British Grand Prix

I had a great race as i qualified bad (wrong tires) and had the wrong strategy but i had to make the best of it. I immediately stormed through the field and by my first pit i found myself in 6th. I maintained this position and before my last pit stop i overtook George Pol. Things look great for me to finish sixth with less than 10 laps to go. However an "apple software update" bs came up on my computer screen kicking me out of my game.. I dont know how to stop those things! By the time i got rfactor window back up george had passed me. I had caught up to him with a lot of push on my engine and overtook and outbraked him which i do not think he realized i was coming so suddenly on his inside. He turned in and hit me causing me to spin and he got away with it. However these things happen. I tried to push my engine some more but it did not like that and ended up blowing.

Racing can be a headache

Even though it's one of my best tracks and I love driving here, my luck at Silverstone these past three seasons is ridiculous. Power in my neighborhood goes out on lap 30. I looked at the black screen and yelled, "Noooooooooooooo!!!". Unbelievable.

Was having a great race and headed for at least 8 points and now I'm once again in a huge hole to start the season.

Tristan beat me to pole by .3. Turned out he had a couple of laps less fuel, my Q lap wasn't A+, and I had miscalculated my fuel and had one gallon too much in each stint, so I was in good shape on pace for the race. He jumped out to a quick 2 second lead to start the race, and then was about .3 quicker for the rest of the stint. Killed me in third sector it seemed. Had some traffic on my in lap which cost me a second or so, and was about 6 or 7 down going into the final sector of my in lap. When I exited the pits, I (as usual) had lost a few more (*edit* 5 seconds!--WTF??
) seconds to Tristan and was 10.5 down. I always seem to lose 3 seconds per pits stop to him, which is a major problem that I can't seem to correct.

The Vindexworks guys were already about 25 seconds behind after 29 laps, so it was just Tristan I had to worry about for the rest of the race.

The second stint we were running identical lap times (except when in traffic) and I was hoping to crawl back a few seconds over the second half of the race, and pray Tristan had some trouble. I was going to go one extra quick lap before that second stop because of that extra fuel.

All of a sudden, bam!.....power is out and I'm completely @#$%#@. I absolutely love these races, but it is such a bi**h when stuff like this happens.

I feel ya man.. i feel ya. This is the heartbreaks of racing. It is times like these we have to just keep our heads together :)

Finally some points again, allthough it didn't look that way in the beginning of the race. But doing your laps and not messing things up gets you somewhere eventually. Lost a few positions in the first laps of the race but that is becoming common for me. Had some dices with Brandon Warren who first made an impossible move on the inside of The Vale and taking out a backmarker (I believe it was Chris in a Red Bull) in the process. But he got away with that without damage. Later on he tried a pass on the inside a turn earlier as he already descibed. Eventually his bad luck with the engine brought me 6th and 3 points. They feel really great after a good season 7 but a bad season 8 without any points at all. See ya all at the next on. Grats to the podium. I could have been on 1 lap down but Tristan was so close in his last lap so I decided to slow down to let him by saving me from doing another lap. :-) Great driving Tristan.

Terrible luck David!

I decided to run a two stopper as in testing, hard tyres seemed to last 20 laps pretty well. Qualified in 10th place which was as high as I could have hoped and moved up two or three places in the opening laps. Some of the fast guys who had bad starts motored along by and I was back in 9th or 10th. 15 laps in and I ran over the outside curb on the exit of the last turn which spat me into the wall. Lost front and rear wing. Looked about for any traffic and once I saw there was none, I moved across the track into the pits. 31 seconds worth of repairs later, I was on my way.

No reason to change the strategy, but my second stint would have to be longer. Was taking care of the tyres a bit more on this stint compared to the first stint where I ran them ragged. Reasonably uneventful stint, but had to keep a close eye in my mirrors as the leaders were going by to put me a lap down. Got all the way up to lap 40, short fueled a bit as I figured Tristan would lap me twice at least.

Thank heavens he did! Steve and Darren on fresh tyres, were all over me like a bad rash and I did everything possible (legally of course :) ) to keep them behind me. One lap it was Steve piling on the pressure and the next lap it was Darren. They were both miles faster than me, but I hogged the inside line wherever possible and somehow kept the car in eighth. Positively thrilled when I saw the chequered flag as I thought we'd have to do at least one more lap which would have meant tenth place instead of eighth, without a doubt. Woohoo, got a point! :)

Congrats Tristan, fabulous pace! Great job by VWI for grabbing an early season lead in the constructors.

Yeah george i almost forget that one move. It was not chris melton it was a red car. Whoever i did that to im sorry. I had a major brain fade and thought i had more room to brake. If the backmarker was not in the way i would have been able to pull it off. However that was a brain fade and there you have it. Congrats on the position George you raced well

I had a really good feeling coming into this race because with the break between seasons I was able to get in a great deal of practice and even last season, Silverstone felt really comfortable to me. Last season I was shaping up for a certain points finish before my connection dropped, so this time I was determined first to finish and then points secondly.

Qualifying went extremely well. My qualifying plan worked exactly as I had planned it. I got out near the front with space to work. Did some laps and then pitted for rubber and was able to get 2 flyers afterward, the second of which netted me my personal best at this track with 1:18.186. Starting 3rd in this field had my hands shaking like you wouldn't believe.

Race started out pretty cleanly. Heinz had a line on the inside of copse, so I stayed out and settled in to the race in 4th. Unfortunately later that lap, someone made an ambitious pass in bridge (the turn that dips down and goes right uphill toward priory where sector 3 starts). As I feared, he came into me side-to-side and I took rear wing damage. It wasn't enough to force an immediate pit, but the car was a bit loose in the rear. As a result, not even half a lap later, my car got away from me coming out through becketts and into chapel and I couldn't save it and landed in the barrier. Lost front wing and took lots of damage around the car (both front suspensions, nose cone damage). So, pit was forced there and I restarted my race dead last with no possibility of doing my 3-stop strategy because of the soft tires.

From there I put my nose to it and gobbled up positions as fast as I could and in the end I drove it home behind Heinz for a 4/5 team finish which was a decent result given the issues we both encountered.

I would obviously have preferred to avoid first lap drama, but it admittedly made my race more challenging and possible more interesting. I will hope to improve on this result at Sepang.

Congrats to the podium finishers and to Heinz for a good finish considering issues he was faced with.

Tough luck to David. What doesn't kill you!

Well, so far that was the sloppiest race in my short F1 career, so I am quite thankful that I came out with a 3rd place finish.

Qualified 6th with an average lap time. Want to apologize to Mike Erickson for roughing him up a few times during the session. Was on quick laps when I got to him and got by him aggressively on during those times so, very sorry if I rubbed ya the wrong way, Mike.

As for the race, I got past Tim on the start and pressured Justin, I believe, for 4th. On the 2nd lap, he went off on hanger straight and was able to get around him and focus on 3rd. By the middle of the stint, the tires were becoming junk and Tim soon got by me until he pitted a handful laps later.

After the first stop, I was able to leapfrog Tim and stay in 3rd. A few laps later, I had an accident with Chris and rammed him in the rear under braking which spun me around, but appeared to leave him unscathed. This let Tim go by me and a few laps after that, Heinz went around me to take 4th. The rest of the stint, I just did my best to stay within sight of both Tim and Heinz. After Heinz pitted and David discoed, I was in 3rd, chasing down Tim for 2nd.

I thought I had a good chance of snagging 2nd at this point since it appeared I was better on pit stops than Tim and could at least keep him in front of me if I had the chance. But I blew that all away after I sped going into the pits and was given a drive through. I lost about 10 seconds to Tim and Heinz and thought I couldn't regain it back. But after Heinz pitted for his 3rd stop and Tim had a brief spin, I was back in the battle for 2nd. Little by little I closed the interval down as Tim did his best to conserve fuel. On the final lap, I brought the distance between us down to less than one second and was beginning apply some serious pressure. Coming out of the final corner, I turned the boost all the way up to see if I could try to draft past him but it wasn't enough and came up short by 3 tenths. Oh well...made for a close finish anyway. Besides, it was a good points day for team Vindex...didn't need to force the issue :).

Grats to Tristan on a blazing win. This track can go to hell but it did make for a great race :)

Cya guys at Sepang!

Qualified off my expected pace but picked up six positions in the first three laps to eighth. Had to back off the car ahead of me till I could line up a proper passing move, which allowed the driver behind to close the gap. Said driver made first hasty passing attempt and slid right through tight apex all way to far side of the track, so I turned in and took position back. We weren't done, though, and at next corner contact was made. I got turned up and around on nose of other car and snuffed into wall, losing both wings. Doing the math, looks like I might've eked out an otherwise enjoyable finish but for the minute-plus lost screwing around there.

Not sure when will be next race for me. We'll see.

Got off to a good start for my first F1 race, passing mistakes made in the first lap. Cruzin in 10th made a silly mistake and took wall damage about the 11th lap. Followed by another rookie mistake, did not take tires on the repair stop, re-pit. Those blunders put me last. Worked hard from there, happy to have move up a few positions.

The experience was just as intense as I expected. Enjoyed every up and down moment.

Grats to my teammate (Darren) for almost getting in the points his first F1 race. 9th.