09-12-2013, 02:10 AM
My best sim-racing performance so far, no doubt (not very experienced) 
It had been even better with some close battle through the race, but it doesn't really matter... I did a "vettel" and pulled away first lap to never let go of the lead. I'm really happy anyway.
QUALI
My plan was to leave the pit first, but George were faster. It made things more complicated... I knew he was on hot-lap instantly because he drove through the third lane, so he had no responsibility to let me past when I was going to catch him. So my choice was to just go for it and hopefully get past him without causing an accident, or wait a minute or so. But it was never really an option because even if I had waited 1 minute, there's no guarantee I would not catch him at the end of the lap or even worse - next lap (the REAL hot-lap). So I left pit and hoped for the best... But it ended with disaster. His early braking surprised me and in panic I smashed the brakes but it was too late. Rather than crashing into George, I went off track and crashed into the guardrail. ESC and restart from pit :-[ I was upset and a bit stressed, and had a hard time trying to concentrate. My next two laps (timed out-lap + one hotlap) was far from perfect. I made many small mistakes and went wide in some corners, and it felt like I had no grip. Some slower guys pulled over to let me past although I don't think they had to... Very nice of you guys, big thanks (cosimo and edwin I think?) :-) I managed 7:13 and improved it to 7:09 next lap even with some mistakes. At this point I believed I was far from safe, because I was totally sure Marcel had more speed and soon manage to get below 7:10 : I did one more try with fresh tires and less fuel. I turned off all HUD because I didn't want to see my split times and so on... I managed to get a clean lap on my very last try and improved my laptime to 7:08 which gave me pole. Relieved
RACE
I was nervous at the start grid, but I did a good start. No one was close enough to attack me at the first corner. I was very nervous and felt more tension in my legs than ever before and it made the braking much harder :o But somehow I managed to get away from David and Marcel (I thought it was Marcel but found out later that it was Roland). Very good start for me, to be able to open up a little gap and no need to worry about drivers trying to overtake. At this point I should be able to relax because I knew my race pace was really good as I could push the car on my limit for the whole stint with very small time losses, but I could still not relax... But I found a good pace, lapping 7:12's.
Every lap, at the "Karusell" corner, I saw the driver in 2nd place, a few seconds behind me (I thought it was Marcel but it was Roland) and he was apparently driving the same laptimes as me. I did my pitstop at the end of lap 6, as planned, and lost 1st place to Roland. I was not sure he knew about the pitstop rule but less than a lap later he had left the race (fuel), and I was driving on my own and could not see the driver in 2nd. I lapped a couple of drivers and it was no problems as all drivers pulled off the racing line. Only when I was going to lap Mel Fisk, I had some trouble... He was driving in the middle of the track and it didn't look like he was aware of the blue flag. But then he sticked to the inside and slowed down, so I took the outside to pass him but suddenly he swerved to the outside just a little... Only time I got really scared in the whole race ??? But everything went fine and I finished 1st ;D
My quali session was more eventful than my race, but it was still very exciting. I'm not using HUD that allows me to see who's behind, and that made it more exciting I think. And maybe it helped me because if I knew David was +1 minute behind I would slow down more and maybe loose my concentration and crash.
Thanks SR4L for hosting this event. It's so different from the other events in the season. Thanks to Djc for his update so we could run this track WD all who finished the race. Only 3 retired (my brother lost connection). Fantastic. No track is impossible now, right?
It had been even better with some close battle through the race, but it doesn't really matter... I did a "vettel" and pulled away first lap to never let go of the lead. I'm really happy anyway.QUALI
My plan was to leave the pit first, but George were faster. It made things more complicated... I knew he was on hot-lap instantly because he drove through the third lane, so he had no responsibility to let me past when I was going to catch him. So my choice was to just go for it and hopefully get past him without causing an accident, or wait a minute or so. But it was never really an option because even if I had waited 1 minute, there's no guarantee I would not catch him at the end of the lap or even worse - next lap (the REAL hot-lap). So I left pit and hoped for the best... But it ended with disaster. His early braking surprised me and in panic I smashed the brakes but it was too late. Rather than crashing into George, I went off track and crashed into the guardrail. ESC and restart from pit :-[ I was upset and a bit stressed, and had a hard time trying to concentrate. My next two laps (timed out-lap + one hotlap) was far from perfect. I made many small mistakes and went wide in some corners, and it felt like I had no grip. Some slower guys pulled over to let me past although I don't think they had to... Very nice of you guys, big thanks (cosimo and edwin I think?) :-) I managed 7:13 and improved it to 7:09 next lap even with some mistakes. At this point I believed I was far from safe, because I was totally sure Marcel had more speed and soon manage to get below 7:10 :
I did one more try with fresh tires and less fuel. I turned off all HUD because I didn't want to see my split times and so on... I managed to get a clean lap on my very last try and improved my laptime to 7:08 which gave me pole. Relieved RACE
I was nervous at the start grid, but I did a good start. No one was close enough to attack me at the first corner. I was very nervous and felt more tension in my legs than ever before and it made the braking much harder :o But somehow I managed to get away from David and Marcel (I thought it was Marcel but found out later that it was Roland). Very good start for me, to be able to open up a little gap and no need to worry about drivers trying to overtake. At this point I should be able to relax because I knew my race pace was really good as I could push the car on my limit for the whole stint with very small time losses, but I could still not relax... But I found a good pace, lapping 7:12's.
Every lap, at the "Karusell" corner, I saw the driver in 2nd place, a few seconds behind me (I thought it was Marcel but it was Roland) and he was apparently driving the same laptimes as me. I did my pitstop at the end of lap 6, as planned, and lost 1st place to Roland. I was not sure he knew about the pitstop rule but less than a lap later he had left the race (fuel), and I was driving on my own and could not see the driver in 2nd. I lapped a couple of drivers and it was no problems as all drivers pulled off the racing line. Only when I was going to lap Mel Fisk, I had some trouble... He was driving in the middle of the track and it didn't look like he was aware of the blue flag. But then he sticked to the inside and slowed down, so I took the outside to pass him but suddenly he swerved to the outside just a little... Only time I got really scared in the whole race ??? But everything went fine and I finished 1st ;D
My quali session was more eventful than my race, but it was still very exciting. I'm not using HUD that allows me to see who's behind, and that made it more exciting I think. And maybe it helped me because if I knew David was +1 minute behind I would slow down more and maybe loose my concentration and crash.
Thanks SR4L for hosting this event. It's so different from the other events in the season. Thanks to Djc for his update so we could run this track
WD all who finished the race. Only 3 retired (my brother lost connection). Fantastic. No track is impossible now, right?