F1 Fanatic

Hockenheim Post-race Quotes
Jamie Franklin – Lotus
Qualifying – 2nd, Race – 2nd

“We had an excellent day today, getting 2nd and 4th for the team. It’s my best result this season, and I think I drove better today than in any other race this season. It was quite difficult to overtake, which inevitably led to the incident with Moussa a few laps in, but all in all, there’s a lot of positives to take from today, like the fact that I was able to match the McLaren for pace, which is the first time this season, I believe. It also means that I now have three podiums in three races, and I hope to continue that trend at the new track in America. I think 5th in the Championship is the most I can hope for, considering that Bradley and the others are 48 points and more in front of me, so unless one of them has consistent bad luck in the final three races, then this is the maximum I can do. Nothing wrong with trying to close the gap though!”

Well the US Grand Prix is due to take place in 10 minutes time, and only myself and Shane are online. Did everyone forget?

McLaren
1. John Brookfield (@BROOKSY007)
5. Moussa Awada (@MoSs-611)

Lotus
4. Bradley Downton (@Bradley13)
9. Jamie Franklin

Williams
6. Ben Moody (@f199player)
10. Ashley Blakeley (@shyguy1992)

Red Bull
12. Nic Morley (@RoboCAT)
17. David Adeoye (@david-a)

Force India
16. Shane Butler (@shaneb12345678910)
20. George Angus (@abboracing)

Sauber
18. Luke Pickering (@electrolite)

I think we have the same problem in F2, everyone has forgotten, and seeing the @bradley13 ‘s life is busy now, i guess we have no ‘leader’ to remind us. I think that something is going to have to be done as grid numbers are dwindling :(

@Moss-611 – Why don’t you have the patch yet?

Well, we finally got underway, just over half an hour after we were meant to start, though there weren’t many here, not too sure why as there is a calendar on the wiki to show when each race is.

Quali:
Having done my only practice for COTA a couple of weeks ago, I wasn’t sure that I’d do too well. This plus the fact that during the week I had sliced my finger open, so my index finger is completely bandaged up, making it very difficult to use the brakes (L2).
Did a few practice laps on primes, before coming in for options and doing two more laps, finishing 0.311 seconds behind Shane. Considering how difficult I was finding it to play the game, I was pretty pleased with this.

Race:
I got a decent start, probably just slightly better than Shane, but Bradley had the best start, knocking me into the first turn so that my back end slip out, and he went up to first. I somehow kept second.
I was mainly trying to get to grips with the track and the car in the first few laps, before Bradley spun on lap (3?) leaving me and Shane to fight it out. We were having a great scrap, with some passing and re-passing going on in the DRS zone, and just after as well.
Shane then made a mistake, not sure what happened. All I saw was some tyre smoke on the right front and then a small spin. This gave me the lead back, but then a few laps later, I had a spin as well, coming out of the final corner.
I pitted on lap 10 for a second set of options. I was meant to pit on lap 12 and go to primes, but being 8 seconds down on Shane, and not going any quicker, I needed to try something different. Plus, rain was expected as well.
I had a lot of spare fuel and when Shane came into the pits, I had closed the gap to 5-6 seconds. I wasn’t sure what tyres he was on, but our pace was very even, despite my few mistakes, eventually extending the gap to 10 seconds or so.

The rain eventually came, and Brad pitted too early. Shane and I seemed to get it just right, though it was tricky. The gap was something like 17 seconds now, I’m not sure, but I had no hope of winning. Heavy rain then came, and I finally decided to take a risk and pit for wets. I think I was a lap too early, but it seemed to help after a while, as with 3 laps to go, I was closing in fast.
I thought Shane had skipped wets and was now suffering, and I had closed the gap enough to see him pit, as I came round go the penultimate lap. I pretty much cruised home from there, going pretty slow on the final lap to not make any mistakes.

Result:
1. Jamie
2. Shane – +15 seconds
3. Bradley – +2 laps

@bradley13 @jamiefranklinf1

Quali: 1st

Race: 2nd
This is going to be brief. Got a shocking start and was 3rd after turn 1. Bradley spun in the 3rd sector so I was up to 2nd right on jamie’s gearbox. We were close and I kept braking too late after using drs, handing jamie back the position. It was a good fight and when I did get past him, I got on the power too early after one of the turns, putting me in a small spin and gifting him back the position. He then spun at the final corner which put me in the lead. You can read jamie’s report as to what happend after that as its detailed.

Well anyways, with 3 or 4 laps to go, I was on wets as was jamie and I was comfortably 17 seconds ahead of him. Then I caught up to Bradley who was 2-3 laps behind. Going through the corner in the third sector (just like turkey turn 8) I was side by side with him on the inside. I was surprised that he wasnt letting me through. He then turned into me, spinning me into the wall and slightly damaging my front wing. Then past the start finish straight, he slowed to the left of the track letting me through. I broke for turn 1 and then he ploughed into the back of me spinning me into the barriers and losing my front wing. Jamie had caught up and I pitted for repairs, well behind him.

I have to say I was fuming at what happend. Bradley you were not lagging on my screen at all so I dont really know what to say. You could see in the lobby before and after that the bar connection was good. I was yellow and you and jamie were green. Plus the fact that it was only 3 people made the connection even better. If you saw me lagging, then you should have just pulled WAY over and slowed down until I was 4-5 corners ahead of you, just incase you took me out. And of course thats what happend. Very very annoyed indeed………..

@shaneb12345678910 – I don’t think it’s fair that I should have basically pulled way off the circuit to let you through, despite you being a leader, just because you were Lagging. We’ve had issues involving you lagging before, and so I don’t see why I should think, oh no, he’s lagging, I’ll just leave the confines of the circuit, that’s not really fair :/

@shaneb12345678910 – Ok, well maybe I should have done, but hindsight is a wonderful thing :/

@jamiefranklinf1

Patch still isn’t available for North America, why? I don’t know. I thought u guys knew about it.

And u only reminded us about the race 10 minutes before the race.