SR4L F1 League Race Reports Rnd 12 Brianza 10K

[Lecram]

Well done Rik and Hector!

Race reports here pretty please with cherry on top

[cosimo]

Chose to race with the F1C, I thought I could make it.
I couldn't :-|

In quali I managed my PB 2.16.8, ended up 8th. Not bad.
R1 started well, was behind John and it seemed I could follow him closely.
However, I wrecked him at the braking for the Parabolica. Was completely my mistake, and again I apologize. This is simply something that shouldn't have happened. I braked too late.

Went to the pits. 318s of damage. While I was there for repair, John entered the pits, honked and hit me before stopping at his spot.
I had rear left suspension damage, and had to pit again next lap, with another 150s+ (don't remember how many) of damage.

Didn't even manage to finish. A stupid mistake on the exit of Ascari sent me wheels up on the fence.

I started R2 in 15th or so position. At T1 I thought I had a good inside line, but had a collision with a blue/white car I hadn't seen and didn't recognize. I could continue with slight damage. I saw the blue car sverwing to the left, then I didn't see it anymore. Not sure this was my fault, but I'm going to assume so and apologize again.

Rest of the race would have been good, with good pace, if I didn't ruin everything by upsetting the car in the middle of Parabolica, and ending up in the banking above... Meaning a stop+go penalty, and wrecked car. Other stupid things I did was when Gorka was coming fast behind me, gaining second after second. I knew I couldn't fight with him. Plan was to let him pass safely on the straight, but we came in close vicinity on the first banking.

I tried to let him pass but I just managed to unbalance the car, going left and right of the banking like crazy. Luckily nothing bad happened, and Gorka passed me soon after.

Really bad race(s) of mine. I should probably have picked the F1B instead.
I think I'm starting to get this car, and I'm definitely faster than I was, but I really lack the consistency that's necessary for a longer race.
I think with John it was one of the first times I faced the situation of having a car close in front of me with the draft pulling me and I didn't take into account that I should have braked a lot earlier...

Well, hope it will make for some experience at least.

[Lecram]

Most boring event of the season for me I must say.

After Dj and Rik did their drafting, I knew there was no chance of beating them unless I got me a tow myself but that didn't happen.

Race one I moved a little too much to the right when Gorka was coming out my draft. He touched me slightly and I had to correct but it send me into the armco. I went pitting, too much damage, but got speeding ticket so my chances of a good position were gone. Due to other driver's bad luck I finished 4th but never really got to race anyone after the incident.

Race two I came across John Cook who spun in parabolica, no way to avoid him and damage again. Luckily pit nearby and no speeding this time but again, a lonely race up ahead and 12.5 laps on the same tires with a crazy amount of fuel. 4th again...

[Hedlund]

I had a great event again Thanks for hosting Marcel.


QUALIFY
I left pit as soon as possible for qualify, and found myself behind DJ. We helped each other with the draft for 4 laps and then I ran out of fuel. Only 16 thousandths between us and luckily I had the faster lap 8) My 7th pole in a row!

RACE 1
I think DJ and Marcel had a fight for 2nd place the first lap and that gave me the chance to leave them behind. With no one breathing down my neck, I could put in some fast laps. I was sure that the guys behind were going to help each other out with the draft to close in on me but that never happened. Pitstop and refuel on lap 6, and I had a comfortable drive all the way to finish. Woho! 8)

RACE 2
Started from 10th, obviously. I was following my brother but somehow Edwin squeezed himself in between us at T1 8) So I was following Ed to Parabolica where I overtook him. But in the middle of the corner there was a huge crash and in the big cloud of smoke, I saw Marcel standing there, facing the wrong direction. I was lucky to avoid it and continue, now in 5th place! I had a fight with Phelps who didn't want to let go of his nice position, but he crashed out by himself at Parabolica. I was running in 3rd for a long time and slowly closing in on DJ in front. When pitting on lap 7, I was not far behind, maybe 2-3 seconds. But of some reason they gave me a 54 sec stop, and I saw DJ disappear again Towards the end of the race, I suddenly hit a broken suspension part under the bridge after Lesmo corners, in really high speed, and lost control of the car. I was really lucky to be able to continue without damage (a little dizzy, maybe). Race could have been over if I had hit something. Finished 3rd

Maybe not the most fun track in the calendar... It was a real pain to drive at the bankings. The standard layout is more fun, but still only 4 "real" corners

[gorgias1976]

Qualifying
-------------
I made the mistake of going light for qualy. A mistake because I had made the car setup in a way that it was optimized for being balanced for race fuel and being light caused the car to be more understeery than expected. Anyway, the 1.14,8 was good enough for 5th which wasn't something to worry about as here the important was to keep behind slipstreams. I even felt releived to start 5th and try to take advantage of others battling.

Race 1
--------
Good reaction time helped me to take Robert's 4th place. Stayed there until David's steering lag made him lose his second place to Marcel and me. Unluckily that helped Rickard to build a gap.
In my battle with Marcel we had that little contact in the main straight. Actually I didn't even notice it in my computer and just saw Marcel going straight through the grass.
So that left Rick leading and Hectari, DjC and me as the chasing group.
At first we didn't sinchronize so that helped Rick build a more comfortable lead. We later "helped" each other on the overtakings but pitstop were coming closer.
In all the racing I realised I was holding the wheel too tight and I realised I was starting to lose some sensitivity on the finger of my left hand. When, at the main straight, about to press the space bar to request my pitstop I noticed I couldn't feel the keyboard due to my numb fingers. I kissed the grass and almost lost it heading for Curva Grande.
Aproaching parabolica, being chased by DjC and Hectari I stayed on the right so I had a better position to head the pits. But the right side was a lot more slippery and run wide going through the gravel, luckily only lost a couple of seconds there.
Exited pits right behind DjC and a couple of laps later we reached Hectari after his pitstops.
Battle was fierce between them and I decided to remain behind them caring for the tires and using their slipstream to approach them while thinking which could be the strategy to try to win the battle for second place.
I made a couple of attempts just as a test but realised that a two car overtaking was imposible so I remained there waiting for a final lap attack as I saw Hectari was starting to go a little wide at Lesmo 1 showing he was having a bit of a problem with his left front tire.
Two laps to the end David tried a side to side braking for Curva Grande, they almost hitted and Hectari was a bit out of place approaching Lesmo 1 going through the grass at the braking. With his car out of control he crashed into David. I avoided the crashing cars and went for a satisfactory second place.

Race 2
--------
As I always get the worse of reversed races this could not be the exception. Everything went well at the start until approaching parabolica. John Cook lost control of his car and took Marcel and some other car. There was nothing I could do but to brake but the crash against Marcel's car was unavoidable. Car was badly damaged. Entered pits right behing Marcel for repairs. 155 seconds later I could leave pits in penultimate place.
Tried to drive fast enough to save the tires for that many laps. Only had trouble at the final two laps where I had to take Curva Grande and Lesmo 1 a bit more carefully to avoid understeering. That was a bit of a boring race.
Noticeable that as tires were 10 laps old, top speed started being reduced from usual 324km/h to 322km/h

Note: about grid setting for reversed race. I think I remember that at Belgium we first reversed top 10 drivers and then moved people who wanted to go to the back. I remember reading that was fair to avoid a car who had not ended between the top ten to be in the top positions.
I don't know why we did the opposite in this race, first put people to the back and then reversing the NEW top ten. I feel it to be unfair to the "reversing top ten drivers" philosophy as people finishing 11, 12 or higher can end up starting race2 ahead of drivers who finished race 1 in the top ten (as was the case).

[edwin]

I didn't think it would have a good comeout as it turned out to be for me in the end.
This week in practice i did a pb of 1:16:xxx getting help from DJ (a tow) and in practice this evening i did a 1:18:5 and in quali i did even worse with a 1:18:8 but i knew i could set consistant laptimes for 13+ laps so hoped for the best. started 15th from the grid

Race 1:

I had a good start and gained i think 2 places before T1. i was in the neck of Gerald and had Phelps at my exhaust. Gerald had a hell of a topspeed and due to being in his tow i could hold on to him in lap 2 at the straight for parabolica we were close to Jesus and Mel who collided and Mel was being send of into the gras. Gerald i think got scarred of it and was so heavy on the brakes that he lost his turn in point and went of in the grass also. Then i had a nice battle with Jesus where i was slightly gaining on him lap after lap. But i wasn't fast enough to get so close to overtake him. So i changed strategy and pitted lap 6 with the idea to push the next laps as hard as i could and see if that would put me closer to Jesus. It worked out fine and i even managed to get past him when he was leaving the pit. Gave me a nearly 3 sec gap to Jesus who obviously was faster then me after his stop but at some point made a mistake trying to gain on me and got damage. rest of the race was kind of boaring but i managed to keep focused and finished 5th.

Race 2:

Started from 6th spot and got a good start but had to lift because i think Phelps didn't accelerate very fast at first. One of the Hedlunds (as i know now it was Robert) was at the left of me entering T1 and i lifted again to give him room and be sure i would live thru the corner as well. When turning in i saw that i nearly blocked Rikard who i didn't know was there also (my bad) but nothing happend so that went well. At parabolica Rikard outbraked me and both of us managed to get undamaged thru the mayhem what had happend there. After another half lap i found myself again behind Jesus and i was making myself up for another battle with him. At one point of the race Cosimo was driving in the last turn for start finish giving everybody room to pass also me but i got scarred up from that and managed to hit the armco leaving me with some damage (Cos realy not your fault just me getting out of my concentration) so battling Jesus was not a option anymore. i stead i tried to keep ahead of Mel wich eventualy worked out fine. Finished 6th

Great result again for the VVV team.
Fun to race and a well organised event thanks again Marcel for hosting and DJ for giving us again a stagerd grid worked out well.

[hardtohandle]

Quali

Took the safe F1B option, did 3 laps right away which were not too shoddy and all within 0.03 sec of each other, didn't feel I was gonna go immensely faster so I exited to get the F1C. I was disappointed when I joined server that so many people were on the C, I thought maybe only the top 5-6 may go for it, probably more than half had the C and that spelt bad news so I give it shot and was all over the place in it, so got back in the B before end of Q. Q 11th.

Race 1

Bad start, got sideways and lost a bunch of places, end of lap one at parabolica I screwed up and hit the armco and got medium suspension damage, spent a lap going backwards and come in or repairs and an early tyres stop. Funny thing happened, no damage was repaired in pits, tyre change cost me 50 sec, and when I left the pit I was relieved that the damage HAD been repaired.

Not too much later I am taking the final corner banking and Cosimo was going half speed recovering from something, I lifted a bit and lined it up to fly past him on the exit onto str8 but I misjudged it and clipped the side of him. I was going way way faster tho and it was a big crash we both went over barrier. I got stuck on a fence and could not get off. So sorry Cosimo mate :'( That was the first at-fault crash I have had in a league/event race so far since I started sim-racing 10 months ago, bit of a shame the clean records gone but also glad to have gone so long without incident also to be honest, especially in this mod of yours.

Race 2

I was really looking to get a half decent finish this week, every race is going bad for me in SR4l I do not think I have scored a point yet. Got a good start, had to tread lightly through t1 as some accidents happened, I was nervous an out of control car on the right on the grass was gonna washout back on track and take me out so I was looking to clear him but that just meant I was at risk from Nikos from behind also because I had to slow down a fair bit, I missed the crashed car, and Nikos did a good job behind too thankfully and we both went through just fine. Gained more places as other people had incidents, I had no trouble and was up to 7th then see Robert Hedlund in trouble at parabolica and I am up to 6th within 2 laps I think, I started 16th.

This was good, but even better I had Mel Fisk behind me, and Mel Fisk is my target man! Mel is the man I want to beat but never have, although I think I can give him a good run or his money. He was 3.1sec down on me and initially caught me up a bit and 'Operation Fisk' was looking at risk of failing, but then I pulled away and was feeling happier. At last, a race was going good! I was really determined to hold it together with some steady laps and score some points.

Then an F1C car (I was in the B) was gaining from behind, and I was just looking to let it past me without incident, no point in fighting the C cars in the B, he closed in on first part of banking but not enough, I was hoping we would get around banking so he could just drive straight by me on main straight, but he caught me in exit off banking, just what I didn't want cause we all know what happens when you go down low on the banking, I just made sure I maintained my line and kept it high up. The C car lost it though and took is both over the barrier, I was in with the spectators over 2 fences to sign some autographs. Was really gutted about this one because the bad run I have already mentioned, I have no bad feeling about the crash though it is just an accident and not too different from what I did to Cosimo the race before.

There seemed no way back to track from the grandstand enclosure, but heroically I spent 6 minutes trying to get out in a car that would not turn and was also on fire, amazingly I found a way out Then 5 mins of repairs (I pitted off the banking not parabolica as I should of - I had no choice really the car was undrivable), then I had the small task of unlapping myself 5-6 times over... it didn't happen but I finished.

So another sorry chapter in the SR4L story book for me, I gotta be honest, Fisk is out of touch now, I just wanna try and score some points from the remaining 2 races now, and look forward the new season where I intend to show Mr Fisk how to drive fnarr!! :-*

See you next time 8)

[jerry 33]

cosimo..

the blue car in turn one, race two was me.. and, it was NOT your fault - it was mine. I thought I cleared you and had room and I moved over on you. my mistake. I apologize. after fixing my car I was pretty much out of it and tried to maintain position on track and finish..
in the first race, I was doing pretty good until lap 11, while leading Juraj into turn one we touched and I went into the trees.. luckily, unlike Jean Pierre - I am still alive it was just close racing..
still learning and glad to be doing so..
seeeeeeeeeeeee ya --- jer

[Hedlund]

When turning in i saw that i nearly blocked Rikard who i didn't know was there also (my bad) but nothing happend so that went well. At parabolica Rikard outbraked me and both of us managed to get undamaged thru the mayhem what had happend there.

Hehe, I had the situation under control and left some room for you (you was in front of me), so no problem 8)
At Parabolica, we were lucky! Actually, I have to thank you. If you had not slowed me down a little through the first corners, I would probably been right behind Robert and not been able to avoid the mayhem 8)

[edwin]

When turning in i saw that i nearly blocked Rikard who i didn't know was there also (my bad) but nothing happend so that went well. At parabolica Rikard outbraked me and both of us managed to get undamaged thru the mayhem what had happend there.

Hehe, I had the situation under control and left some room for you (you was in front of me), so no problem 8)
At Parabolica, we were lucky! Actually, I have to thank you. If you had not slowed me down a little through the first corners, I would probably been right behind Robert and not been able to avoid the mayhem 8)

When do i get my paycheck 8)

[Txus]

Hi all, I've been very busy lately, I didn't have time to practice just did 25 laps at most before Brianza race evening so I didn't expect anything but fun last Sunday.

Qualy: top ten, better than expected, almost every lap was a new PB for me or close.

First race: Good start, I think I gain Mel's position before first turn but he was a bit faster than me and re-gained it soon. Unfortunately I got too close to him before parabolica, I was just about to brake when I bumped him, I had already lifted the the gas pedal but was not enough maybe the draft was too strong, I didn't feel a thing but Mel's car obviously did, sending him violently out of the track and ruining his race. I just wanted to have a good clean fight with you Mel but failed again. Totally my fault.
After that I had fight with Ed, he passed me on the pit stop, well, I think I was already out of the pits but I saw him approaching so fast that I had to "let" him pass, otherwise I could have caused another incident. Ed did some really good laps at the end, I chased him as fast as I could without success, making a fatal mistake that finished my race in lap 11th. Well done Ed.

2nd race: I had a probably not deserved pole position :-[ but, hey, I think I haven't been very lucky lately so I won't complain about it : Hectari took it on the start and Phelps passed me too before first turn but he missed his braking point, went wide and almost hit the outside barrier while I was on the "good" racing line...then I saw him recovering his car and trying to recover, with great risk, the racing line where I already was, I had to slow down first and even brake in the middle of the first corner to avoid crashing, I think we even touched...that was dangerous mate, no need for that in first corner
Nothing remarkable after the first lap, a couple of fast guys overtook me but this time I was able to do some good laps at the end without errors to avoid Ed catching me.

Thanks SR4L and specially to Marcel and DjC for making this event possible and my apologies again to Mel

cya soon