F1 Fanatic

The following is an important pre-race announcement from CCRAP:

(Edited for the new page – sorry Electrolite!)

I had a lie in but now I’m here. Boom.

This is your 15 minute warning.

Qualifying – 4th
I was third for most of the session, however I dropped to fifth after Mag and Shyguy got ahead. I later set a time which put me 4th in the session.

Race – 9th
The race started well, I was up to third after the first corner, and then I passed Mag out of turn 3. Mag’s worst nightmare of being behind me was being relived. I kept him behind for the first few laps, but then Mag used DRS on me on lap 3 or 4 and passed me (Of Mag needed DRS to pass me :P). I later used DRS to try to repass Mag but I missed my braking and Mag retained the position. I struggled to get back to rhythm through the Senna S and Shyguy passed me at turn 4. I later spun him at turn 7, I’m really sorry Shyguy. I got a penalty for the incident.

I was now in third again, not that would stay there with the penalty and Steve catching me. After a few laps battling, Steve came from a long way back to pass me, I even turned in and we made contact as I was surprised he even tried to pass. After that was able to just about stay with him, though I never tried to pass him.

I started to rain, I put on inters though there were no changes in position. When there was more rain, I tried to pit for wet tyres, but my incompetant pit crew put me on inters again, even when I requested wets. I was annoyed at this point, so I decided to complete the remaining laps on inters. I was actually able to get up to second after everyone pitted, but I was soon two seconds a lap slower than everyone on inters. Most sailed past me, Ed was a bit aggressive passing me, and I think I may have turned into Ratboy (sorry if I did). I ended up ninth at the end.

Considering I could have got a podium today, ninth is a absolute disaster. My pit crew virtually ruined my race, though I suspect I would have finished higher up if I pitted for wets after my pit crew’s idiotcy. I can now understand how Bourdais felt at Spa 2008, though I’m not actually crying about it.

Qualified – 7th
Race – 3rd

First of all I so wish my video had worked…forgot to put the SD card in my camera so it cut out at the start line! I qualified on primes, and unlike my team mate (who did brilliantly!), wasn’t really getting anywhere with them so I was satisfied with 7th.

The race – I was a bit slow off the line, but I managed to hold my position. I held back into Senna S and saw @iamsa8 spin. On the following straight there were two Williams in front of me, and I took them both on the inside before/going into turn 4! Hope one of you guys have that on film as I was pretty happy with that, 3 abreast on cold tyres usually means trouble. For the rest of this stint I held my distance behind @Magnificent-Geoffrey and @slr.

I think it towards the end of this stint where I spun coming out of Senna S. I took an awful line and couldn’t recover it. Now 9th, I repassed a couple of cars to 7th, and decided to pit early for more primes on lap 5. (I was hoping by the time those tyres would be done, the rain would come)

I came out in 12th, got my head down, and managed to get a good few laps in mostly clean air, passing a few guys at the back. Steve however, had came out the pits in front of me, and was flying, I couldn’t quite keep up with him. Then the rain came. I pitted for Inters a little earlier than everyone else, and I thought this was a bad decision, but I’d gotten it right – the rain became very heavy on my outlap. I leapfrogged 3-4 cars and was up to 5th. I’m not sure what Steve did here, but I didn’t encounter for the remainder of the race.

I also pitted for wets before everyone else, and I was able to get on the pace almost straight away. I passed @ratboy and @slr, and I think @ed24f1 had gone wrong somewhere. I’d gotten up to 3rd, and managed to hold my position between Magnificent-Geoffrey and @damonsmedley to the end.

All in all pretty pleased! Extremely eventful, got the pit stops right, and I made some great overtaking moves throughout. I’m sure everyone’s got interesting stories to tell!

Well done to Steve, that was a brilliant race. The cup’s hotting up.

@david-a If you want a setup for Monaco, I’ll happily give you one, once I’ve figured out a good setup.

A bit of a missed opportunity in today’s race. Qualifying was poor, but that was to be expected after no practice on this track and using prime tyres.

I avoided most of the chaos through the first sector. Then, I attempted a pass into Turn 8 on a Renault (?) and they turned in on me despite me leaving plenty of room on the outside. This gave me a penalty which I found was quite unfair. Then, a similar thing happened at Turn 10, this time causing me to half spin and lose time. A lap or so later, I was battling with a Force India for about 9th place, and I saw a Red Bull behind me – iamsa8. This motivated me, as I hadn’t realised he was down that far after the start, and he is my main rival for the championship.

So there was a 3-way battle down the straight with him, the Force India and myself. He got past, and I tried to follow him through – once again leaving plentiful room on the outside, but the Force India turned into me and I half spun into the wall, losing even more time. I was now second last. My prime tyres were still going well, so I kept driving and eventually got up to 3rd after others’ pitstops. Then, there were a few spots of rain and my tyres suddenly went off the cliff – more than I can ever remember. This was Lap 11 I think. I had two half-spins, the 2nd costing me about 10/15 seconds. I misinterpreted this as a slippery track, so went for inters. This was the wrong choice, and cost me heaps of time. It was a schoolboy error, and I was very disappointed, as without the tyre issues and bad strategy, I could’ve been in for a podium.

I was basically trundling around by myself for most of the next stint. Then, as the rain got heavier, and my inters were dying, I switched to full wets on Lap 19. After this, all I could do was pass people who were on the wrong tyres or in the pits.

The only notable moment of the final stint was when I was trying to pass slr around the outside of Turn 3 (he was struggling on inters), we made contact, as I guess he understeered into me, and I had a massive lose. I managed to keep it going and get back ahead of him and keep going. Luckily, I got up to 5th to salvage a half-decent result and some good points. For a while, it looked like I’d be down in 8th or 9th.

So it was a bittersweet race, it looked like it could’ve been worse at some stages, but I also could’ve done better with some more luck and a better strategy.

Well done to Steve, a great performance! I can’t wait for Monaco!

That’s fine, I don’t think it was intentional, the first lap was very chaotic, and perhaps I should have waited instead of making a move there where there was a high chance the other driver wouldn’t know I was there.

In the end, the penalty didn’t affect my position anyway.