29-04-2013, 04:53 PM
So, what can I say, frustation is the happiest feeling I get from yesterday. Whenever things want to go wrong, they do go wrong.
I had myself so much prepared for this race. I knew the track difficultness, the big gap with winged sparks, the new 60's version which has brought tires to be more driver demanding.... but I did have the time to try setup changes and got myself a car nice to drive at the limit.
Qualy
--------
Marcel W was strong since the begining and brought his F2B spark to a laptime my Eve was unable to reach. DjC, on the other hand, was close to my laptimes, just ahead by less than a 1 tenth of second. I knew I had a change to be in front of him if I made a good lap. It was my final shot as session was about to end. I made a superb first sector, seing a personal -0.2XX which could bring me to second place, but then some chatting started to be done and that brought down some of my concentration, went a little wide at sector two and my fastest lap was gone.
Race 1
---------
Did a good start, a bit of sliding but enough to be able to take David's position at turn 1-2. Then at turn 3 I stupdly spun out when accelerating. Don't know how as that never happened in all the practice I had taken, maybe the too loud other cars' engines that I couldn't ear my own tires but anyway I went to the grass.
Recovered quickly and thought that if I raced at my laptimes I could still make it to third and recover all damaged done. Replanned my strategy and decided to go for an early pitstop to avoid losing time fighting other cars.
Well, here came the second time of my night. Entered the pits, and saw that David Coyne was pitting and he had already been asigned the same pit. There was no room for thinking and no room for parking beside him (As I was able to do in Kyalami when Vittorio and I had the same pit asigned) so I had to drive through the pitlane seeing some cars passing me by throught the finish line.
A couple of laps later decide to do my pitstop. 49 seconds, could have better (down to 46) but you can't do nothing to avoid that.
Went back on track and some laps later Yerke came out from the pits a in front of me. Probably his brakes were cold and at the braking for turn 3 he went wide and started spinning. I drove the inside line thinking "don't hit me, don't hit me", but.... bang! his car went straight to the rear of my car losing control of it spinning straight to the grass (I think this is the lap you saw me overtake you twice Jesus). It was just a few laps to the end, with a damaged car I just drove to the end in 6th place, wich could have been worse.
Race2
-------
Started well, getting out of trouble through the outside lane of turn 1-2. Clean at turn 3-4-5-6 but at the braking of turn 7 Something happend between Jason and Everon the suddenly stopped. I broke hard to avoid Everon but gave him a very little touch, the same happened to Bryan who just touched me slightly.
Suddenly I found that after this slight touches my car was seriously damaged, wheel turned about 20ยบ to the right to keep the car straight. This brought to a very hard driving just being able to keep a 1 sec behind Everon and Jason and holding Bryan, who went for an early pitstop. Later I went for my pitstop. This time it took an ethernal 51 seconds. Any chance of being in front of Everon, Jason or Bryan was gone.
After my pitstop I came out a little behind Bryan, but as laps went by he started struggling with his car, having trouble mainly at turn 8, just before the back straight missing the rubber lane. Two laps to the end he went really wide again on that turn and I went for his slipstream. Went to the left side for the braking and there we took contact. Looks like we take a different approach to turn 9 as in my driving view I felt as if he jsut went to the left while braking, but Bryan says he does a different line there (we made contact just before to the 100m signal).
As a consecuence of this Jason overtook as, Bryan went some seconds ahead and I just drove the extra damaged car to the end, back again in sixth place.
Race 3
--------
At this moment I just didn't mind what else could happen to me, just wanted to finish the race as I wasn't having any fun.
Did a good start but there was a big traffic ahead so just cared to get out of the first 4 turns safe. At turn 3 exit Neela moved to the right trying to avoid some crashing cars at the left but unfortunately I was on her right side and our wheels got hooked, also Jason was put to the grass as he was right on my right. An extra damaged car, back to the back of the grid, but I was confident I could still make a good recovery. Race was clean, some cars went to the pits early, others I overtook them on track and at half race I was 5 sec behind DjC who was leading the race. He went for his pitstop and I remained on track to at least put a lap on the lead and get extra points. Two laps to the end I went for my pitstop. If all went well I knew time gaps were enough to be in the battle for the win.
But hell rose again in pits and my pitstop took 52 seconds (I must fire all my crew) so as I was about to exit pits I saw 5 cars just go in front of me.
Finally ended 6th just 5seconds behind race leader, if pitstop would have taken the good 46sec it should take things could have been a lot different to me. In frustation as I crossed the finish line I turned off the computer and put the wheel in its box.
So the number of the beast came tonight "6th-6th-6th"
A race I had so much prepared went down the drain.
In my bad feelings I've just decided to take a two week break, not getting on the wheel untill the day before Brianza. I'll pick up the previous Brianza setup which worked pretty well then at the beginning of the season and just train that couple of days and get back to racing.
I had myself so much prepared for this race. I knew the track difficultness, the big gap with winged sparks, the new 60's version which has brought tires to be more driver demanding.... but I did have the time to try setup changes and got myself a car nice to drive at the limit.
Qualy
--------
Marcel W was strong since the begining and brought his F2B spark to a laptime my Eve was unable to reach. DjC, on the other hand, was close to my laptimes, just ahead by less than a 1 tenth of second. I knew I had a change to be in front of him if I made a good lap. It was my final shot as session was about to end. I made a superb first sector, seing a personal -0.2XX which could bring me to second place, but then some chatting started to be done and that brought down some of my concentration, went a little wide at sector two and my fastest lap was gone.
Race 1
---------
Did a good start, a bit of sliding but enough to be able to take David's position at turn 1-2. Then at turn 3 I stupdly spun out when accelerating. Don't know how as that never happened in all the practice I had taken, maybe the too loud other cars' engines that I couldn't ear my own tires but anyway I went to the grass.
Recovered quickly and thought that if I raced at my laptimes I could still make it to third and recover all damaged done. Replanned my strategy and decided to go for an early pitstop to avoid losing time fighting other cars.
Well, here came the second time of my night. Entered the pits, and saw that David Coyne was pitting and he had already been asigned the same pit. There was no room for thinking and no room for parking beside him (As I was able to do in Kyalami when Vittorio and I had the same pit asigned) so I had to drive through the pitlane seeing some cars passing me by throught the finish line.
A couple of laps later decide to do my pitstop. 49 seconds, could have better (down to 46) but you can't do nothing to avoid that.
Went back on track and some laps later Yerke came out from the pits a in front of me. Probably his brakes were cold and at the braking for turn 3 he went wide and started spinning. I drove the inside line thinking "don't hit me, don't hit me", but.... bang! his car went straight to the rear of my car losing control of it spinning straight to the grass (I think this is the lap you saw me overtake you twice Jesus). It was just a few laps to the end, with a damaged car I just drove to the end in 6th place, wich could have been worse.
Race2
-------
Started well, getting out of trouble through the outside lane of turn 1-2. Clean at turn 3-4-5-6 but at the braking of turn 7 Something happend between Jason and Everon the suddenly stopped. I broke hard to avoid Everon but gave him a very little touch, the same happened to Bryan who just touched me slightly.
Suddenly I found that after this slight touches my car was seriously damaged, wheel turned about 20ยบ to the right to keep the car straight. This brought to a very hard driving just being able to keep a 1 sec behind Everon and Jason and holding Bryan, who went for an early pitstop. Later I went for my pitstop. This time it took an ethernal 51 seconds. Any chance of being in front of Everon, Jason or Bryan was gone.
After my pitstop I came out a little behind Bryan, but as laps went by he started struggling with his car, having trouble mainly at turn 8, just before the back straight missing the rubber lane. Two laps to the end he went really wide again on that turn and I went for his slipstream. Went to the left side for the braking and there we took contact. Looks like we take a different approach to turn 9 as in my driving view I felt as if he jsut went to the left while braking, but Bryan says he does a different line there (we made contact just before to the 100m signal).
As a consecuence of this Jason overtook as, Bryan went some seconds ahead and I just drove the extra damaged car to the end, back again in sixth place.
Race 3
--------
At this moment I just didn't mind what else could happen to me, just wanted to finish the race as I wasn't having any fun.
Did a good start but there was a big traffic ahead so just cared to get out of the first 4 turns safe. At turn 3 exit Neela moved to the right trying to avoid some crashing cars at the left but unfortunately I was on her right side and our wheels got hooked, also Jason was put to the grass as he was right on my right. An extra damaged car, back to the back of the grid, but I was confident I could still make a good recovery. Race was clean, some cars went to the pits early, others I overtook them on track and at half race I was 5 sec behind DjC who was leading the race. He went for his pitstop and I remained on track to at least put a lap on the lead and get extra points. Two laps to the end I went for my pitstop. If all went well I knew time gaps were enough to be in the battle for the win.
But hell rose again in pits and my pitstop took 52 seconds (I must fire all my crew) so as I was about to exit pits I saw 5 cars just go in front of me.
Finally ended 6th just 5seconds behind race leader, if pitstop would have taken the good 46sec it should take things could have been a lot different to me. In frustation as I crossed the finish line I turned off the computer and put the wheel in its box.
So the number of the beast came tonight "6th-6th-6th"
A race I had so much prepared went down the drain.
In my bad feelings I've just decided to take a two week break, not getting on the wheel untill the day before Brianza. I'll pick up the previous Brianza setup which worked pretty well then at the beginning of the season and just train that couple of days and get back to racing.
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