Grand Prix of Europe

Disco after 5 laps, rFactor is more stable? Nuff Said
Cya next time

SORRY CHEN!

lap 1 todd was spinning into my path. i avoiding him but i missed my bracking point then hit u.

very sorry <3

Very good race. Skipped qualifying as I had a mistake in my setup, so I exited on track and came back in near the end of the session. I started in the back and slowly-but-surely worked my way to the front. Near the end of the race, in the uphill chicane, I braked way down as Todd had spun, but accidently downshifted into 1st and spun, giving Brandon Warren an excellent run on me that ended with him taking 3rd. Had an excellent battle for about 5 - 6 more laps, but on lap 48 or so my front brakes disappeared and I lost my front wing in the ensuing meeting with the safety barrier in turn 1.

After that, I dived into the pits to fix my damage. Finished the final lap as gingerly as I could given the lack of front brakes. I'll have to consider the wear of the brakes in the next event and either adjust my brake points at the start of the race or near the end along with fiddling with my brake bias throughout to give them a break.

Really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to rF. Sat in the pits for what seemed ages and nothing was happening. There are no visual or audios ques to let you know if anything is being done.

Still I can see the F1's being fun so I'll prepare for the next race to see if I can improve things.

Well done to the winners and those that made full distance...

Andy, if you have the "HUD" on, there's a blue wrench icon that appears at the top of the screen. It disappears when they're done working on the car.

I don't know where you guys find all that "extra" speed in qualifying. I turn up the boost... what else is there to adjust?

That was a very tough race. I have to chalk up my win, at least partly, to luck. Im a little self satisfied that I brought it home in one piece. But I did spin a couple times in the chicane, and almost ended my race in the fast esses, but for an amazing save. :) I saw a lot of spins and crashes, lapped cars coming from out of nowhere, sliding accross the track inches from my nose. But I managed to avoid everything.

Very impressive drive by Steve. I kept pushing pretty much the whole time to catch him even though I was 40 seconds back, because I thought he might have to pit. Then he had a brake failure just a few laps from the end.

I loved the race.. started out good and made my way forward in the field from the get go. I even completed my first double overtake maneuever on turn one which was a lot of fun, it was unfortunate that i spun out a few turns later.

After the spin i lost a few positions and climbed my way up the field again and found myself firmly in 4th. I had some great battles including with Steve Smith while he was exiting the pits with our back and forth passing. Disaster struck when a backmarker slammed on his brakes in the straight going at around 190mph and caused me to slam into him when i was RIGHT behind him. Nick im sorry to have called you an idiot i was just very angry at the moment and was not thinking straight :). This incident cost me my first win if things played out the same way they did ( i was ahead of A. Windle at this moment in time.)

I lost a lot of time and position due to that incident and clawed my way from 8th to 3rd. 3rd place was not easy to get as Ray Gillespie was defending it very well but i capitalized on a mistake of his, passed him, and set my engine map back down to 3 expecting to leave him behind. This was definitely not the case as he fought back and gave the the most pressure i had ever received. If his tires would not have given out he would have had a great chance of passing me for the podium.

It was a great race and i look forward to the next one.. maybe i can gain the elusive win there. Congrats to all and especially Aubrey Windle on a drive well done.

Awww, man, I want to go again!

Puzzled about my brake failure on Lap 39. Had a pretty solid lock on third place at that point, too, and then the handling just disappeared one turn and I'm in the runoff. At first I thought I finally had overcooked my tires, but, no ... Took me two more troublesome laps and two extra pit stops to figure out I no longer had front brakes!

In testing I ran about a 75% distance, calculated the brake wear and figured I'd make it the whole 48 laps with about 1cm remaining. Brake failure on Lap 39 was the last thing on my mind today.

Good race otherwise, though.

Qualified third on the grid. Didn't launch very well, though, had a little too much backend spin, and lost five or six spots going into Turn 1.

I settled in on the first lap and was cruising as we headed up the long backstretch ... Clipped the kerbing on that slight dogleg like I had so many times before ...

Spinning like a top was the last thing on my mind here, but there I was ... There's a lot of runoff space and I quickly was sure I'd stop without hitting anything (although it evidently was something of a spectacle for the drivers behind me :-) ... The twirl through the grass did give me opportunity to reflect, though: "Er? Huh?"

I waited for all the cars on track to go past, pulled back on and finished Lap 1 at the back of the field. Wasn't going the way I had pictured it in my head, no, it wasn't.

Started chasing down the field, catching spots from slower guys or wherever opportunities opened. Man, opportunities are quick in these cars. One brief bobble on the other driver's part and that's your shot if you can get on the throttle. The hardest part is deciding which side of the road the other driver is going to take because that window is so brief. Happy to say had no incidents.

Worked my way up to a pretty healthy fourth in the final stint, third when Tim dropped back to the garage (didn't know at the time what happened to him) ... and then my own troubles started. It's too bad. Was having a good race, pushing it to make up for the first lap, trying to not make additional mistakes.

Was a good run. Congrats to all.

I'm with Todd, I wanna go again!!

Quite a few brake failures. You boys must just be torching them too hard in the braking zones. :P

On lap 1, Todd got loose on the grass at the last uphill chicane, so I backed off a bit going in, and got toasted from behind. Wasn't very happy ... be glad you weren't on Teamspeak Craig, because I might have let go some 4 letter words. hehe. No worries though, I got over it after a few laps. Started to get in a grove and was a happy boy again. ;)

Had a blast turning my BAR into a tank by putting as much fuel as it could suck in. Drove kind of like a V8 at that point. Since I was so far back, I basically had to push the whole way. Which in turn led to a few solo spins along the way. As the fuel burned off, started to come to life, and was able to get in a good rhythm. But my fuel strategy was all messed up. Had a 1 stopper planned, but now I would have to do 2.

I think I had a 20 second lead on Maurice before my last stop. Knew I had to make one last pit stop to do a quick splash, so figured I gotta really push to stretch, figured a pitstop would take roughly 45 secs. But Maurice hung on to keep the gap close. Came into the pits, and Dan in the other BAR was right ahead of me in pitlane! Doh! Hope we don't share a pit box. hehe. Luckily, there are enough garages here that we pitted nose to tail. Splashed in enough to get to the end, and came out about 12 sec behind Maurice. Turned up the boost, started to chase, but tires were toast from all that fuel I was running with, and he was able to hold the gap. Got a nice bonus when Dean crashed, and Todd slowed up. Not a bad finish considering how it started. :)

I want to do these bad boys every week! ;)

An amazing race filled with drama and killer speeds.

After a full morning's practice I felt very comfortable running 32's in race trim and knew a 2-stop race would do well against the 1-stoppers. I was pleased with a front-row start and happy to have retained 2nd place through the first lap.

After a few laps I noticed Steve was losing speed (or I was gaining) so I charged after him, cutting down his 2 second lead and applying the pressure without taking any big risks. Steve finally got out of shape exiting the hairpin and that was all I needed to blast past him. It all happened in a blink too, no time to think about it. Luckily my arms are faster then my brain and I navigated past him without touching.

From there I was able to open up enough of a gap by my first scheduled stop on lap 10-11 to retain the lead after exiting the pits. Shackleton was ahead, but I assumed he too was on a 2-stopper so the effective lead was still mine. I had a 10 second lead so turned the boost all the way down to conserve the car. Has my first spin soon after as I was braking for the hairpin. Nothing major, just off and back on but lost some time to Steve. Did the same thing in Turn-1 and allowed Steve to sneak past me which I got back when Steve had troubles with a lapped car.

Again, I opened up enough of a lead by my 2nd stop (18 togo) to pit and come back out still in the top spot. And again I tuned the boost way down to ride home. At this point I still had a 30 second lead over 2nd and I was content to lose 1-1.5 seconds a lap by driving very conservative. Just as I settled down into this mindset I was approaching the hairpin braking zone again. Got on the brakes and immediately spun around. Did the same thing a few more times that lap as I was trying to determine the problem. By the time I completed the next lap I was in 3rd place and struggling to maintain any control of the car.

Front brakes = complete failure and loss of the lead as well as any real hopes of finishing well. I parked the car in the garage but the crew did nothing. I returned to the track with a few laps remaining in the race to "finish", but it was a sour finish that is for sure.

Lots of fun and excitement in this race and I am really looking forward to the next one.

HOLY SNOT THESE THINGS ARE INTENSE!!

Well qualified with a killer lap. I was so pleased with myself!! Althoug it was not all peaches and roses. I did not realize that I would NOT get the fuel I used in qualifying back. Fortunately, I only did 4 laps in qualifying, and was able to adjust my second stop fuel level. But I ended up coming in 4 laps earlier than I had planned.

Race started, and I got a great start and pulled a gap to the field. BUT all was not well, the car got goofy on me on the very light fuel level. Tim hunted me down, and whizzed past me in the hairpin as I did my best dirt tracking psoosible in a F1 car. Came in for my first stop. No drama, other than 1 particular backmarker that thought it was wise to race the 1st place AND 2nd place car, even though said backmacker was a full lap down at this point. A few times I swore I saw a dive bomb manuever coming in my rear view mirro by said backmacker. That cost me the lead for the second time as Tim whizzed by again to take the lead from me. Made few mistakes in the second stint and lost a good bit of time to Tim. Came in for the third stop. Tim had the brake failure and I retook the lead. Then Dean started hounding me. He took my 3 second gap to him and shrunk it down to less than a second in about 5 laps. Then I guess he had brake failure because all I saw was him flying through the air. Now I am in the lead with a 40 second gap to second place. I drop the boost down and start coasting, at least I thought I was coasting. 4 laps to the end, BAM!!!!!! Brake failure. Like Tim, I think I spun 3 times in one lap. I limped around as best I could, but my broken car was no match for Aubrey :P. Aubrey got past me with two laps to go and thems the brakes or the breaks. The brake failure bugs me. I had the thickest rotors on the car, my brake pressure was set to 90% and had the brake ducts at 6 (max is 7). Oh well, live and learn - and that is how the cookie crumbles.

Tough race for sure. Enjoyed every intense moment. These cars are just plain wicked. Absolutely no time to think about anything.

Had fun and look forward to the next one (if Mr. Schedule allows.)