F1 Fanatic

Here is my race video! sorry for quality, i was using an old tv.

Qualy: Everyone rushed out before the rain. I made a small mistake at turn 1 on my only timed lap. ended up 9th. 2 places down from my round 1 slot.

Race: good start, then saw absolute carnage infront of me as 2 cars sandwiched another (@alfie @supernicebob and @shyguy1992 i believe) resulting in a big pile up. as i slowed down i was hit heavily from behind by @silverkeg . this put me across the run off and into last place. I rejoined and overtook a recovering @jamiefranklinf1 (jf-f1) and @shyguy1992 . at the end of the second sector i was still in 12th place but had to avoid @spud reversing onto the track.

From here on held off @jf-f1 and @shyguy1992 for the rest of the lap before letting them through to concentrate on my own race. (they were a lot faster). However jf-f1 nudged shyguy off the track at turn 4 (revenge perhaps? lol) so i gained a place. Then a recovering @alfie rather clumsily smashed the side of @jf-f1 around turn 6-7 but luckily nothing came of it. the 3 of us pitted on lap 2 for inters and i managed to jump @jf-f1 here. they had another crash going into turn 3 giving me some breathing room but then i hit a recovering @brooksy007 at turn 4. luckily no penalty. after all this mayhem i settled into 5th place behind @david-a and infront of @jf-f1 for a few laps.

I pitted for my 2nd set of options after that and inters again after that just as i was about to hit the cliff. Later I put on wets near the end which was a mistake. didn’t matter though because i had a huge gap to the car behind.

see the brake failure glitch i was banging on about in melbourne at 15:05 in the video above. very annoying. i pressed brake as usual and nothing happens…
also @electrolite what happened when u hit me at 16:55? i think we should all hand a place back when we hit someone off. just sayin…

happy with 6th place after all of that.

EDIT: well done @olliekart . and ferrari have 15 points, not 14 points in the constructors @commonmonsoon

My, Ferrari pit crew were on it today.

That’s some trademark Jonny, there. :P

Qualifying: 6th
Thanks to whoever messaged in the chat room to say that rain was about, or else I probably would have missed that. Once I had my setup loaded it was straight out with everyone else for what turned out to be my fastest lap on my first attempt. I was faster in the first two sectors on my second flying lap, about 2 tenths up, but ran wide and lost time. I was about 2 tenths up again on my third lap but this time ran out of fuel. I went out for a second run, but the rain got heavier and it was then a matter of just getting back to the pits. I didn’t realise you could retire from the session and then still take part in the race (hence my question at the time). That all makes sense now.

Race: 5th
Made a decent getaway off the line to sneak up the inside of Shyguy when suddenly RED BULL and then I was in the wall and then all over the place. Recovered to see JF get involved in a Williams sandwich and I think Silverkeg must have had to let people through (I only just avoided him!) so was back up to 10th. Spud ran wide and spun so I was up to 9th, trailing slr. At the end of the first lap, a Red Bull ran wide, and
then several cars peeled into the pits. Had I made the right choice?

On lap 2, a Ferrari span and I was up to 5th, and then I think slr made a mistake so I closed up, before he pulled away again. More drivers came into the pits, but I decided to stick with it as I fairly happy with the car at that stage. Me, slr and I think Brooksy were running in the top 3 at that stage. A spin late in the lap suggested that I was on the wrong tyres (and also not good at this game!) so, after another pit stop related brain malfunction I eventually made the call for inters and pitted.

My stop was fairly long as the mechanics dutifully replaced my front wing, and I rejoined in 10th with Shyguy ahead and Steve behind. There were a few cars up the road having a scrap, and then Shyguy disconnected so I was 9th. Brooksy went off so that was 8th and another car in the pits made it 7th. I then caught up to JF a bit (presumably a mistake somewhere) before he pulled away and then pitted. Ahead was teo in Ferrari who was also on inters and ran wide. I closed right up to him, but couldn’t get by. With the fast corners I didn’t want to make a half hearted lunge. Then would have been a good time to go back to dry tyres, but with the Ferrari ahead I could smell blood. Unfortunately, in an effort to not freak out when my team mate rejoined the circuit from the pit lane, I freaked out and spun off. Too much going on for my brain. Then JF was right on me already. If I could actually use my brain whilst driving it now would have been obvious that I needed to pit. With hindsight I have no idea why I continued another lap. Steve flew by and that was all the incentive I needed to pit for primes, hoping
to keep my remaining tyre strategy flexible.

I rejoined in 9th with Spud ahead of me. I started to set about closing the gap, turning my engine up, and made another place with someone pitting. Spud made a mistake and I was right behind him, before he spun out of the way. It was a shame as I was looking forward to a good battle with him. I then had a few quiet laps with Teo ahead. The gap remained fairly stable, with the odd expansion and contraction with our respective mistakes now and then. This continued and then the rain returned. I once again chose to stay out, gaining a place, and then another when Electrolite ran wide. Unfortunately, my camera only takes 20 minutes of video at a time, so it cut out here. I guess this is when Electrolite made his move back. I came in from 4th for inters at the end of lap 21.

After another front wing (guess I must have spun before I pitted) I rejoined in 6th (just) behind Teo. I once again got alongside, but couldn’t make it stick. A mistake later that lap for Teo put my right on his gearbox through the last corner, before he went into the pits. This, combined with Steve’s disconnection had me in 4th. Near the end too. I couldn’t quite believe it. Damon was behind me though, and I know that he is the faster driver. I managed to resist the pressure for a couple of laps before suffering a lapse in concentration and spinning out of the way. I was very annoyed with myself. Back to 5th, the gap to Teo was best part of a minute. I didn’t feel like I’d be able to close back up to Damon, so just concentrated on bringing the car home without further issues. This resulted in me making late stop for options as the track got dryer and the intermediates offered less and less grip, though it did mean I finished a lap down (probably would have happened anyway).

On the grid, my engineer said they were expecting a podium finished which I scoffed at. Although I finished far back it doesn’t take a massive stretch of the imagination to see that happening in the end, but I guess the same goes for several drivers in a race like this. I certainly expect, that with the calibre of the Collantine Cup field this year, that this will probably be my best result (unless we have another wet race with a pile up at the start and several disconnections).

Apologies for maximum wheel noise and also sniffing throughout the video (I have a cold).

Video uploading at time of posting, should be done in 15 minutes.

@electrolite ok no problem mate. as you can see from my video it’d looked a lot worse on my screen ha.

@supernicebob yes great race! i guess you were my ‘race rival’ that race. the reason i ended up a minute down from you at the end is because i pitted for wet tyres very late then realised it was wrong so came back in for inters. going to watch your vid now! :)

Because you always do that, Monsoon. You have a terrible race, you get involved in loads of incidents and have loads of set backs but you always end up on the podium somehow.

A Williams and a Red Bull sandwiched me, leading to the Red Bull spinning into the wall.

What a mighty shame, I might not be around for my favourite circuit Singapore.