F1 Fanatic

Canada report:

Quali:
Hadn’t done any practice for either of the two races today, but I was fairly confident in my ability to qualify on the front row, which was definitely needed, considering what usually happens at turn 1 in Montreal. I set out on primes, to get a banker in, and maybe switch to options if necessary. I seemed to have plenty of grip though, and gained provisional pole.
Shane quickly beat my time, though I didn’t know what tyres he, nor anyone else was on, so I waited until near the end of the session, put some fresh primes on and set out for 2 more attempts. I missed out on pole by 0.241 or something like that.

Race:
To my surprise, when I saw everyone on the grid, they were all on options (which after looking at the weather forecast, I really should have done as well), so only being 2 tenths off of pole was fantastic.
I got a great start, overtaking Shane before the first corner, trying to leave plenty of room on the inside. Brooksy was up into second, and I was confident that I was faster than him, even on primes. A few laps in and I had a gap of 3-4 seconds. Rain was due soon, but I ended up making a crucial error, spinning in the final chicane and breaking my front wing. I crawled back to the pits, put on a set of options and set about catching the leaders.
I’m not sure if Shane made a mistake or not, but I caught him fairly quickly, and eventually was up to second as the rain came down. I think I then came into the pits at the same time as Brooksy for inters, though he was something along the lines of 10 seconds down the road at this point.
I can’t remember exactly what happened during this stint, I think it was a mix of me catching Brooksy and making a couple of little errors (though that could have been in the wet stint).
I pitted a lap later than Brooksy for wets, which was a huge mistake, he left the pits right in front of me and I could see how much more grip he had in comparison. He gained about 2 seconds on me on that lap alone, leaving me 12 seconds behind as I re-joined with full wets.

Our pace was relatively equal during this stint, so I found it very hard to catch him. At one point (be it during the inters or wets phase), I remember being really close to him, but then falling back again.

Anyway, it eventually went back to inters, and a dry line was emerging. It was going to be a gamble for anyone to switch to slicks, and I made a last minute call to dive into the pits, narrowly avoiding Bradley as he shot in ahead of me. Luckily though, my pit crew decided to service me first, given that I was a lap ahead.
The track was very greasy, and I found it hard to put the power down in some corners. But I seemed to have a lot more grip than Brooksy. 7 laps left and I was catching him, it was going to be a nail-biting finish.
Lap after lap I gained more confidence in my car and the grip on the track, and Brooksy was growing nearer to me, until lap 33, when I was pretty much right with him. I had a good slip stream on him going into the hairpin, but didn’t dare to try and pass, as there wouldn’t be much grip off line. Brooksy, however, went defensive, and shot passed the corner. I thought he was going to try and come back at me in the DRS zone, but it wasn’t the case.
Somehow, after losing 20 odd seconds at the start, and damaging my front (and apparently rear) wing coming out of the pits on wets, I had passed Brooksy for the lead.

1. Me
2. Brooksy
3. Shane
4. Bradley

(I’ll do my Abu Dhabi one later)

Canada

Quali: 1st
I went out from the pits but did not want to be on options so that was a mistake straight away. Nevertheless I decided to do a lap which was decent. Went back in for primes but could not improve.

Race: 3rd
Starting on pole, I looked behind and saw @BROOKSY007 jumping up and down a bit so I knew lag would be a bit mental. Got a poor start as always with no traction control and coming into turn 1 I was on the inside and @bradley13 turned in for the corner safely ahead of me. But I saw him spin so it must have been sync issues once again. I was then stuck behind brooksy who was lagging. Coming out of turn 2 I saw him spin to the right, possibly getting on the power too early or maybe contact due to lag. He spun to the right a bit, I ran into him getting a 10 second penalty, but then he magically straighted up as if he had not spun at all. Really weird :/ Losing loads of time, I pitted on lap 4 for primes to get some clean air as I was losing loads of time. When I came out, it was raining lightly. I waited and then pitted for wets. Hard to remember what happend after that but I spun a couple of times, losing my front wing on one occasion. There was a big gap to bradley behind me and Brooksy and @jamiefranklinf1 ahead. So it was just a case of not crashing the car and bringing it home. As it dried out near the end, I stuck on options and was flying, setting something like four fastest laps in a row. I was closing in on brooksy and the 22 second gap had gone down to 12 or so. But time was up and I had a 10 second penalty anyway. Lots of lag from my end, so apologies if any contact was made. I must say that I certainly did not run into anyone from my screen. Abu Dhabi was better connection wise, and I’ll post my race report later on tonight. Well done on the win Jamie.

Abu Dhabi

Quali: 1st
Never been so happy with a setup. Took pole by 8 tenths over @jamiefranklinf1.

Race: 1st
Poor start as usual. I left space for jamie and @bradley13 who got past. Managed to keep @BROOKSY007 behind me after we were close through turn 2 and 3. Jamie and Bradley collided and I went through the corner, with nowhere to go, ran straight into one of them who was sideways. Got a 10 second penalty for that and was lucky to escape with no damage. I then was in the lead and stayed there for the rest of the race. So so happy with how I drove in that race, making no mistakes when I needed the win.

@bradley13 Basically, this is a really important year for me in school. I need to work hard if I’m to get into the course I want next year in college. This year so far I have struggled with concentration and have lost focus in my studies. I need to get rid of a lot of distractions and the PS3 is one of them. I mean, staying up until 2 or 3 in the morning playing call of duty, sometimes even during school days, is not ideal and quite frankly, I am sick of it. Things need to change and unfortunately, I will not be racing with you guys for a long time. I will be packing up the PS3 until the school year is over which will be around June I think.

I must say thank you to everyone who I have raced with. I have always tried to race cleanly with you guys and I hope you all realise this. There is no worse feeling than being involved in an incident and ruining someone’s race. I always get super nervous before every race, incase I tangle with someone. So I guess it is a relief in a way to leave an F1 league as I wont feel that way for a while. Lag and sync issues may have been a factor with me when racing, and that is unfortunate. But it is out of my control. I have learnt a lot from joining the last winter series and indeed doing this season. It has teached me all the different things about racing online and racing fairly. I have carried this through to the other leagues I have been in aswell – ARL, Race department, etc. But I’m going to have to give up my virtual driving gloves for a while :)

I’ve put my hand up when I have been at fault, colliding with Electrolite at Monza and Jamie at Brazil for example, have thought me to be more cautious and patient. It has indeed been frustrating at times, especially with all of the lag but nevertheless, its been great fun. There is nothing more satisfying than being involved in a great battle with someone, and I am going to miss that.

Bradley I hope you can appreciate my dedication to this league and I have tried to be at every race. It is dissapointing that the league has fizzled out in the end which has made the championship battle become an anti-climax, especially with the patch not being released in america and not allowing Moss to take part in the later stages, which is downright ridiculous from codemasters part. My objective before the season was to finish ahead of you Bradley as I think we were pretty close. So I’m really glad to have acheived that and even better, win the league, even though I have mixed feelings about it as it hasnt really been fair on Moss.

Of course I’ll still be active on F1F. I might pop in and out of here to keep in touch. I hope to be back over the summer but I can never be fully sure whether that will happen. Going into college next year, I dont know whether I will even have time to be on the PS3 then. So we will have to wait and see.

Lots of high’s and lows and going through the last lap at Abu Dhabi made me reflect on them. It really has been great. Getting up early on Sunday mornings and participating in your league Brad, is something which I wont forget for a long while :)

Best of luck! Hope the winter series is succesful for you lot. I’ll talk to you later :)

Good luck Shane – its been nice driving with you.

Canada – qualied with a wet setup thinking we had parcferm.
Race – it was a nail bitter at the end, i had fuel to burn and was just waiting for the straight to use it!!! JF caught right up to me and at the hairpin and i covered the middle of the track off the racing line!!! What a mistake that was!!! no grip at all!!!! Couldn’t catch him at all – i think the track went away from my setup at the end. – Nice driving mate.

Abu dhabi – Got off slowly and at turn 567 came across a 3 car crash, with nowhere to go – i lost my front wing!! just entered the pits as p 3 & 4 passed me. I was miles behind and to be honest my eyes were struggling to focus on the TV as it was after 10 pm here. So i made a massive mistake and stuffed the pooch!!