! (Shame on RF2..)
Good that not deciding to call it a night I had some good racing moments with both @April Dillon & @Valerio Vinassa .
Thx to all, 'til next time...

 

[David Turnbull]

Qualifying - 1st

PB by miles, was shocked to see it myself.

Race - 3rd

Started decent but Sean put his car where I wanted to be so had to give way at turn 1, from there I set about staying close until I made a mistake and hit the wall dropping me back to 8th place and with unknown to me suspension damage, I managed to make up the places and time very quickly and was putting in some good laps untill I came across Peter, I think he made a small mistake, I had to take avoiding action and ended up with my nose to the wall ARGHH , so after messing around trying to find reverse (my shifter ) I set on my way, again picking up time and place's

around lap 16/17 I noticed Sean pit so I immediatly brought up the pit menu, I could see that it said I had rear suspension damage which I hadnt felt at all so I quickly aborted the pit, fumbled with buttons for a lap until I managed to turn off the repair and went in the next lap. When I arrived for my pit I noticed Dino was in the box before me and it was hard to turn into mine, I overshot the box and had to reverse to find the red box (It wasn't going to be my night at all) so I come out back in 6th place behind Artyom and Peter again, I managed to get past Artyom with some help when lapping someone and then past Peter later too which put me into 3rd, Fairly happy with 3rd although I think it could have been much much better without all the troubles.

Grats Sean and Dino and all who stuck it out, Thanks for turning up and cya at Monaco

 

[Dino Paolini]

Q: Not a good session as every lap had a different bad sector in it, so never really got a good lap together. Would have loved to get p2 which was the maximum, but wasn't happening this way.

R: Practice starts already showed that I had a problem by having someone in front of me before t1 meaning that I either have to give a lot of room to the inside and lose p3 or having a huge chance of getting hit and losing much more.

Took the first option and proceeded the race mostly following Artyom. Tried to pass him a couple of times, mostly at turn2. Managed to get past after a while, unfortunatly after a replay analysis, with an incident for which I'm sorry for.

Took my pitstop at the same time as a couple of guys which came in right after me. Stood a bit longer in my pitbox as there was a chance that the next guy had to turn in right before me and that's exactly what happened. It was David who had the spot very close to me. Thank god this worked out^^

Second stint was rather normal going, except for someone standing in the middle of the racing line at one of the narrowest places of the track. I was lucky that I could cut the grass/sand to avoid this one.

Towards the end of the race I tried to figure out a way to pass Sean into t2, but I just coudn't find any way to take turn1 somewhat normaly in any way or form when I just had any dirty air affecting my car. It was either akwardly crawling through that turn or go straight.
Tons of pace was still in there at the end, but coudn't really use it so had to settle for p2 here.

Result was nice but race was a bit bland, but that's Melbourne.
Grid was a bit small for some reason, not that i should complain wit Monaco coming up Oo
Congratulations to podium and finishers, see you guys next time

 

[Peter Decker]

Q: 5th
Managed to put in a decent first lap among two 2-lap runs. I timed a last 1-lap just seconds before session ended to utilize all the rubber that seem to build really fast through those 10 minutes?! I got disturbed right after start of that attempt by the delta-time disappeared in T1 into last lap when session time was up! Small mistakes and still got much closer to Arty, ~15 thousands or something

R: 5th
Stable start. Managed to hold position and get a small cushion behind from Mr. Floeck @MOOOOOOOOOSCHT (you really should change that name Martin ) when I managed to stay in Dino's slip. As usual I was fast in the first laps at least. I lacked just a couple of tenths to Dino to get DRS and lost him after some laps. David had made up for his mistake on lap 1 and came rushing behind in T3. My slide-mistake in following T4 when he had to avoid into wall was due to me looking more for him in my mirrors than on the turn I still am not comfortable to the rf2 mirrors even after adjusting their zoom and angles. Sorry David, I had a bit of lack-of-sleep-bad-focus-moment together with the low res. of the triple screens together with me being afraid of you (a bit, at times)

Lap 15: Arty and Dino ~2.5 secs in front kissed in T3 and Arty became last in our triplet. While Dino set off to chase Sean in P1, I tried to defend and keep an eye on Arty when I eventually built a gap of some secs. Behind him, David came blazing.

So, I had Arty and Dave behind for some laps before pits. Distance was 1-2 secs down so tried tactic to pit a little early lap 17 for defense under-cut which worked, the other idea of saving tyres at the same time didn't work as good tho - in 3rd with 15 mins left and sliding on the limits, I wanted a safety car finish ASAP. That didn't come, Dave squeezed by due to adrenaline-related wheel spin and shortly afterwards pretty much the same with Arty.

This turned out to be an exciting one! Well deserved 3rd for David - I felt causing part of your troublesome evening. Very tight pace-fight with Arty which I didn't think I'd manage Fun to not be out-performed by such a massive amount of seconds to the whole podium for once in rf2! Grats to Sean and Dino, and all who participated. I can imagine some were not that into a too serious 3rd practice-period for this track after the already 2 attempts. Lets aim for glorious days in Monte Carlo

 

[David Turnbull]

No need to be sorry Peter it happen's in racing

and don't be afraid, is it my reputation of having 256 incidents in Presto? If so I feel thats unfair, that was only the one race!

 

[MOOOOOOOOOSCHT]

Clean start, keeped P6

Was able to follow the top group behind Peter.
But in lap 3 i did too many errors,
so then there was a gap to Peter and David easily overtook me after his mistake.
Lap 4&5 i was behind David and the gap between us grows "slowly", what makes me happy
... now i know he had a damaged car
After 2nd problem of David i passed him, Peter was again in reach
But it seems Peter also got assimilated from some extraterrestrial force and become an alien,
so i was not able to follow him
David was hunting me again and closed up fast.
In lap 11 i kicked myself out, and crashed into the wall in front of David
Had to pit immediately because i lost front wing and damaged suspension.
Rest of race was hard to drive with the sagged suspension.
Related to this and the less time for training i`m happy with P7

Grats to the podium and all others and thx to the organizing team
Again a great event

Martin

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

Q:2nd lucky. I manage I mess up 1st laps and last attempt just enough
R: 1st More luck and made the stints with the most vibrations from flat spots I've ever experienced

Starts was good was able to just get enough side by side to take best line into t1 and into t1 I didn't really have to defend so though job done but big lock up fr lol. Next couple turns I thought jesus race over with these vibes but Davids mistake gave me a little breathing room to settle down.
I was still able to drive pretty good pace and make gap bigger to Artyom early in stint. I was checking the gaps for stop and I seen that the earlier stop could work into my favour so decided I was going to stop early and get in clean air. This also worked out just as Dino got passed Artyom, gap was around 4/5 secs.
So made my stop but mistake lock up to fast side on lol said about 9 secs for stop im like nooooo so then waiting for it to go as time reach 9 and car didn't move confused I still had foot on clutch lol another waste 3 or 4 secs in replay looks even longer lol. So thought lead was easy lost to Dino but the pace with new tires for the extra laps Dino stayed out allowed me to gain enough to have about 3 sec lead when Dino exited pits, I think if Dino had pitted lap after me he would have been in lead easily.
Also about in early part of Dino close behind 2nd stint I locked up front 2 tires big and when I thought the vibes from 1st stint lock up was bad this was worse by this time I had gave up looking at the wear% because it was making me drive worse.
Lucky for me I was able to just keep it on road and with no mistakes till the end making sure good exit last turn t1 and fast chicane my priority, with it being difficult to pass it was enough in the end.

Slightly soaked after race and next morning sore arms means a good night racing

Thanks everyone and Grats to Dino and Davids recovery drive and everyone who made it !

Cyas in the hollowed streets of Monaco