2011 was a so-so season for Gigabyte/Megabyte Gaming.....
Photo credits to Simon Adebisi
The team was founded back in May with Fred Owen and Petar Brljak as the two drivers with not massively high expectations for the season, for this review I decided the best method would to be to write about each race in detail from the point of each driver... Here goes !
Bahrain
The first race for the GBG team, due to the team manager being on holiday and the fact that it was Petar's first race in FSR, he didn't know about the allocation system and therefore started at the back of G2. Petar proceeded to fight his way through the field and took his first win in FSR on his debut!
Australia
This was going to prove a difficult week for almost all the teams, the preparation time was limited to one week and this didn't give enough time to create a good setup. Petar qualified for G1 and Fred, after having no testing time due to returning from holiday, qualified at the back of G2 after being disqualified in the qualifying session. The grid 1 race began with Petar immediately experiencing wheel issues, after a poor qualifying session he had a few battles with other cars and then some contact but ended the race in 14th... Fred's first race in FSR almost ended early after being hit in the formation lap by another driver... Then started in the pitlane and took a few positions and gained a few due to engine failures... 3 laps from the end he had engine failure while in fourth ...
Malaysia
Petar managed to get through to Q2 for the first time despite a bad setup... Possibly because his new wheel arrived. Throughout the race he fought in many battles and had one huge loss of time after another car spun him, he then fought through the field to arrive at the finish line in 7th.
China
Another bad setup again but again Petar managed Q2. Petar enjoyed many battles in the race, eventually got 6th, best race so far!
Turkey
After Fred didn't manage to qualify for this session... Petar had a very bad quali session, only managing 12th without a good lap. For the race he endured plenty of lag and due to this he had two crashes... After a tricky race with issues and a bad qualifying setup Petar could only manage 13th.
Spain
A good quali, had again many battles but made 2 stupid errors mistakes which cost me podium and maybe fight for the win....
Monaco
No drivers present at this event.
Canada
Fred failed to qualify for this race... Petar had great race pace but an incident with another car put him half lap down the field in lap 2 and into 23rd, then had to fight a lot and got P4 at the end, quite good in the end.
Silverstone
An poor race for the Gigabyte franchise, with both drivers being forced to retire after incidents... Danny achieved a great start and jumped five positions from 21[SUP]st[/SUP] to 16[SUP]th[/SUP] after the first corner but his good work was quickly undone as an Aero F1 driver slammed in his rear and Danny was forced wide in the turn 12. His car had sustained major damage and it almost impossible for him to remain in control, he therefore spun and was hit hard on the side... Petar’s race endured many incidents and he drove alone to the end of the race.
Germany
With Danny on holiday, Petar had probably best race pace in the field, but a start from the back of the grid and 2 other incidents stopped him from fighting for the win, Petar fought hard in many great battles, an enjoyable race for him!
Hungary
The team arrived with Petar as the purple driver, definitely fastest of all, inexplicable shifting problems caused many issues and in the end unfortunately caused the 1st and only retirement of the season for him... Danny started the race 16[SUP]th[/SUP] and passed two others into but he broke to late into a turn and hit another driver, losing his front wing in the process... he pitted quickly and after this stop he was fighting with the back of the pack. He made light work of four drivers in 10 laps but his teammate Rob Van Starkenburg was faster than him and after a short but sweet fight for 2 laps, Rob slightly nudged him going into turn 3 and passed him after that. Danny then proceeded to pass two more drivers and then was involved in a collision that put him and other drivers out of the race. Danny was in a battle with Herrero but at the same time being pursued by Tusting and Kalamees... Danny slowed down to avoid the two but then was hit behind by Kalamees which ended their races. Rob’s race began with a good debut qualifying session, arriving in 13[SUP]th[/SUP] which was even better than he had hoped for.
Rob had a decent launch but unfortunately lost one or two positions, after turn 3 Alberto de Juan made a fast move to the left bouncing him of the track into the barrier.
Rob cautiously drove to the pits with no front wing and with a large amount of suspension damage. After spending over 50 seconds in the pits he was able to set some consistent and decent pace, around 12[SUP]th[/SUP] fastest in the race. He then caught up with and managed to overtake some guys who were battling bravely for 13[SUP]th[/SUP], Rob thus un-lapped himself from them. Rob quickly closed the gap to his Megabyte Gaming teammate Danny van der Niet we had brave fight with some contact. He quickly disposed of him after two laps.... The gaps between other drivers were pretty big because he lost so much time after first lap incident and a subsequent pitstop. Unfortunately he spun into the barrier causing more suspension damage again. Thankfully the damage was survivable and Rob didn’t have to pit again and could coast to the finish. In the end i managed to finish 9th.
Belgium
Petar entered the weekend with great pace and a decent strategy but yet again a couple of stupid incidents stopped him from fighting for the victory... Belgium for danny, his race pace was not quick enough not the biggest problem... the biggest issue was the racing itself he started from the pitlane due to his incident last race... but the server went down and had a few connection issues and suddenly my fuel was empty after 1 lap... Quali for Rob went again very well for him and he made it into the top ten in only his second World Trophy race. He made 8th infront of some Ghostspeed drivers guys and his teammate Petar Brljak. Rob then had a nice launch off the line and then managing to keep my position. In the first two laps he was very slow because of some slight mistakes. He soon found himself with Petar Brljak right behind him. He was soon looking to let him pass without getting passed by more guys, this was because he was much faster than him in practise, and he was defending.
After Petar and Rob both got passed by Mo Selvarajah, Rob allowed Petar to come through. A bit later Mo made a mistake and was then in a Gigabyte sandwich! He managed to pass Petar straight away so Rob didn’t have a chance to make anything out of it. One lap later Rob had to defend against Caner Basol, he had far more top speed out of Eau Rouge and passed him round the outside.
Rob was right behind him and suddenly he experienced snap-oversteer, he attempted to correct it... but it was already too late. He careered off into the barrier ending what could have been a great race in lap 5.
Italy
Petar had little time for testing... When it came to the race he had slow pace and again 2 incidents with other drivers which prevented him from fighting for a victory. He finished in 10[SUP]th[/SUP] and it was in his view ‘a very bad race’. Rob’s quali was not so good for him; in practise he found out it would be hard to get inside the top 10. In the end he had achieved 12[SUP]th[/SUP] position infront of joona Leppeanen, Tjeerd Feddema and Caner Basol from Ghostpeed! “After my last retirement at Spa I was desperate to finish here.”
He had a bad start losing two positions but he managed to get them back in the first lap,
After someone spun off he was 11th. In the first corner of lap 2 Petar had contact with a Twister car and spun. This then promoted Rob to 10[SUP]th[/SUP] position, and then he had to hold off Joona. He spun right behind Rob, thus giving some free air. At lap 6 Petar was right behind Rob with Caner and they both got round him. “I was not planning for a stop in this race.” Now he had to just concentrate on decent laptimes after that. Due to Rob not stopping, the people who had stopped; they had fresher tires and Rob didn’t have the pace to hold them off. Soon after, at lap 35 he had to defend on Puschke.
In the fight he had the inside before the last corner, but he came back to Rob like Hamilton did at Spa this year.
Puschke and Rob made contact. He had no damage after contact so he could coast once again to the finish. In the end i was 8th. Due to some retirements...
Japan
Petar had very good race pace and showed this by performing his best ever in qualifying by obtaining 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] on the grid start. The race began with Eduard pulling away slowly and soon 1[SUP]st[/SUP] was out of sight... 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] should have been his but he made a silly mistake which cost him the 2nd step of the podium... He ended the race in 5[SUP]th[/SUP].
This race was very hard for Rob because of lag issues. A large amount of lag at the beginning and then it was gone for 5/6 laps.
But soon after these first few laps it was getting worse and throughout the race it was getting worse... Rob had a good start passing Ben Tusting at turn one, and later in the first sector winning one place because Mark Aalberts made a mistake.
So he was in 6[SUP]th[/SUP]... already between GT Omega Marcel vd Linden and Ben Tusting. Unfortunately Ben Tusting made a big mistake by missing his braking point before the last chicane and driving into me. Rob fell back to 11th position right behind Danny van der Niet. He managed to pass Danny at the end of the second lap, on the outside of the chicane. He knew he could get back to the top 7 so he pushed hard to close the gap to the guys in front of me.
For a couple of laps he had a fight with Sami Pesari, after he made a mistake at Spoon and Rob passed him. Back immediately he came back and passed Rob at the next straight because he had much more top speed than Rob. But Rob managed to pass him at the chicane.
After that Rob could start closing the gap back to Puschke, but a mistake under the bridge and spun into the barrier... 10th position again, at this point the lag problems were starting to came back. The rest of the first stint Rob was trying to recover.
But it was too hard, he spun several times. In the end he finished 12[SUP]th[/SUP].
Abu Dhabi
Petar had a solid performance in this race. He took pole in style and led the whole race but unfortunately didn’t have enough fuel to finish and had to let go first to Eduard a few laps from the finish.
A nice launch had a decent start holding the position against Mark Aalberts in the first corner. The first couple of laps he could not follow the guys in front. He still had some lag issues around the Hotel. After some laps he missed the apex of the second to last corner, and Mark Aalberts than made a slightly aggressive move at the inside of the last corner. For some time he could not really match his pace, and with Ivar right behind he really was feeling some pressure...
Brazil
WT - entered the day on great pace but already in the 1st lap Petar was involved in 2 incidents, he lost a large amount of time in the pits fixing this damage and then... While trying to recover from the damage he hit another driver... a total nightmare only 10[SUP]th[/SUP].
WC – Petar performed solidly in the race to attain 7[SUP]th[/SUP] while fighting with other drivers! A fantastic result for him! Meanwhile, Netrex GP fielded two drivers, Ben Tusting and Rob Van Starkenburg... Ben’s race sadly ended early with him stalling on the grid and then being disqualified after exiting the pits a little to early. Rob had a great race overtaking many drivers and fighting for the points until he had a lapse of concentration and his race ended early. Overall a solid day for both teams !
Just wanted to say thank you to everybody who raced this season and congratulations to the series winners... Especially thank you to Johannes, Mikko, John and David for everything you have done this season!
See you all next year !!!
Photo credits to Simon Adebisi
The team was founded back in May with Fred Owen and Petar Brljak as the two drivers with not massively high expectations for the season, for this review I decided the best method would to be to write about each race in detail from the point of each driver... Here goes !
Bahrain
The first race for the GBG team, due to the team manager being on holiday and the fact that it was Petar's first race in FSR, he didn't know about the allocation system and therefore started at the back of G2. Petar proceeded to fight his way through the field and took his first win in FSR on his debut!
Australia
This was going to prove a difficult week for almost all the teams, the preparation time was limited to one week and this didn't give enough time to create a good setup. Petar qualified for G1 and Fred, after having no testing time due to returning from holiday, qualified at the back of G2 after being disqualified in the qualifying session. The grid 1 race began with Petar immediately experiencing wheel issues, after a poor qualifying session he had a few battles with other cars and then some contact but ended the race in 14th... Fred's first race in FSR almost ended early after being hit in the formation lap by another driver... Then started in the pitlane and took a few positions and gained a few due to engine failures... 3 laps from the end he had engine failure while in fourth ...
Malaysia
Petar managed to get through to Q2 for the first time despite a bad setup... Possibly because his new wheel arrived. Throughout the race he fought in many battles and had one huge loss of time after another car spun him, he then fought through the field to arrive at the finish line in 7th.
China
Another bad setup again but again Petar managed Q2. Petar enjoyed many battles in the race, eventually got 6th, best race so far!
Turkey
After Fred didn't manage to qualify for this session... Petar had a very bad quali session, only managing 12th without a good lap. For the race he endured plenty of lag and due to this he had two crashes... After a tricky race with issues and a bad qualifying setup Petar could only manage 13th.
Spain
A good quali, had again many battles but made 2 stupid errors mistakes which cost me podium and maybe fight for the win....
Monaco
No drivers present at this event.
Canada
Fred failed to qualify for this race... Petar had great race pace but an incident with another car put him half lap down the field in lap 2 and into 23rd, then had to fight a lot and got P4 at the end, quite good in the end.
Silverstone
An poor race for the Gigabyte franchise, with both drivers being forced to retire after incidents... Danny achieved a great start and jumped five positions from 21[SUP]st[/SUP] to 16[SUP]th[/SUP] after the first corner but his good work was quickly undone as an Aero F1 driver slammed in his rear and Danny was forced wide in the turn 12. His car had sustained major damage and it almost impossible for him to remain in control, he therefore spun and was hit hard on the side... Petar’s race endured many incidents and he drove alone to the end of the race.
Germany
With Danny on holiday, Petar had probably best race pace in the field, but a start from the back of the grid and 2 other incidents stopped him from fighting for the win, Petar fought hard in many great battles, an enjoyable race for him!
Hungary
The team arrived with Petar as the purple driver, definitely fastest of all, inexplicable shifting problems caused many issues and in the end unfortunately caused the 1st and only retirement of the season for him... Danny started the race 16[SUP]th[/SUP] and passed two others into but he broke to late into a turn and hit another driver, losing his front wing in the process... he pitted quickly and after this stop he was fighting with the back of the pack. He made light work of four drivers in 10 laps but his teammate Rob Van Starkenburg was faster than him and after a short but sweet fight for 2 laps, Rob slightly nudged him going into turn 3 and passed him after that. Danny then proceeded to pass two more drivers and then was involved in a collision that put him and other drivers out of the race. Danny was in a battle with Herrero but at the same time being pursued by Tusting and Kalamees... Danny slowed down to avoid the two but then was hit behind by Kalamees which ended their races. Rob’s race began with a good debut qualifying session, arriving in 13[SUP]th[/SUP] which was even better than he had hoped for.
Rob had a decent launch but unfortunately lost one or two positions, after turn 3 Alberto de Juan made a fast move to the left bouncing him of the track into the barrier.
Rob cautiously drove to the pits with no front wing and with a large amount of suspension damage. After spending over 50 seconds in the pits he was able to set some consistent and decent pace, around 12[SUP]th[/SUP] fastest in the race. He then caught up with and managed to overtake some guys who were battling bravely for 13[SUP]th[/SUP], Rob thus un-lapped himself from them. Rob quickly closed the gap to his Megabyte Gaming teammate Danny van der Niet we had brave fight with some contact. He quickly disposed of him after two laps.... The gaps between other drivers were pretty big because he lost so much time after first lap incident and a subsequent pitstop. Unfortunately he spun into the barrier causing more suspension damage again. Thankfully the damage was survivable and Rob didn’t have to pit again and could coast to the finish. In the end i managed to finish 9th.
Belgium
Petar entered the weekend with great pace and a decent strategy but yet again a couple of stupid incidents stopped him from fighting for the victory... Belgium for danny, his race pace was not quick enough not the biggest problem... the biggest issue was the racing itself he started from the pitlane due to his incident last race... but the server went down and had a few connection issues and suddenly my fuel was empty after 1 lap... Quali for Rob went again very well for him and he made it into the top ten in only his second World Trophy race. He made 8th infront of some Ghostspeed drivers guys and his teammate Petar Brljak. Rob then had a nice launch off the line and then managing to keep my position. In the first two laps he was very slow because of some slight mistakes. He soon found himself with Petar Brljak right behind him. He was soon looking to let him pass without getting passed by more guys, this was because he was much faster than him in practise, and he was defending.
After Petar and Rob both got passed by Mo Selvarajah, Rob allowed Petar to come through. A bit later Mo made a mistake and was then in a Gigabyte sandwich! He managed to pass Petar straight away so Rob didn’t have a chance to make anything out of it. One lap later Rob had to defend against Caner Basol, he had far more top speed out of Eau Rouge and passed him round the outside.
Rob was right behind him and suddenly he experienced snap-oversteer, he attempted to correct it... but it was already too late. He careered off into the barrier ending what could have been a great race in lap 5.
Italy
Petar had little time for testing... When it came to the race he had slow pace and again 2 incidents with other drivers which prevented him from fighting for a victory. He finished in 10[SUP]th[/SUP] and it was in his view ‘a very bad race’. Rob’s quali was not so good for him; in practise he found out it would be hard to get inside the top 10. In the end he had achieved 12[SUP]th[/SUP] position infront of joona Leppeanen, Tjeerd Feddema and Caner Basol from Ghostpeed! “After my last retirement at Spa I was desperate to finish here.”
He had a bad start losing two positions but he managed to get them back in the first lap,
After someone spun off he was 11th. In the first corner of lap 2 Petar had contact with a Twister car and spun. This then promoted Rob to 10[SUP]th[/SUP] position, and then he had to hold off Joona. He spun right behind Rob, thus giving some free air. At lap 6 Petar was right behind Rob with Caner and they both got round him. “I was not planning for a stop in this race.” Now he had to just concentrate on decent laptimes after that. Due to Rob not stopping, the people who had stopped; they had fresher tires and Rob didn’t have the pace to hold them off. Soon after, at lap 35 he had to defend on Puschke.
In the fight he had the inside before the last corner, but he came back to Rob like Hamilton did at Spa this year.
Puschke and Rob made contact. He had no damage after contact so he could coast once again to the finish. In the end i was 8th. Due to some retirements...
Japan
Petar had very good race pace and showed this by performing his best ever in qualifying by obtaining 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] on the grid start. The race began with Eduard pulling away slowly and soon 1[SUP]st[/SUP] was out of sight... 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] should have been his but he made a silly mistake which cost him the 2nd step of the podium... He ended the race in 5[SUP]th[/SUP].
This race was very hard for Rob because of lag issues. A large amount of lag at the beginning and then it was gone for 5/6 laps.
But soon after these first few laps it was getting worse and throughout the race it was getting worse... Rob had a good start passing Ben Tusting at turn one, and later in the first sector winning one place because Mark Aalberts made a mistake.
So he was in 6[SUP]th[/SUP]... already between GT Omega Marcel vd Linden and Ben Tusting. Unfortunately Ben Tusting made a big mistake by missing his braking point before the last chicane and driving into me. Rob fell back to 11th position right behind Danny van der Niet. He managed to pass Danny at the end of the second lap, on the outside of the chicane. He knew he could get back to the top 7 so he pushed hard to close the gap to the guys in front of me.
For a couple of laps he had a fight with Sami Pesari, after he made a mistake at Spoon and Rob passed him. Back immediately he came back and passed Rob at the next straight because he had much more top speed than Rob. But Rob managed to pass him at the chicane.
After that Rob could start closing the gap back to Puschke, but a mistake under the bridge and spun into the barrier... 10th position again, at this point the lag problems were starting to came back. The rest of the first stint Rob was trying to recover.
But it was too hard, he spun several times. In the end he finished 12[SUP]th[/SUP].
Abu Dhabi
Petar had a solid performance in this race. He took pole in style and led the whole race but unfortunately didn’t have enough fuel to finish and had to let go first to Eduard a few laps from the finish.
A nice launch had a decent start holding the position against Mark Aalberts in the first corner. The first couple of laps he could not follow the guys in front. He still had some lag issues around the Hotel. After some laps he missed the apex of the second to last corner, and Mark Aalberts than made a slightly aggressive move at the inside of the last corner. For some time he could not really match his pace, and with Ivar right behind he really was feeling some pressure...
After he switched it off he could concentrate on racing again. Mark quickly closed the gap to Eduard who was fighting with Mo. Rob found he could close the gap very fast, and quickly dropped Ivar. Further behind Rob; Eduard managed to pass Mo and was pulling away. Mark and Mo had a good fight in front of him but it was hard to keep up with them, while they were fighting, he pitted at lap 19 with Ivar right behind me. One lap later Mo pitted and came out right in front of Rob. Two laps after that Mark Aalberts pitted and came out right between Rob and Ivar... So the stop worked out pretty good and now he had was in 4th position. In the last stint he could not keep up to Mo... But he managed to stay in front of Mark...
Brazil
WT - entered the day on great pace but already in the 1st lap Petar was involved in 2 incidents, he lost a large amount of time in the pits fixing this damage and then... While trying to recover from the damage he hit another driver... a total nightmare only 10[SUP]th[/SUP].
WC – Petar performed solidly in the race to attain 7[SUP]th[/SUP] while fighting with other drivers! A fantastic result for him! Meanwhile, Netrex GP fielded two drivers, Ben Tusting and Rob Van Starkenburg... Ben’s race sadly ended early with him stalling on the grid and then being disqualified after exiting the pits a little to early. Rob had a great race overtaking many drivers and fighting for the points until he had a lapse of concentration and his race ended early. Overall a solid day for both teams !
Just wanted to say thank you to everybody who raced this season and congratulations to the series winners... Especially thank you to Johannes, Mikko, John and David for everything you have done this season!
See you all next year !!!
