Bahrain Grand Prix

congrats aliens, hell of a pace you set!!

i screwed my race up so bad ...

Was up to 6th at the start .. It all started going wrong when bradons leaving message came up and it caught my eye, this helped me miss brake marker for T1 ... then annother spin next lap... then another spin mid race ... then coming in for final stop, where i should have been able to leap R.Johnstone, i was recalculating and changing fuel for the stop, and started wondering where my pit crew were, i had passed them already..awesome!

then a few laps from the end put it in the wall and had to come in for repairs.. Glad i finished though.

on the plus, had a few decent scraps out there..
congrats to all that finished.

Qual was shot...apparent lag. I limped around to the pits for a new car and made one hot lap and managed the 32's; though, I know I could have made 31's...no matter. I managed to get up into 10th place soon after the start, and at one point 7th.

I had some good racing...really mixed it up at the start...no damage again...good driving everyone. The loss of downforce when following a car snagged me this time. I had just gotten past Rob and was following Heinz at turn 4 (the 135º hairpin) about lap 18...I had good rubber...but gave it too much gas at the apex trying to get around Heinz and found myself headed toward the inside fence. I should have trusted Heinz and pulled in behind him...doing it would have meant the end of the race on public servers since the car in front might try to slow down to let the faster driver through...even after 6 months of R2P and no public servers I'm still squeemish about pulling behind another car at corner exits. I'm getting better at feeling the car, but need to have more experience with door-2-door driving...speed wise I seem to be meeting my goal, so perhaps I'll manage to avoid getting lapped more than twice at Barcelona.

Front left suspension failed with 3 laps to go, car just span out coming out of the final turn. Tried to limp round but was more dangerous than I thought. Grats to podiums.

It was the perfect race for me. Had a good start and managed to stay out of trouble in the first few laps. Lost some positions again but didn't care cos in those opening laps for me it's .... safety first. Then had a good fight with Nick. Close ... fast ... but above all ... fair. Enjoyed that Nick. Did 3 equal stints on meds and found myself running in 5th with a few laps to go but with Allen closing in on me fast. He actually passed me but one lap later he spun in the last turn. Couldn't see his car and where he was going because of the dust and smoke but allthough I steered away from him I took off his front wing in the proces. Sorry that happend Allen but you were rolling towards me closing the gap that I was going for to avoid you.

Looking at the endresults I noticed I had the slowest fastest lap of the top 12. For me the proof that it is not all about being the fastest but also about staying out of trouble and trying not to make mistakes. And that worked out fine for me tonight.
Mr. Stoddart will be pleased. :-)

Grats to the guys who made it to the podium and all that made it till the finishline.

Must say my worst run yet in F1. Struggled all weekend to get the rear end to stick. My first time at this track and must say i didn't adapt well. There were a few corners i just couldn't figure out. Spun it about 4-5 laps in and damaged the rear and ripped off the front spoiler. After that found myself way out of contention. But i refuse to dnf unless needed. So i continued. But most concentration lost. Just really happy to finish. Congrats to the podium. Tough track and thats well earned. Also congrats to Bob for the taking of that point.

Kablamo!

I can see I've got more homework to do in this series. Was fun while it lasted.

Steve, me too, didn't realize following someone closely would have that much of an affect in the corners.

Barcelona and hopefully more homework.

Congrats to Podium and finishers.

I simply couldn't find the speed to contend for a podium today. I put in alot of practice, and it netted me a very comfortable car, but those extra two seconds a lap the other fellas were getting... man.

Had yet another Kirill incident, but it didn't really matter in the end; I finished with huge margins between people ahead and behind me. Was lonely for me :-(

I'll see if I can't get back up to speed in Barcelona... yet another McArthur special! Might have to bust out that baby-poo sooner than I thought...

Good racing guys. Well done again, Stanislav, David and Tim.

No aplogies needed George, my fault entirely, I was just relieved I hadnt dumped your race.

I seem to be saying this a lot about these races, but WOW what an awesome race.

I purposely stayed out of the hot lapping competition that was going on in practice. I know if I start wasting time trying to top the speed charts in a session that means zero, it only hurts the sessions that do have meaning. So, I focused on getting comfortable with the car in race mode, then went out to for a final qual-mode run to test the waters. I figured a 28.4 was going to be my time, and if all went perfect a 28.2 would follow. After burning off 6 minutes if fuel I put on fresh tires and proceeded with my qual run. Knowing the medium tires, the fastest lap is actually on lap #2, which turned out to be a good thing as I had two cars to deal with on my first flier. Got around them just in time and cross the S/F line with only seconds left on the clock. I love rFactor... that it will allow you to complete the lap you are on. So, best lap for the tires, lowest fuel load possible, and a dead-clear track ahead of me... I put the foot down. I knew I was on a good lap at the sec-1 line as I was .4 up on Stansilav's time, by sec-2 I was 0.5 up. I guess fisher got in his best lap while i was in sec3, so thank God I didnt back off. I came around the final corner with the rear hanging out, nearly out of control. Had to pause before getting back on the throttle, losing a tenth or so there. Luckily, the rest of the lap was enough to get my first pole for the season by 0.075! I actually threw my arms up and screamed out loud. I was pumped up about that lap. I got the 28.4, but left a little on the table with that final corner. Did the trick though, so Im happy.

Start of the race went smoothly. At one point I glanced down to my hud and saw that every single car was still running nose to tail. Everyone made it through the first few laps unscathed (always nice to see). Kirill, Fisher, and Stanislav were hot on my tail. It seemed like I was able to build a small gap on Fisher and Kirill, but Stanislav was just on fire. I drove as clean a line as possible to keep him behind me. I knew once he passed me he would be gone, so it was defense big time. I was lucky that he was carrying more wing then I was. He would draft up on me down the straights but could not pull off the move. The braking capabilities of my car was just amazing and kept me ahead each time I was attacked.

lap 12 Stan got a run on me in the final corner, as he had done before. This time I didnt fight it as I was entering the pits anyway. He drove on as I went in for my first of 3 stops. Tires and fuel and back out to a nice clear track to lay down some hot laps to regain the lead when the pitting cycled through. By the time Stan pitted I was passing him just as he exited the pits and had the better tires for his out lap. This allowed me a small gap, but that went away quickly with his all out speed. We had another great battle until on lap 20 he got another nose on me going into the final corner. This time I didnt give him much room and we touched. (Not your fault Stan, just part of the racing I enjoy). I actually flipped and landed on my tires to get moving again pretty quickly. Lost the lead of course, but not heavily damaged, just minor rear wing damage.

I continued for another lap but the car was on edge so I went in for my second stop a few laps early. I knew this would be the end of my race for the win, but I had no choice. 7 extra seconds in the pits for repairs... just a killer.

Still, I went back out and did all that I could to regain the lost time. After Kirill went off I found myself in a good solid 3rd place finish, which is all I can ask for nowadays. My final stop had to come a few laps earlier then originally planned too, and by the time Fisher completed his final stop he came out of the pits directly in front of me. So close in fact that I had to slow down not to run him over in T1 as he exited. I did get passed him later in the lap and was hoping the hold him at bay to get a 2nd place to Stanislav. Fisher and I went on to have just an epic battle, at one point gong two-wide through all of sec-2 and sec-3. Yes, we navigated through the uphill high speed right hander wheel-to-wheel and it was just amazing! I got him on that lap, but the next lap in that same corner I slid the rears all the way around the corner... with him right under my gearbox. Scary as hell, but the car managed to stay pointed the right direction just enough to not spin out. Fisher must have had to slow not to hit me... odd to have to slow in a full-throttle corner like that, very heads up. Again, i kept him behind for that lap too, but the next lap I finally broke down and slid wide just enough to give him 2nd place. I had nothing for him after that....

and only then realized that I was going to be a lap short on fuel. So I cranked it down and cruised it home for a 3rd place. Very happy to be on this podium... I'd have loved to have won of course, and could have had a good chance at it without the rear wing damage. It did haunt me all race long, but not severe... just enough to keep me a tick or two off where I could have been.

Again, great race guys and congratulations to all that finished. That was a tough one for sure.

Barcelona, here we come

Not my best race either. Thrown by the 150 board being missing (I wasn't even using it, just wondering where it had gone) and missed my braking point into the final turn on lap 2. Ran off track and span just trying to get the car stopped on the concrete coloured ice they put there. Hadn't been out there before, don't want to visit again!

The field was still tight, so I had to wait everyone to pass and set off again in last place. In that respect I did ok to get back to 6th, but really I fell into the trap of driving faster than I could maintain to gain back time from the spin, which in turn caused quite a few more mistakes and problems.