Season 8 Race 8 BAHRAIN Race Report

[Valerio Vinassa]

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

a race of shame for me I had big problem about frame video or connection dont know was really hard drive this evening when I put a gear in out of turn the sound of engine is delayed before turn frame problems in every lap .I stayed on track for see if something changed along race in good or bad but nothing is happened same lag.This is the reason because before the race I joined more time the server was tried change sometime in video setting .

Congrats guys Reik Tim David and all the Band
Thanks PrestoGP for event

 

[Peter Marshall]

Congratulations Reik, Tim, David and to all

Q 11th. I am a little disappointed with my lap time, but..
.
R 6th! From the start of the race up until lap 42 I was chasing Valter, the old fox , and with Nico in hot pursuit. 1st stint was tight with Valter pitting ahead of me.

2nd stint I had "one chance" to pass Valter but over cooked it - out-braking myself into Turn one. Valter pitted a lap earlier than me and I came out of the lane behind Nico on lap 30. A little confusion in the braking zone saw Nico "play it safe" and I retook the position behind Eliezer.

Soon after [4 , 5 laps or so..] I was chasing Valter and again with Nico very close in tow. Lap 42 and my fortunes changed as I moved up two places to be ahead of both Anthony and Valter.

Finally, I managed with effort to be the last driver on the [lead lap and] final lap [always satisfying to do all laps]; Reik looming large in my very small mirrors.

Thank you all. Very tight racing to the end Valter, Nico and Anthony. Thank you gents!
It was very cool; lots of entertaining fun to be so close together for nearly the entire race.

Onward to Europe then... I'll pack an umbrella in case

 

[Andy Paries]

Grats Reik, Tim and David.

Q : P7, good.
R : P10, bad.
That pretty much sums it up !
Hope next race will be better, 'cause this one sucked !
Cu next race.

 

[Bob Luneski]

Practice: Well I gave it a shot, but my eye just would not cooperate. It would tear up badly within a half a lap and I could not see. A greater danger to safety than normal

Q, R: Withdraw

Onward to Barcelona with clear vision AND new brakes!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

The results are posted, I will make my report later Replays are availeble on mydrive

 

[David Turnbull]

qual- 2nd

was very happy to be second after quite a bad lap, the first part of it i missed every apex but found some time in the last part.

race - 3rd

decent start but was back in 5th behind marko by the end of the first turn or two, from there i followed him hopeing for a mistake but it didnt come so i ended up making a small one myself and dropped back a bit, i pit one lap early to try undercut marko and for some reason it worked and by the time he had his own pit i was 3 seconds in front, i managed to make the gap grow to about 5 seconds, at this point i noticed anthony ahead and i was clawing back 1-2 seconds per lap on him, at the small straight mid lap he was about 400 yards in front then suddenly he disappeared, i paniced thinking he would appear right in front of me so i took it easy through the next few corners, he didnt reappear in front of me but did in front of marko i noticed on xd that marko had changed to a dnf so that was the end of my excitement and his race, from there it was a lonely race just taking it easy to bring home 3rd place.

great race all, unlucky marko it couldve ended up really close between us. grats reik and tim.

cya barca

 

[Valter Ostman]

Congratulations Reik, Tim and David!

Q: 9th using Reiks Q setup, no adjustments at all, except fuel set to 9L.

R: 8th.
Used softs all around and starting with 62 liters. Two stops for 52L and softs. The race setup was Reik’s Q with some retard engineering done to it. The chassis/suspension settings was not changed at all. This is the perfect setup. I'm usually not this competitive. Far from it.

The first lap went pretty well. After the race had settled I followed Anthony and had Peter and Nicolai trailing. Peter was very fast in first half of the stint and lost a bit when the tires degraded, you could say he had a Mercedes setup from 2011. In the first stint there were only small mistakes in the little midfield train and no serious overtaking attempts.

Lap15. Pitstop. Peter and Nicolai is close behind when we go in. Our locomotive for the whole first stint, Anthony, chugs on towards a one stopper. Out on the track again Eliezer is in front of me, and behind Peter + Nicolai chase on. I’m already sweating a lot. Peter makes an attempt. I'm lucky and get more traction in the exit. I manage to get a little 3 second gap to Peter but on lap 28 I slide off in T11 and he is right behind again. It’s very close, he could have tried a second time and got me in T1 but waited, a wise man.

Lap29. Pitstop. Peter + Nicolai takes one more lap. Eliezer, Sean and Kurt are in for fuel, tires and air-filters. I guess Eliezer has some problem fitting the filter and I pass him going out.

Lap31. I spot Anthony on start-finish straight. Can it be seven seconds or something separating us? Eliezer is close behind.

Lap32. The train is together again, The engine Anthony, me, Eliezer, Peter, Nicolai and Andy, all within striking range.
Anthony’s tires goes off towards the end and I’m caught between him and Peter. I know Anthony has low downforce and I’m thinking of braking early and light to get past him, or Peter with his straight line speed will get us both. The overtaking move in T1 wasn't very successful. We hook wheels and Anthony goes off. I steer left and follow him for safety and to give him the place in front. Peter goes by, waving a thanks. In retrospect, I am ambivalent. Should I have waited. No, I would still lose my place. But I am very ashamed of my clumsy overtaking attempt of course. Sorry Anthony.

Thanks all for a superb race experience. Especially you guys in the train set. This is the first race in almost eight seasons without any driving on my own. I love it.

I like Circuit de Catalunya very much. See you there

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Qualify (10th): Made some small mistakes, but all in all I was happy with my lap that gave me10th. The fact that I qualified to an even start position (right side of the track) I was not happy about, because I learned from the practice start that I had problems orienting myself from that side of the track.

Race (9th):
Stint 1: super soft/ soft, 73 liters of fuel
I had a good start and passed several cars in the first turns and was soon 7th. I was not comfortable being that high up, because I had no confidence in my pace, and in that very slow left hander I braked too late and was down to 9th I think.

Soon the race had settled and I was the last car in a long string of cars (Anthony, Valter, Peter, Andy and Eliezer?). Through the whole first stint I was within 2 seconds of Peter, but I was not able to get close enough for any slip stream effect. It felt like I had to push very hard to keep the pace of the rest, kind of like was a 10th slower per lap and needed to compensate for that. I had a bit more fuel than the rest, so this might be the main reason.

I pitted after 15 laps, hoping to overtake some of the guys as I was only filling 45 liters. However, I managed to miss my spot and lost 3 sec or so.

Stint 2: super soft/ soft, 45 liters of fuel
Leaving the pits I saw Peter comming behind me (in the pit lane) with much higher speed than me, but it looked like he didn't want to chance it and settled behind me. At the same time I suddenly saw Eliezer close in my mirrors as well, got a bit confused and missed my "leaving the pits from the end of the pits braking spot" and both got past me.

I'm havign troubble remembering all the details from my race. I think second stint was very much alike the first stint, I was behind Peter but was not capable of closing up on him. Again I had to rely on having quicker pit stop.

Stint 3: super soft/ soft, 45 liters of fuel
Much like the first two stints, chasing Peter, but not fast enough to challenge him.

It was a great race, it is so much fun to race when the cars around you don't make major mistakes, so the battle can continue for the duration of the race. This is when pit stops and those things become interesting Congrats to Reik and rest of podium and all finishers. I feel sorry for Marko who got his race ended in a very unlucky way.

 

[Anthony Ishak]

Q : 12th is another confirmation that superpole is a bit too much on my lazy morning brain..

R : 7th..
From this far back on the grid - I decided to go on 1 stop strategy, i loaded the car with 94 litters fuel , softs on and geared with Reiks latest Q setup that proved once again to be another fantastic setup , i only had to drop the rear wing from 16 to 15 to get that pointy front..

The start went well and i passed couple of cars after T1, then I passed Nicolai when he went wide down the tricky turns 7 or 8 I guess, now in P8 with Valter right behind me , Nico then Peter, Kurt .. The gap to Vince in front of me was slowly increasing with each lap , I pushed hard to build a gap to Valter behind me but he was putting solid laps and stayed within 1-2 sec , even closer for most of the first stint with Peter and Nico very close behind..

Now lap 16 , now in P2 when everyone pitted except for Marko, my friend Reik exited behind me and by end of lap 16 he was right on my gearbox exiting last turn , he was on green rubber while i was on almost cooked one, my fight was not with him so the wise thing to do was to let the Maclaren go so I do not lose much time to get my strategy works , in return i secure the setup for next race for not holding him up . Tim passed me on lap 20 , now in P3 on lap 22 and David T when the game for no reason minimized , luckily David missed me but the game came back at the wrong time when the unlucky Marko was right there and he crashed... I can’t believe this happened again, i am running game booster, updated windows and steam before the race but still !!!! ....

I pitted end of lap 22, I came in a bit too hot and missed my spot and lost few minutes, softs again and 80 litres and exited in P11..

Lap 31 and now in P6 with Valter 4s behind me followed by Mega, Peter and Nico, and by lap 39 my tires were cooked, Valter sensed an opportunity, he pressed harder, closed the gap and start looking for that opportunity to pass . Those last few laps were the toughest but the most fun of the whole race, with me on worn tires trying to stay on track while defending Valter, Valter trying to find a gap to pass me while defending Peter, Peter pressing even harder with ambition to pass both of us while Nico last in the pack pushing and trying to close the gap to the pack and here we go on lap 42 I defend once on the main strait Valter find the gap and goes for it but slightly deeper on brake , we both run wide and Peter moved on to 6th .( it reminds me of some action from Bahrain real f1 race )


It was a great race and great battle with so much fun till the end, thank you guys for the fun and looking forwards for some more action next race, it still feel bad for Marko who stayed in the pit instead of being on track enjoying the fun with us , sos sorry once again Marko ..

Grats toReik , Tim and David ..
CU at Barca ..

 

[Marko Vuori]

Congratulations to Reik, Tim and David!

I was using Reik´s setup as those seem to suit me well

Q: P4 (1:28.421) decent lap

R: Retirement.

My race tactics was as follows:

Stint 1: 16 Laps with 60L of fuel and soft compound
Stint 2: 16 Laps with 60L of fuel and soft compound
Stint 3: 12 Laps with 45L of fuel and supersoft compound

In the preparation for the race I had noticed that soft and supersoft compounds lasted surprisingly many laps at Bahrain. So, I based the whole tactics on taking easy and avoiding mistakes in the two first stints and having a late charge with short pit stop and supersofts. It´s a pity I never got that far in the race to be able to benefit from the good job I think I had done for half of the race.

I had ok start. Tim got past me, but David had some moments in the first corner and I managed to overtake him. After that there was (again ) a battle with David for P4 for a couple of laps, but I managed to keep my position. Tim (4 secs in front of me) and David (4 secs behind me) pitted on lap 14 and Reik on lap 15 after which I took the lead for one lap. I pitted on lap 16 and got back in P6 right behind David. I knew it was essential to keep close to David and knowing my tactics, save tyres a little bit so that they could last all the laps they were supposed to. On lap 22 I had a high speed collision with Anthony´s car that had turned to invisible a couple of seconds earlier. I lost my right front wheel, my car spinned 180 degrees and that was the end of my race. At the time of the accident David was around 6 seconds in front of me and Tim around 14 seconds in front. We will never know what impact a shorter pit stop and supersoft compound (which I had tested to give almost 1 second advantage a lap over softs in short stints) had made for the end of the race, but it had definitely been fun to see...

Thanks once again to RaceDepartment, Presto GP, Nicolai and all the drivers!

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

Grats to Reik, Tim and David and finishers!
Q 3rd
R 4th softs 58/58/58
I had ok start and 1st few laps but made 3 mistakes in 1 lap dropping to about 7th i think then had a hard race by the fact i kept making mistakes lol. I think about 10 in the end to many to remember. Best part of race was racing with Eliezer middle and Vincenzo at end really good racing was impossible to pass i only got by at end with small mistake by Vincezo
Unlucky for Marko

Thanks RD nico racers cyas Barca!