GP'79: Interlagos

Congrats to the podium.

What can I say about this race? I was planning to keep my pace from the back so I could finish, but I felt I could fight a few spots and, when trying to push, I went offroad and damaged my suspension so the car was undriveable and had to park it.

Good race everyone, see you in Kyalami.

Very entertaining race. I got off the grid surprisingly well with my very long 1st gear. Seemed like everyone ahead of me lost a lot of speed when they grabbed 2nd gear. Came off turn 2 in 4th place right on Roberto's tail. Had a little bit of a scare when he spun in the first slow corner. I was already hard on the brakes, but I managed to just squeeze by on the inside. Roberto was lapping about 2 seconds quicker than me, but like he said- he had a little spin every time he caught me. :)

Milan passed Roberto at some point, but I was too busy concentrating on the road to realize it. He outbraked me in the wide, slow left-hander. He ran wide, so I tried to late apex and repass him, but he closed the door just in time. Very nice pass. I only noticed later that it was Milan's Tyrrell that had passed me instead of Roberto's.

In the closing laps, with Roberto back on my tail again, I made a mistake coming off turn 3/4. He came alongside me on the outside approaching the next corner. He had to turn in fairly early to make the corner. Unfortunately my car was right there, and we got tangled up and both went straight accross the grass, with Roberto doing a half-spin. Fortunately we were both able to finish.

Congrats to Oliver and company.

OMG,what a race. It did not go as planned at all. I thought I had a good setup and I could do low 32s in practice in race trim with lots of fuel. SO I was expecting low 30s as the race progressed. Man,I was wrong :-(

I never got into a rhythm and I was having problems doing 33s . Then about 15 laps in I got problems with oversteer so I was constantly fighting the car. Very frustrating.

Came in to fast in T1 and was unable to correct the oversteer and I headed for the barriers with my car flying through the air :-)

I thought that was the end and was prepared for a big smash and total wreckage . But no, I drove right through it !! WTF. For a split second I was happy,but then the server decided to DQ me ,I guess for cutting the track LOL.

Well, I'd better forget this and think about the next race instead :-)

Congrats to everyone who made it and thank you all for joining. It's always a pleasure racing with you people.

Oliver: man you are fast :-) Good thing the credit system will force you into slower cars,but I don't think it matters much LOL

Very interesting race in the Alfa Romeo. First 9 laps were just like any other i did in practice. After lap 9
it seemed like a nut and bolt would fall off every 2 or 3 laps, always in a middle of a turn. Or maybe there was a big magnet that someone would turn on pull me off track.

In the end, happy to get my 1 point.

I think I'll try a different car for Kyalami.

Kevin

Yes the lap times up front were a surprise!
I hadn't raced here before so I had no idea what was a typcial fast time and I need something to aim for to really get much enthusiasm to test and improve.
Though I had an F3000 race and then an 8 hour Enduro for the days before so I didn't get to practice the F179 except the day (1 hour?) with Kevin a few days earlier. And that felt good enough to be ok - I thought....

Worse was that I had no brake markers and had to go by, ummm I don't know what... just watch the corner coming and a guess for how far from the visible apex it was time to slow down.

But worse again (!) was that not testing a heavy car for lots of laps meant surprises turn up later! I had not done more than 5 or 6 laps in a row before and I found in the race that by lap 15 or so the rear brakes were locking way too easily and thus began causing many spin offs. The second one on about lap 18 shredding my tires from 3 green and 1 just starting yellow, to all yellow when I slid straight down the road sideways for a long way!

So originally I had started with an aim to chase Oliver for as long as I could, seeing he was 1sec or more faster! But to keep pressure on him to hopefully error before he was gone! Then I backed off to settle for 2nd, seeing 3rd was way back after a while. But then ruining the car (tires and rear wing a bit) so I could not even keep that gap to 3rd anymore.
And when Milan passed me for 2nd I had to chase him at max pace for as long as I could, under the duress of my wounded and dangerous car, just to hope I could make him error under prssure before he got away too far - but all it did was make me lose it a few more times. Which was OK seeing I had 1 minute to spare behind by then anyway.

But at least there was no game crash this time!

And I better put in more time next race!

Interesting race, but i was way off pace.
Good start, half lap in 3rd and already a spin.
I dont know why but with the Tyrrell i've big brakes problems.
Nice battle with Milan and Aubrey for some laps, but it was clear Milan was much more faster and me slightly more than Aubrey.
Still i didn't want to start a 3 car accident, so I waited.
From lap 15 to 30 it was a sequence of mistakes that made me increase or decrease my gap to Aubrey from 10 to 1 second...and after I spin! And this for 3 or 4 times!!!
Last attempt to pass him was in a dangerous place, the fast chicane after turn 4 ("descida do lago", spell), Aubrey made a little error on the exit..we come wheels by wheels, I was in the right line, but we had a little touch and we went off...luckyly that wired traps didnt brake my car (few laps to finish the race!), so i kept my spot, end of race.

Frustrating race. It had started very well, with sensible driving by all for the first lap. Then, following Christian on the 3rd lap, I touched a curb in T3, which pulled me onto the grass, and into a spin. With the field still very close at that time, I had to let a lot of cars by before I could rejoin the circuit. During my trip over the grass, my steering had been damaged, and from then on, it was very difficult to commit to corners with any confidence. I'd hoped to maybe grab a point, but steady drives up front, left me in a frustrating 9th. My own fault I guess, for the early error.

hey

thx guys for the congratulations,

well, i think everything was perfect for me yesterday, i had a good stable setup and a bit practice on this track (did 2 20laps stints on fr and sat, but i didnt know if im fast enough until qualifying :) In Race first what i thought peter is on hard tyres so i tried to run without any slides and to brake hard...got yellow tyres in lap 29..that was ok :)

I´m looking forward to the next race...but hmm which car, lol maybe t3 for kya hehe

cu

Oliver,I've found juts the vehicle for you next race:

problem is you can probably still beat the crap out of us with that LOL ;-)

Pretty well run for me, except first lap, where I spunned and re joined at last place, sorry Thomas if you spunned also due try to avoid my car.
During my come back had a several good fights and most exciting was one with 3 of us Aubrey, Roberto and me. When I finally past Aubrey I lock at the timing and Peter was 24 sec ahead. Well he help me with few errors and I catch him after some 10 laps. Then he did another little error and I got 2nd. position with more then minute behind Oliver.
Im very glad to my race lap times which rapidly goes down approaching the finish, so I learnd fast -:).
Congrats to Oliver for really fantastic pace, and to Peter and other for good fight.
See you.

-- Milan Milicevic --