F1 Fanatic

Italian GP Result

1.lemon
2.snake
3.alfred
4.strunk
5.infernojim
6.mcwoblin
7.y2j
8.mad dog

Pole Alfred 1:23.670 (WET)
F lap snake 1:19.232

@mrgrieves, @McWoblin, @carnivorouspope, @powderfinger, @lemon, @strunk27 @infernojim @ljkobrien @kvothe @ms20 @infernikus @agentmulder @coefficient @thevortex @Sparky2315 @xelitexsh0tsx

Hey all! Apologies for not being around recently.. Been hard at work on a job application.

Last time out at Italy… Sorry for not staying around afterwards… Was sooo tired. Had a very messy birthday weekend just before.

My race was the worse ever.. Lack of practice combined with lack of sleep and being hungover resulted in a performance that only Narain Karthikeyan would be proud of. But hey be thankful I weren’t romain grosjean! :-P

I thought it would have been sensible to try a 1 stopper as I had nothing to lose. Let’s just say it didn’t work!

Some of you may have noticed that it is mathematically impossible to beat Lemon.. And has been so since the Belgian GP. Unfortunately this wasn’t given the credit it deserved! So @lemon sorry! here it is in bold, block capitals and everything…

LEMON IS THE F1FXC WORLD CHAMPION

To be frank, this was pretty obvious from race 4. But well done mate! Question is… Can he make it a clean sweep… A full house… A grand slam of wins!?

Snake looks likely to finish 2nd barring any potential disasters. But it’s the battle for 3rd that looks particularly tasty! It’s all up for grabs between @infernojim @mrgrieves (y2J) @strunk27 @mcwoblin and @maddogmolloy. 18 points separate and anything could happen… (I’m sure @ljkobrien aka Alfred might get annoyed with me if I rule him out of this too.. :-P – he too is in the mix for 3rd!)

So Japan tonight.. Let us know if you cant make it!

Well, yet another unmitigated disaster of a race for me. My attempt to use a more tire conservative setup fell flat on it’s face. I had no grip, I was locking in every corner on options, and could barely keep the car in a straight line, much less go anywhere quickly. I retired from the race when I realized I was doing nothing but impeding those around me.

A very interesting race if not successful for me. Wasn’t able to put in a single lap in qualifying where I didn’t make at least one mistake, although I don’t think anyone was going to catch @Lemon with that time.

I got a good start and made it up to 3rd on the first lap after a little fight with @strunk27 but wasn’t able to pull away for one simple reason. As I’m now inbetween homes until mid september I’m staying with my dad and had the bloody family cat sniffing around my pedals and jumping up infront of the tv!

After around lap 4 strunk managed to pass me, I did think I would be able to hold on to the back of him but I made a couple of mistakes and he started to pull away, after that the first stint was fairly uneventful, after my first pit stop on lap 8 I came out behind @infernojim in 5th or 6th.

Second stint was tyre management, from my practice races I knew I wasn’t great on the tyres around here and had opted for an option/prime/option strategy with a fairly long prime period. By the time I pitted I think I was in 3rd with my team mate only a few seconds behind. I’d told him at what point I was planning on coming in for my first stop, but not for my second and unfortunately we both chose to pit on the same lap, around lap 17 I think. As I went in first he was held up, luckily the stop was pretty quick, but even still, I think in the end it cost him 5th position by the end of the race so apologies for that!

My final stint was only around 5 or 6 laps so I was able to go for it on every lap. By the end I was eating masses of time out of @mrgrieves per lap but was only able to drag the time down to a couple of seconds by the end.

Another win for @Lemon who is surely getting bored of this championship by now! Impressive show from both the Saubers, although it was a shame @infernojim wasn’t able to convert his good Q into a result, but my Driver of the Day absolutely has to go to @mrgrieves he did an amazing job going from the back of the grid to 3rd and his tyre management was impressive.

Here’s some of the fun times at the 5 sprint races after the main event yesterday. Brazil, Monaco and India are particularly entertaining!

Brazil:

India:

Monaco:

Monza

Spa:

If you can’t watch all of them, definitely Brazil, India and Monaco!!

Didnt see much in the way of other cars to race but due to outside reasons this was my favourite race of the season and in F1 2011. All started at lunch time when i went for a run/walk up the hill near my house which really it me around 730 when i had just started my practice, did about 6 laps, no strategy half set up but couldnt keep my eyes open so, This happens now and then so i lay down on my bed and stupidly closed my eyes. Came to and thought to look at my phone S**TE!!! 20.31! Forgot to set a alarm. So i bumbled about got set up best as i can for Qualifying which was a disaster. Attempt 1, Spun coming out the chicane loosing any momentum. Attempt 2, Ran off at Degna. Attempt 3 well something went wrong. Attempt 4, Left the pits with 1.18 to go and didnt get round to do a lap but best time was 4 secs off lemon by the end of sector 2.

So to the Race and going into turn 2 on the back wheel of someone that knocked me sideways “racing incident” My 1st stint saw me go from last to 1st with @Lemon and @strunk27 maybe @LtAlred getting passed too before i pitted for my pit stop, Tyres were totally done last two lap were like being on ice. Came out not sure what anyone else was doing so just went hell for leather and i worked out in 3rd. was matching times with @LtAlred for the first few laps then my tires started to go off and he was at least a second a lap faster but thankfully i just had a gap to hold him off and get a brilliant podium

Driver of the day @strunk27
Could do nothing about his pace and there wasnt even a drop of rain!

Have a video but struggling to get a chance to put it up! will try and post a link if i get it on! What it will show is the incident with @maddogmolloy was just a racing incident where either of us could have taken the other out at any point from the hairpin onwards we were side by side and both suitably aggressive

Japanese GP from my view

Part 1- Lots of fighting and close racing. Incidents with @ms20 @mcwoblin and @mrgrieves

Part 2- Kept up with @mcwoblin. Defended my position from @agentmulder (snake)

Part 3- Caught @mcwoblin towards end of race

Also see @infernojim and @thevortex having trouble (part 1 I think).