SEASON 16 RACE 3 - GERMAN GP - RACE REPORTS

[Valerio Vinassa]

Great battles for all

 

[Hedlund]

Without any doubt one of the worst race weekends I have ever had in my sim racing career....

QUALI
I managed to set a new pb during quali, happy with that. 1:22.0 something, was enough for 3rd on the grid, I was really pleased with that, as I've had some problems in quali earlier.

RACE 1
I went off in T1 in all three practice starts, and in the real race I had David on the inside so decided to take it really easy - and still went off!! (something is seriously wrong with that corner). But just slightly off.. kept 3rd. Then I was hit from behind in the hairpin and got suspension damage and lost like 5 positions. Next lap someone else hit me in the exactly same corner, both times cars were coming from miles behind, braking way, way, waay too late.. Cmon guys! Well, I continued with even worse damage but the car was surprisingly drivable and I managed to fight my way back to 4th when I had contact with someone and lost a few positions again. Fought my way back again and followed Vinassa for a couple of laps before crashing into the wall and ending my race when the rear sudden lost all grip in the final sector.

RACE 2
My race was ruined after T1 when a car that went off came back to track and took Martin with him and I could not avoid them... When the dust had settled I realised I had a car on top of me! And I couldn't go anywhere. Eventually I got away, but with really heavy damage and the wheel at least 45 degrees of center. Pit crew did not want to repair it so I tried to continue.. But when the "30 minutes left" message came up I just lost my motivation and retired. The suspension damage made my front left wear x3 faster than normal so I would have needed 2 pitstops.

I guess most of us have to experience races like these at some point, but oh my....

 

[Stephen Miller]

Qualifying: Didn't, arrived late, had crash to desktop. when i came back in session had already started.

1rst Race: Started at the back and just stayed on track as best I could until the end. No biggies that I recall. I think I finished 11 or 12?

2nd Race:
lap?: rubbed with some one beside that I couldn't see I think?
lap 4: Drifted into Valerio Vanessa who was the outside at 2nd corner. Gave him the place back on lap 5.
lap 5: Nudged Anton Valle from behind when he had one of those checkup spins in corner two. Both carried on

My replay screwed up after that.
lap?: Had an off out of corner one.Broken wing, that I fixed. I was refueled?
lap?: had a minor touch with Artyom, I think, both carried on.
lap?: pitted for tires again as left front was down to one red bar and I didn't want to chance a blowout. I was refueled again?

Finished 12th

I don't think I had any other issues?

Apologies to all I may have touched, not intentional. I tried to stay out of faster car's way.

Stephen

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

Race1 start back,normal,finished 7th less normal.After the adrenalinic and fun green flag a lot of battles with guys around and a second part off race in battle with Johannes great fun and fair fight mate

Race2 a bit of natural displease . After the start until lap 4 I was in 4th but after T2 Tom lost car and a snake on track It was in front of me I tried to avoid him and I managed it no hit at least but braking hard lost car hit barriers and damage car now I am in 11th place. another contact at hairpin with Stephen Miller inside have to see replay manage and finished race 9th it seems

Congratulations to Martin,Artyom David Peter and all us.

PS only 2 words and I dont want to be schoolmarmish but is possible let pass someone when blue flag also in some bend/turn, you can drive a bit wide or out of line and let pass sure in safety place and this track have a bit of safety place.
I do it and the result is: lost time sometime the position but these are the rules

 

[Steve Combey]

Q. I believe I was last.

R1. I got off the line slow, and burnt the tyres up on opening laps with all the action going off, that was bad as I wanted to keep the tyres good for the end of the stint. Didn't have any big incidents except I hit the back of Rikard at the hairpin, sorry about that Rikard. At the time I was stunned, on the replay I see I was a bit optimistic on the brakes, thankully Rikard was OK I think and didn't lose out, but I spun and lost a lot of places. And I locked the tyres up big time trying to stop, the tyres were horrible. Finished in 10th in the end.

R2 I had the pleasure of starting on P1, lost 2 places off the start, and then some more but it went OK, I didn't want to get knocked about too much and I didn't. I did some minor wheel banging with David which cost him a few places, and Nicolas which cost me a few, and ended up in 8th. After stop I was much happier and kept the tyres nice which I hadn't had all night before now, I got the pace up and keeping the tyres good it was looking good I felt I would finish at least 8th if I did not spin or anything silly. I would have been quite happy with that, as I was clearly on the wrong downforce package. Then sudden power loss! I was out the race with engine failure! It wasn't overheating or abused, it just died on me. Bit of a bummer that was. Retired from 8th to finish 13th.

Well I was gambling a bit with the medium df and hit a deuce It actually wasn't so bad for a few reasons in the race situation, it helped in many situations but cost me maybe only .5 sec a lap on average, I prefer the way the car feels on medium and it has some plus points but it was a mistake for sure.

Not a good haul of points then, but a good night of racing Thanks all see you next time.

 

[Blauweke]

After a rather poor performance in the funrace, hitting other cars in both race, i just aimed to have a clean race and try to keep up with the pack.
In qualifiying, i did better than i expected, set my personal best and qualified nicely in the middle of the pack.
The practice starts went rather good, i even moved up quite a few spots in one of them, i only rear ended someone slightly in the first corner once.

Then, race one.
I had an alright run in the first sector, moving up to p7, but then the hairpin came.
I slightly misgudged my braking point, no big deal, i thought. Then i realized the car infront of me was slowing down much quicker then i was, i did the best i could to avoid him, still hit him.
At this point i was sideways , with all my wheels locked up, heading for Rikard, i guess the internet would call this "the moment i knew i ****ed up".
Hit Rikard, as well as Vlad, couldn't believe i messed it up again.
Managed to continue, but finished dead last and ruined 3 other people's races. next race better i guess.

Race two.
There's not alot to talk about here, got a slightly below average start, francisco on my left heading into turn 1, didn't pay special attention the the braking, as i did in the first race, where i executed that corner nicely.
But i braked late again, taking fransico with me as i went wide, tried to regain control, but ended up in the middle of the track, where martin couldn't avoid me aswell as Rikard, who i actually ended up on top of somehow.
Decided to retire after about 20 minutes, when my rear suspension was in bad shape and i was nearly 2 laps behind the driver in front of me.

I understand that this is totally unacceptable behavior for PrestoGP. I came in here, done two races and litterally ruined someone else's race every time.
At this point, all i can do is say sorry, and promise to drive alot safer in the next race, wich i will definitely do.
Spa is a track i know well. I'll make sure i'm prepared, do long stints with lots of fuel, etc. Whatever needs to be done to drive a decent race.

Lastly i'd like to sincerely apologize to @Hedlund @arytom aslamazyan @MOOOOOOOOOSCHT @Vlad Dogar @Anton Valle Gonzalez
i'll do better nex time.

 

[Blauweke]

Race1 start back,normal,finished 7th less normal.After the adrenalinic and fun green flag a lot of battles with guys around and a second part off race in battle with Johannes great fun and fair fight mate

Race2 a bit of natural displease . After the start until lap 4 I was in 4th but after T2 Tom lost car and a snake on track It was in front of me I tried to avoid him and I managed it no hit at least but braking hard lost car hit barriers and damage car now I am in 11th place. another contact at hairpin with Stephen Miller inside have to see replay manage and finished race 9th it seems

Congratulations to Martin,Artyom David Peter and all us.

PS only 2 words and I dont want to be schoolmarmish but is possible let pass someone when blue flag also in some bend/turn, you can drive a bit wide or out of line and let pass sure in safety place and this track have a bit of safety place.
I do it and the result is: lost time sometime the position but these are the rules

First of all, sorry about that.
It's not like i don't want to let you past because i'm scared to lose time, at that point i was hopelessly in last place anyway. Whenever i see a bunch of cars behind that i need to let past i kinda panic a bit, i tried to make it through t2 and t3 as fast as possible to let you guys past on the straight, but i lost it in t3. stupid thing that happened. sorry

 

[David Turnbull]

Qualifying - 2nd

Happy with that, Martin had shown in practise that he was always that bit ahead of me in pace here but he pulled out a great lap to take pole.

Race 1 - 1st

Started decent, held P2 for most of the race waiting for Martin to either slip up or run out of fuel, he eventually made a small mistake out of T1 and I was able to get DRS and make a good pass at the hairpin and held on to take the win.

Race 2 - 3rd

Where to start........ well the start I suppose, so the lights turned green and the guy in front of me forgot to start so had to do some cat like reactions to avoid, into T1 and there was some accidents going on and again my feline side appeared and I managed to avoid being touched, from there I made up some great ground on the leaders and by the end of lap 1 I was up in 5th place. As things started calming down I got stuck behind Steve who was on the medium downforce package, this made things near impossible, I couldnt get close to pass on a straight even with DRS and he was always putting his car in the right places into the corners, I got a bit frustrated and ended up off track trying too hard. Eventually I managed to get past then threw it all away with a silly half spin on the kerb at T1, this ruined my tyres and I wondered wether to pit very early due to the flatspots and rattling of my G25 lol, I kept going though and thankfully I did as I managed to pick up the places again and had some great racing with Nic Rouge who looks like hes never been away I then set about getting after the leaders.

When I pitted on lap 18 I was some 17 seconds behind Artyom, 8 seconds behind 2nd place and 6 behind 3rd, I tried so hard to catch up thinking I had a chance of a podium place and it panned out for me in the end, on the last lap I even had designs on Peters second place but he hung in there until the end.

Grats Martin, Artyom and Peter for the podium places tonight, Grats everyone who took part and finished, really was some great racing on show tonight

We need to try be a bit more carefull on track though, theres still quite a few avoidable incidents happening in the races, please try and learn from any mistakes and lets not repeat any of them next time.

See you all at Spa

 

[jego]

Q: It went alright, I was off my personal best tho.

R1: The start was fine, had some wheel spin but got away decently. There was a big crash Infront of me in T1 if I recall correctly, I managed to stay clear from it. Had a position swap with Valerio but managed to take P6 back.

R2: Here I messed up the start, I was irritated by the reversed grid, I forgot that the Q grid was used. I pressed start when the lights just went on and almost jumped the start. After T3 I had lost 4 positions I think. Had a few battles with someone but after a few laps it was just about maintaining the gap to valerio behind me as the person Infront of me seemed to do the same and I could not get closer. Had a few moments where my concentration faded, I was lucky however and nothing major happened.

After all I am happy with the result as I did not have much time to practice this track, and had a few nice battles

Thanks and can't wait for spa!

 

[David Turnbull]

the site wont let me put all videos into 1 post so heres my onboards from both races

 

[Vlad Dogar]

Well... For me also it was definitely one of the worst race days I had online.

Qual:
I`ve done a lot of laps during the break, but managing a P4 in my second quali in Presto was a real success. A top 5 finish at least in Race 1 was possible.

Race 1:
I managed to stay on the road in T1, and maintained P4 until the hairpin. I was starting to turn in when I saw Tom in the mirrors, and tried to avoid the contact, but it was not possible. I had to wait for a lot of cars to pass, and I ended up 16th. Before the right kink after the hairpin, a slow car was on the line, and everybody was avoiding, but managed to stay P16.
From here on my mindset was just to push and get back around P4-P5. I managed to overtake some cars, got up to P13, when Anton Valle(P11) went of at T1. Considering my mindset, I wanted to keep it floored, so I could overtake P12 (I think it was April, not sure) into T2 or T4. I assumed that Anton`s car would keep going to the right, to the wall (usually that is the line a car that went off in turn one takes) so I kept my car to the left. Unfortunately Anton`s car came back, and by that time I had no way of avoiding the wreck... Ended both our races.
I tried to salvage some points and went to the pits for repairs, but the car was still undriveable and I decided to retire.

Race 2:
I managed to forget to start... turned right to help David`s feline instincts, but still managed to end up P13 because of the crash in T1. By lap 3 I was P11, but I lost it in the first turn, and fell back to P14. After that, and considering my first race result, I was always pushing, which meant a big error was possible every time. I did the rest of my stint with huge vibrations due to the flatspots gained in the spin, but got up to P10. By that time my tyres were gone, and the only solution was to pit (it was about lap 13-14). I fell down to P12, behind Francisco, because he din an undercut. My pace was good (even Perez`s engineer liked it), but after 2 laps or so I did it again in turn one, and at that point I just gave up...

 

[April Dillon]

Race 1:
Good fun, lots of action along the way, and some very dumb mistakes on my part. I think the best one was while side by side with @Valerio Vinassa I managed to drive off the track while looking at the MFD in the bottom right corner... Oops.

Race 2:
So that's what the race lead feels like... Definitely makes me feel better about how I am in qualifying.

Knowing about @Steve Combey 's MDF setup, my #1 priority was to get ahead immediately and stay there as long as possible, making the most of the clean air. Just because I knew he was on a slow setup, but it'd take a hell of a lunge to get past him. I managed that before turning into T1, a pleasant surprise! And after that, I guess Steve just got caught up trying to hold off people behind him while I just carried on.

The later stages of the race put me in a battle with @Nicolas Rouge and @Anton Valle Gonzalez which was a lot of fun. I think Anton's tires were finished by this point, but good on you for still putting up a fight. Even if it did mean lots of track extending!

All in all, good fun.

 

[Anton Valle Gonzalez]

Race1: Disaster. I´ve lost the car in lap 4 turn 1 and ruined Vlad´s race. Sorry mate.
Race 2: Disaster too. this time i´ve lost the car in lap 1. Fortunately I only hit my own car , so no one more was injured. After that and another kick my car was very damaged so i went to pit in lap 6-7. I had to do a 30 laps stint with a damaged car (my steering wheel was twisted about 30º).
finish tenth was a nice surprise to my.
see you all in Spa.

 

[Cosimo]

Qualification

Lost the Qualify again for this crash bug at the end of the session. This is the second time now. April suggested to disable replay saving. I did that, and I haven't experienced crashes any more. Thanks April and fingers crossed.

Race 1

Started from the near-end of the grid. By lap 2 I was already 11th or so. Had contact from behind in the hairpin and a weird situation arose, my car was "stuck" with (I suppose) the other car behind me and I couldn't rejoin the race for a few seconds. Managed to do it in the end, without damage but lost 3-4 positions.
On lap 3 or 4 I clipped a deadly curb approaching S3, spun and crashed into the opposite wall. Lost front wing, so had to stop to replace it. Pretty much everyone was gone by then, but I kept at it, and in the end finished 13th. Raced closed to a few others, but without big battles. Still great fun.

Race 2

Longer races is where I do best. Take it slow and consistent and try to stay out of trouble. This was not one of these races. The beginning of the race was interesting. I was right behind David when he slalomed around a slow start by another driver. By lap 2 I had already climbed 7-8 positions, racing in 9th or so, with Steve and Johannes ahead of me.

Then, don't remember how, but by myself entirely, I had some suspension and rear wing damage, with the wheel stuck at 30 degrees right. Tried to drive the car for a lap, decided I was riskying too much and pitted to repair.
When it's time to repair, I always avoid touching the keyboard, because of the "Press SPACE to skip damage repair" message. Of course, I didn't press space, but the game decided to not repair my damaged suspension, even if the HUD was showing no damage anymore. Had 90+ seconds for rear wing replacement anyway. Tried pitting again to fix the suspension damage, with the same result.

Didn't give up though. Regained some confidence in the car, even with the tilted wheel and brought it home for a 11th place, which surprisingly gives me the 5th position in the championship.
I'm not fast, so for me it's all about consistency, even if I managed to screw up badly this time

 

[MOOOOOOOOOSCHT]

Q: Was quite happy with P1, didn`t expect that
I only had one good try, because of traffic and my own mistakes.

R1: Great start with leading almost of the race,
but at the end David snatched my win away, so P2
Because the front left tire degraded fast I tried to push not too hard.
But that was the wrong decision, because David didn`t care and came closer and closer,
finally he overtook me in the DRS section

R2: Start was again quite good, but after turn 1 a car crossed right in front of me the track and I wasn`t able to avoid the crash. For this reason my suspension was slightly twisted and I had a light flat spot.
Then I tried to close up, overdone it, and lost car in almost every next laps.
Finally the car was total damaged, so I canceled.

Grats to podiums
Cyas in Spa
Martin

 

[Nicolas Rouge]

Starting at 4:00 my battle with David. So much fun