Scuderia Internazionale Grand Prix

Qual: Went pretty badly. I hadn't done much practice on the day so was a little rusty going into qual. I was stuck behind Tristan and Steve for the first lap of qual, I expected Tristan to pass Steve so I could follow through, but for some reason Tristan sat behind. Steve was very slow in the haipin and as Tristan was just sitting behind there was a bit of a log jam and I ran into it, damaging my car. I thought I did pretty well to get a low 1:12 considering the damage.

Race: David jumped the start so I knew I didn't have to pass him so I took it easy. He pulled in and I expected Tristan to walk off into the distance so I kept my eye on Heinz instead. On about lap 5 I had a safe distance to Heinz and realised I only had 3 seconds to Tristan infront, so he wasn't walking away as I expected. I figured he was probably on low boost and conserving but I thought I might as well put some pressure on and see if he would make a mistake. I was suprised to see him pull in about 5 laps before I was due, and I really hammered out some quick laps to try and leapfrog him in the pits. I didn't manage that but I exited right behind him. I expected him again to walk off into the distance but to my suprise I actually was about half a second quicker, and had some serious straight line speed. I attempted to pass him into the chicane on the outside but Tristan got it badly wrong under braking and spun into me. I got away first so took a 3 second lead.
I worked really hard over the next few laps to keep the gap, but unfortunatley Steve spun infront of me in the hairpin and I lost all that time. That was especially frustrating because I'd already lost a second and a half sitting behind him for 2 corners, but whatever. That put Tristan right on my tail and I just had to defend until the pitstops. Tristan did make a pass on me when I made a mistake out of the chicane before the hairpin, but I was close enough to outbrake him in the hairpin and take it back. Tristan moved slightly under brakes so there was a little contact but I still held my line and made the pass.
Tristan again pitted first, so I put in some hot laps and would have rejoined infront of him, but I forgot to turn off the fix damage option after the Steve crash so I lost 6 seconds (only rejoined 3 behind Tristan, very frustrating).
I managed to close in slightly on him and he made his first mistake, a spin in the hairpin. I took the lead and had a comfy little gap that I tried to maintain. I was sitting on 3 boost managing to hold the gap so I was extremely confident that I could hold on until the end. Then I came up on Omar. I got within a carlength of him on the backstraight so pulled out nice and early but he wasn't playing ball and stayed infront into the chicane, where he held me up a little, but I got a run and passed him on the next straight. But that wasn't enough for old Omar, he decided to race me into the hairpin and gave me a shot to my right rear, giving me damage and losing most of my lead. Half a lap later the car wobbled under braking and I spun, losing the lead completely.
In my anger I increased the boost to 8 and tried to catch Tristan. I nearly got there when I found Steve Wood parked on the inside of one of the chicanes and had to go grasstracking. I put the boost up even further just before my stop, which I screwed up by parking too far back, that lost me 5 seconds. Then on the lap out of the pits the engine blew. Sigh.
Three races this year that I could have won that have been screwed one way or the other. Silverstone was my fault, Monza was the car's fault, and Montreal was a combination of things. Maybe I can get a bit of good luck for the last two races? Too much to ask? Yeah probably....

Cya in Germany!

Tim wrote
"Again, your focus should be on a stable setup that will get you 66 laps. I say 66, because you should expect to finish a few laps down from the leaders."

And i was thinking the same, 1st race in this serie, total rookie, I never looked with enthusiasm this mod....
But all went better than expected, maybe just big luck, but 4th is good result :)

PS I even finish ahead of Tim for just 10 sec...now I should expect something cruel on me? :P joke

Poor qual, then to make it worse I missed the start LOL.

Started from pit lane with car overheating. Couldn't find my pace after driving the FabCar event.

About 8-10 laps into stint 2 I caught up to Greg and could see he was a little ragged. Then I misjudged his braking and ran right into the back of him knocking his and my wings. Again, my apology Greg.

Made my way around to the pits took fuel and repairs and off to join the battle again. I think I was running 10th at the time.

Due too attrition and peoples brake failures I gained another 3 positions to finish in the points.

Pretty frustrating driving faster than the cars ahead of me but being 1 lap down to them.

Grats to Tristan on the win, sorry I haven't been much support this season, have fun on your vacation.

Just missed pole by .13.....jumped start......ended up way back in lots of traffic and quickly damaged front end when a car spun in front of me at hairpin. Traffic took a huge chunk of time away from me a few times, but was still closing in fast on Heinz for second with 10 to go. I was actually very, very happy at this point considering all the melodrama. Tim was way behind.....would of grabbed 8 points. :-)

Then one of my brakes blew.

*#$%!!!!

:-(

I had a tough morning. Instead of spending a few solid hours preparing for the race, I spent it trying to figure out what had suddenly gone wrong with my gaming PC. Out of nowhere, it had started locking up like a bitch. I suffered three system lockups in about 10 minutes of driving. I thought I was going to have to pull out, but hoping some fresh air would help, I opened the PC right up and pointed an oscillating house fan into it and got on the track. It ran fine after that...right until qualifying. I had a lockup after only putting in 1 or 2 timed laps, so I had to get rebooted and get back on the server and wasn't able to do anymore, putting me 8th on the grid, which was pretty decent considering I could have got a half second better if I hadn't crashed.

Anyways, despite the lockup in qualifying, I had put this much time into it anyways, so I wasn't going to back out and decided to run the race anyways. Fortunately, no more computer issues arose.

I had a really rough first 15 laps, having to pit twice to do repairs. Traffic was tough today. I think everyone got a taste of it.

I spent most of the race running below 10th place, but persisted and pulled myself up to 9th by the end. On the last lap, I saw Leon suddenly start bleeding time like a dying animal and I could smell that point for the taking. I knew that it was going to be the final lap based on tristans laps so I put the boost up and stepped on it. I pulled in about 15 or 20 seconds on him but was still 3 short by the end. Well met, Leon.

Sorry I wasn't able to do better while sitting in for Darren. Good luck finishing off the season, Predators.

Congratulations to everyone, and especially my friend Tristan who once again demonstrates that he is superb and a gentleman.
I think I am done with F1 for this season. I should not have been here today to begin with, but I figured I'd do my quiet race and be done with it. Quiet my sweet pattoo. I am still amazed at how hard some people race in the opening phase of a 70 lap race. There is no way in Quebec's green pastures that someone who is two seconds a lap quicker should be sticking their nose around the Esses in the back. Wait for a straight. You'll make it. It's just amazing how some of you who spend three weeks prepping for this race then decide to have a go on at the most impossible moments. Had to spend two stops fixing repairs. When I came out after the second one, I realized my mood and concentration would have just risked taking a championship contender out and that would have been terrible. I pitted and hit ESC. I have not watched the replay, so anything I have said here is on pure emotion, but at the end of the day the fault is mine for being where I should not have been. Scott, I hope I wasn't one of the culprits-- I tried to be predictable with the leaders. The only time I was not so much (at the hairpin, I think with Tim was when I realized I should leave).

I ran a consistent if slowish first stint, school boy error with initial fuel load, started with 30 laps worth instead of the 23 i intended. I only got to lap 20 before tyres were shot. Pitted came out around 10th and carried on with my consistent but slow pace...I decided that i was going to pit early and change to a 4 stopper as Steve and Justin were catching me quick, pitted and came out just in front of Steve. This where my trouble started. I had completely lost my rhythm thinking about my pit stop. Steve spun coming up to the hairpin and i spun on the exit, we kind of stop both letting each other go but neither of us moved, sorry steve! if i had some lights i would have flashed you to go :)

With my rhythm completely lost, David Fisher came up to lap me at the chicane, i was going to let him through in the braking zone but wasnt sure if he was close enough so i looked back and saw him flying towards me, dont know if i braked too early (sorry David if i did) or David braked to late but i just froze for a second and probably made things worse but thankfully he missed me and managed to rejoin the track.

Sorry to Greg Pritchard who i t-boned at t1, miss judged yours and Davids speed into braking zone, i was on a fresh set of rubber at the time.

Francesco, if you're referring to our coming together, I understand what you're saying, given what your point of view would have been, but if you watch the replay from my point of view, you might see it as such:

I was obviously faster than you as I had been pulling you in for a while (while holding off an attack from behind all the while). Coming out of the chicane toward the esses, you made a mistake and were clearly very slow coming out. I thought because I had a way faster exit than you, that you would see me attacking before the ess and not risk trying to hold it off. I was wrong, and you used almost the full line into the first part of the ess. My wheels were beside your driver, but I saw you squeezing me out and as such, I stayed left and let you have it. As you said, I am not going to risk it there. However, what happened right after that was nothing to do with me trying to push. I was driving how I normally would, but you seemed to have a _very_ unusual line. Before the left hander, we usually turn in to the right side of the track and then brake at the visual brake markers. Since you had just squeezed me, I had gone far left to avoid being too close to you, but it seems like you swung wide left with me and then (maybe just a nervous raction), you got on the brakes really early). When I hit your rear-end, you were braking much earlier than anyone else had been, and I suspect much earlier than you normally would have. I wanted to make sure that it wasn't just me charging into you and I looked in slow-motion and you can see your driver's head lurch forward (meaning you hit the brakes) in an irregular place.

You talked about being predictable and steady, well, I wasn't predicting you to brake in such a place and that's why we came together. Sorry for my part in it, but I don't think that it was wreckless on my part.

Brian, you did seem to brake really early, and i did almost crash badly, but I closed my eyes and a few seconds later when I opened them again I was ok but lost a ton of time. :-)

You and a couple others held me up pretty well a few times today, but later in the race each of you were much better. Maybe you guys weren't seeing a blue flag. I know that when I left the pits after one of my stops, I entered the track in front of Tristan and Scott, but never received a blue flag until after i thought I hasd spotted them in my mirrors at T2 and moved offline.

I can't blame anyone else but myself for today's result. Without my stupid mistakes (jumping start and duct setting one click too low apparently), I should of at least had 2nd. Judging by practice this week, today's lap times, and Q, I should of been able to give Tristan a run for 1st. Coulda, should, woulda has been the story of my season. Need to get my head out of my a**.

I agree with scott, there was someone racing here today, that was just impossible to judge, and very scary to get passed ... He just did not know when to give up and concede he was being lapped .. raced me every single time i was trying to get passed. the only good thing, was knowing the person behind, who caught me because of this battle, would have to go through the same thing... not very cool though.

I was really mentally prepared for this race, I've had a score to settle since the last race here which was my first, and today, i got what i came for, and did one better :)

all that talk of 11's and 12's had me worried for a while, i wasnt even close to those kind of times..... i just stuck to a 2 stop strat and had a really stable car, that produced some really good laps for me, was really enjoying driving this car today, love this track ...

Was really alone the whole race, Tristan and Scott pulled off like bats outa hell, they were just gone from the word go ... seeing david dive into the pits really shocked me, but i knew it would be close at the end of the race as i was sure his pace would see himself challenging me at the end, im just lucky his car failed on him, was a relief!

i guess my race was gift wrapped today, tim didnt get to the grid on time, scotts departure .. all worked out well for me.

Grats to all finishers

Thanks Justin, your help is appreciated, a finish is as good as points!