- 1,411
- Shaggy_Alonso
GTP 7th F1 World Championship - Round 9 - Europe
Weather - Dry
Qualifying Results:
Pole - Shaggy Alonso (Tyrrell) - 1:38.440 (10 pts)
3rd. - DarkPSI (Benetton) - 1:38.698 (6 pts)
5th. - Mutu20 (Tyrrell)- 1:39.243 (4 pts)
7th. - Ardius (Brawn)-1:40.437 (2 pts)
9th. - AliT12 (Brabham)-1:41.003
Race Results:
1st. DarkPSI (Benetton) (25 pts) - 49m15.189s
2nd. Shaggy Alonso (Tyrrell) (18 pts) + 3.6s
3rd. Baumi27 (Brawn) (15 pts) + 12.8s
4th. Pipeslice (Jordan) (12 pts) + 35.8s
5th. Mutu20 (Tyrrell) (10 pts) + 2m08.4s
6th. kcheeb (Hesketh) (8 pts) + 1 lap
7th. AliT12 (Brabham) (6 pts) + 1 lap
8th. Tombrooks97 (Jordan) (4 pts) + 2 laps
9th. Ardius (Brawn) - DNF
10th. MikeTheHockeyFan (Benetton) - DNF
Qualifying:
This qualifying session was almost a case of no one wanting pole position. Nobody seemed to set a lap they were happy with at all, right down to 5th placed Mutu20. Valencia is one of those 'hurry up and wait' circuits where pushing extra hard seems to just make you go slower, and given how everyone pushes extra hard in qualifying, the lap times we saw may have been a result of this. It seemed like pure chance really that I was the one who ended up on pole, but knowing how turn one at Valencia is always a disaster, I was only grateful for the points. Kcheeb and AliT12 were only separated by 1 thousandth of a second - this was the fine line between the last points position and 9th.
Race:
I knew realistically from the off, I didn't have much of a chance of winning this race. In race simulations I was guzzling on the fuel whereas from his performances in Bahrain, Melbourne and Catalunya, I could bet that DarkPSI would be the fastest driver in the race. My only hope of winning was if I could get a clean start and he hit trouble.
I got an average start and was resigned to Pipeslice going past me through turn 1 - I just hoped to maintain 2nd place but Baumi27 came steaming through into turn 2 taking us all by surprise and somehow outbraked everyone to take the lead from 4th! This cut off Pipeslice who had to take avoiding action by taking the escape road and rejoined at the back of the pack. Other than this, it was an exceptionally clean first braking zone at Valencia. Coming out of turn 3 DarkPSI and I were side by side, but I had the inside line into 4 and did my best to give him room - he elected to take the run off area and slotted in back behind me through 6.
First couple of laps I managed not to spin (Valencia is always tricky with full fuel tanks) but had Dark breathing down my neck initially more than I was down Baumi's. Then by lap 3 I got my act together and pulled a slight margin on Dark and caught up to Baumi. He went deep into the final corner and I drove past into the lead. Next lap I turned the engine back down to standard and unfortunately was unable to build up much of a gap over Baumi, who fortunately for me was keeping DarkPSI at bay. After a couple more laps Dark did get past and started hunting me down before he pitted on lap 9. I went to lap 10 and ran with the engine turned up for a couple of laps and held a 6 second lead over him. Then I turned the engine down to cruise for what would be almost my entire second stint on primes. Dark started reeling me in at a huge rate - probably 2-3 seconds a lap - and he was on the back of me in no time. I wasn't really sure whether it would be A. best to fight him even though he would get past eventually, but in the process lose us both time and hasten Pipeslice's arrival on the scene who was catching us both OR B. let him through, accept defeat and try my best to hold off Pipe. In the end instinct took over and on lap 16, Dark cruised up on me on the last backstraight (almost as if he was using DRS such was the speed differential), I moved to the right to defend but dropped it under braking and spun. This held us both up badly - Pipeslice drove past me into turn 18 and was now right on the back of Dark. Pleasingly, even though I still had my engine down, I was able to just about keep pace with them for several laps before Pipeslice's race was ruined with a puncture - a thoroughly unfair race for him.
Initially after this, I was closing down Dark several tenths each lap with us both in cruise, but then he turned the wick up and started to pull out a lead again. Then I had to focus on Baumi who was catching me from behind and still running at maximum power. Although he was catching me, he seemed to always lose out through the twisty 12-13-14 section and I could hold him at bay. However, he got a good run at me into 12 on one lap and almost got past, but outbraked himself and I held on to 2nd place.
By the penultimate lap my fuel gauge was fine so I cranked it back up to full power and took about 3 seconds out of Dark's lead, I then made a bad mistake on the final lap losing about a second, but still caught him by another couple of seconds but in the end it wasn't enough. With hindsight, I could have turned my engine up a lap or two sooner towards the end and this may well have been enough to beat Dark as he ran out of fuel crossing the line, but I didn't want to risk running out myself and lose places to Baumi and Pipe - 28 points was still a good haul.
Congratulations go to DarkPSI who drove a pretty flawless race and fully deserved the victory. Commiserations go to Pipeslice who had the pace but not the luck. Also a mention should go to Baumi who put in a really strong race peformance, much more in line with his obvious qualifying pace. Thanks go to the guys who got lapped, made it very easy on all of us 👍
See you all again at Silverstone
Race Footage
Courtesy of kcheeb:
kcheeb's race:
Valencia Qualifying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_giXioTewQ
Valencia Race Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1talCMVYeQ
Valencia Race Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKpzEsU7aXg
And here are the tables:
The Championship Tables (As of round 9):
Drivers Championship
1st. Shaggy Alonso - 252 pts
2nd. DarkPSI - 219 pts
3rd. Baumi27 - 155 pts
4th. Pipeslice - 144 pts
5th. Mutu20 - 134 pts
6th. Tombrooks97 - 62 pts
7th. Ardius - 44 pts
8th. MikeTheHockeyFan - 43 pts
9th. kcheeb - 37 pts
10th. Upuaut - 36 pts
11th. NumbPhase - 34 pts
12th. AliT12 - 29 pts
13th. DOUQA - 19 pts
14th Jerry786 - 12 pts
15th. Shark33 - 3 pts
16th. Manios22DC - 2 pts
17th. jordy7777 - 2 pts
Teams Championship
1st. Tyrrell - 386 pts - Shaggy Alonso, Mutu20
2nd. Benetton - 262 pts - DarkPSI, MikeTheHockeyFan
3rd. Jordan - 221 pts - Tombrooks97, Pipeslice, Jerry786, Shark33
4rd. Brawn - 201 pts - Baumi27, Manios22DC, Ardius
5th. Hesketh - 92 pts - kcheeb, NumbPhase, DOUQA, jordy7777
6th. Brabham - 65 pts - Upuaut, AliT12
Weather - Dry
Qualifying Results:
Pole - Shaggy Alonso (Tyrrell) - 1:38.440 (10 pts)
2nd. - Pipeslice (Jordan) - 1:38.631 (8 pts)
3rd. - DarkPSI (Benetton) - 1:38.698 (6 pts)
4th. - Baumi27 (Brawn)- 1:39.061 (5 pts)
5th. - Mutu20 (Tyrrell)- 1:39.243 (4 pts)
6th. - Tombrooks97 (Jordan) - 1:40.316 (3 pts)
7th. - Ardius (Brawn)-1:40.437 (2 pts)
8th. - kcheeb (Hesketh)- 1:41.002 (1 pts)
9th. - AliT12 (Brabham)-1:41.003
10th. - MikeTheHockeyFan (Benetton)- 1:42.905
Race Results:
1st. DarkPSI (Benetton) (25 pts) - 49m15.189s
2nd. Shaggy Alonso (Tyrrell) (18 pts) + 3.6s
3rd. Baumi27 (Brawn) (15 pts) + 12.8s
4th. Pipeslice (Jordan) (12 pts) + 35.8s
5th. Mutu20 (Tyrrell) (10 pts) + 2m08.4s
6th. kcheeb (Hesketh) (8 pts) + 1 lap
7th. AliT12 (Brabham) (6 pts) + 1 lap
8th. Tombrooks97 (Jordan) (4 pts) + 2 laps
9th. Ardius (Brawn) - DNF
10th. MikeTheHockeyFan (Benetton) - DNF
Qualifying:
This qualifying session was almost a case of no one wanting pole position. Nobody seemed to set a lap they were happy with at all, right down to 5th placed Mutu20. Valencia is one of those 'hurry up and wait' circuits where pushing extra hard seems to just make you go slower, and given how everyone pushes extra hard in qualifying, the lap times we saw may have been a result of this. It seemed like pure chance really that I was the one who ended up on pole, but knowing how turn one at Valencia is always a disaster, I was only grateful for the points. Kcheeb and AliT12 were only separated by 1 thousandth of a second - this was the fine line between the last points position and 9th.
Race:
I knew realistically from the off, I didn't have much of a chance of winning this race. In race simulations I was guzzling on the fuel whereas from his performances in Bahrain, Melbourne and Catalunya, I could bet that DarkPSI would be the fastest driver in the race. My only hope of winning was if I could get a clean start and he hit trouble.
I got an average start and was resigned to Pipeslice going past me through turn 1 - I just hoped to maintain 2nd place but Baumi27 came steaming through into turn 2 taking us all by surprise and somehow outbraked everyone to take the lead from 4th! This cut off Pipeslice who had to take avoiding action by taking the escape road and rejoined at the back of the pack. Other than this, it was an exceptionally clean first braking zone at Valencia. Coming out of turn 3 DarkPSI and I were side by side, but I had the inside line into 4 and did my best to give him room - he elected to take the run off area and slotted in back behind me through 6.
First couple of laps I managed not to spin (Valencia is always tricky with full fuel tanks) but had Dark breathing down my neck initially more than I was down Baumi's. Then by lap 3 I got my act together and pulled a slight margin on Dark and caught up to Baumi. He went deep into the final corner and I drove past into the lead. Next lap I turned the engine back down to standard and unfortunately was unable to build up much of a gap over Baumi, who fortunately for me was keeping DarkPSI at bay. After a couple more laps Dark did get past and started hunting me down before he pitted on lap 9. I went to lap 10 and ran with the engine turned up for a couple of laps and held a 6 second lead over him. Then I turned the engine down to cruise for what would be almost my entire second stint on primes. Dark started reeling me in at a huge rate - probably 2-3 seconds a lap - and he was on the back of me in no time. I wasn't really sure whether it would be A. best to fight him even though he would get past eventually, but in the process lose us both time and hasten Pipeslice's arrival on the scene who was catching us both OR B. let him through, accept defeat and try my best to hold off Pipe. In the end instinct took over and on lap 16, Dark cruised up on me on the last backstraight (almost as if he was using DRS such was the speed differential), I moved to the right to defend but dropped it under braking and spun. This held us both up badly - Pipeslice drove past me into turn 18 and was now right on the back of Dark. Pleasingly, even though I still had my engine down, I was able to just about keep pace with them for several laps before Pipeslice's race was ruined with a puncture - a thoroughly unfair race for him.
Initially after this, I was closing down Dark several tenths each lap with us both in cruise, but then he turned the wick up and started to pull out a lead again. Then I had to focus on Baumi who was catching me from behind and still running at maximum power. Although he was catching me, he seemed to always lose out through the twisty 12-13-14 section and I could hold him at bay. However, he got a good run at me into 12 on one lap and almost got past, but outbraked himself and I held on to 2nd place.
By the penultimate lap my fuel gauge was fine so I cranked it back up to full power and took about 3 seconds out of Dark's lead, I then made a bad mistake on the final lap losing about a second, but still caught him by another couple of seconds but in the end it wasn't enough. With hindsight, I could have turned my engine up a lap or two sooner towards the end and this may well have been enough to beat Dark as he ran out of fuel crossing the line, but I didn't want to risk running out myself and lose places to Baumi and Pipe - 28 points was still a good haul.
Congratulations go to DarkPSI who drove a pretty flawless race and fully deserved the victory. Commiserations go to Pipeslice who had the pace but not the luck. Also a mention should go to Baumi who put in a really strong race peformance, much more in line with his obvious qualifying pace. Thanks go to the guys who got lapped, made it very easy on all of us 👍
See you all again at Silverstone
Race Footage
Courtesy of kcheeb:
kcheeb's race:
Valencia Qualifying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_giXioTewQ
Valencia Race Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1talCMVYeQ
Valencia Race Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKpzEsU7aXg
And here are the tables:
The Championship Tables (As of round 9):
Drivers Championship
1st. Shaggy Alonso - 252 pts
2nd. DarkPSI - 219 pts
3rd. Baumi27 - 155 pts
4th. Pipeslice - 144 pts
5th. Mutu20 - 134 pts
6th. Tombrooks97 - 62 pts
7th. Ardius - 44 pts
8th. MikeTheHockeyFan - 43 pts
9th. kcheeb - 37 pts
10th. Upuaut - 36 pts
11th. NumbPhase - 34 pts
12th. AliT12 - 29 pts
13th. DOUQA - 19 pts
14th Jerry786 - 12 pts
15th. Shark33 - 3 pts
16th. Manios22DC - 2 pts
17th. jordy7777 - 2 pts
Teams Championship
1st. Tyrrell - 386 pts - Shaggy Alonso, Mutu20
2nd. Benetton - 262 pts - DarkPSI, MikeTheHockeyFan
3rd. Jordan - 221 pts - Tombrooks97, Pipeslice, Jerry786, Shark33
4rd. Brawn - 201 pts - Baumi27, Manios22DC, Ardius
5th. Hesketh - 92 pts - kcheeb, NumbPhase, DOUQA, jordy7777
6th. Brabham - 65 pts - Upuaut, AliT12