Hi Guys,
what an eventful race that was.
Qualifying:
Over the season I realized too late that feeling comfortable with the car behaviour (setup) in race is much more important than having the setup for one ultra fast round. The race in korea I concentrated much more on race setup and it did work quiet well, so I did the same for interlagos.
My plan was to start on primes so my laptimes in qualy were ok and being on 3rd was the best I could reach as I knew that pipeslice and shaggy would go in the 1.07 s with options tyres. The good thing was that pipeslice and shaggy were very close, so they would battle in the first couple of rounds and as you can imagine this is the best which can happen if you drive behind them with primes.
Unfortunately we had to restart after qualifying so all these thinkings and strategies were obsolete.
But we wanted to give pj the chance to attend, especially after his good practice results and as so often in live giving something means getting it back later twice... :-)
Race:
After a messy start we decided to restart, which was a good decision I think, because we were all a bit out of rhytm.
Now there was 65% heavy rain possibility. The fact that "HEAVY RAIN" was predicted, leads me to adapting my setup for these conditions, so I choosed a bigger ride height and more neutral balance (much less oversteer characteristics), which was a little bit gambling as it is ever.
I knew that the first part of the race would be hard, but I also knew that my setup was brilliant for primes and only little adaption shouldnt change this fact. The start was very good as I was third after the first corners and could catch ardius in the second round.
Now I could follow pipeslice quiet well, althought after the first 6 or 7 rounds he seems to find some more time and could slightly drive away.
The other side was that pj had an amazing pace behind me, which was one key of my success later as he was able to fight and hold his position against the fresh world champion. I was really surprised pj and again my congrats to this big improvement, great !
I cant really remember but in round 10 or so, just after it had started to rain, shaggy was able to overtake pj and now I was really hoping that it will rain heavier as pipeslice was able to drive away slightly and shaggy was coming with big steps behind me.
Now one of the best parts of this game started. The times becomes slower and the track becomes slippy. 1,5 seconds ahead was pipeslice and 1,5seconds behind me shaggy. Suddenly pipeslice had two big oversteer moments in a row. I saw this and was able to brake earlier in these corners, which was really cool and a big advantage for me, cause he had to analyze the grip first. Than he was again in gravel and I could overtake him. Pipeslice is an awsome driver, so I knew that if he begins struggling it is a good Idea to go on full wets now. To my surprise Pipeslice and Shaggy right behind me went for another round on drys, which definitely makes me a little bit smiling.
I was able to rewin the first position next round because they pitted.
Ok now I was first. It was wet and we were on full wets. I knew that it would be a tough session now, as my setup wasn't really working cause it was not wet enough, and it was that window where you must go on full wets and can drive nearly as fast as on dry conditions. Shaggy was gaining much time and was 1 second per Lap faster under these conditions. My tactic was to defend my position as long as possible due to the fact that my time would come if it becomes more wet. And I did as I try to brake quiet early to give him no chance when acclerating out of the corners. After 2-3 laps playing this game it leads to a little touch from behind, which was because I couldnt really find grip out of turn 9 (Pinheirinho) and was feeling that shaggy could try something now so I decided to drive the hairpin (turn 11) in a very inner line, which made me so slow that shaggy must hit me slightly. I went into gravel and pipeslice could pass also, it costs me about 4 or 5 seconds. Shaggy was very fair and let me repass, although as I said it was not his fault or mine, it was a normal race incident. But I think his decision to let me repass shows why he becomes the deserved world champion this year.
The rain becomes heavier and heavier. Infact This was absolutely brilliant for me and my setup... Than suddenly the window of going fast on full wets was over and the cars began to swim a little bit. Pipeslice and Shaggy thought this would be the tire wear and pitted, I knew ok my tyres are yellow but only about 10 rounds or so to go and my setup should compensate the grip difference.
I quickly realized that my car was pretty well balanced under these conditions as I hadn't any significant oversteer or understeer. It was just very neutral and fairly easy to drive under these conditions. The 3-2 ride height was doing its job now.
I was able to drive without any mistakes absolutely constant times, although shaggy was gaining over half a second per round, sometimes even 1 second but he seems to have some issues with car handling under these conditions as his times were very different every lap.
So I was able to drive the thing home, without going to much on limit, which helped a lot under these conditions.
So after some bad luck in the past races before korea the luck was with me in this race.
I'm really happy with it and looking forward for the final race for this season.
Best regards
DarkPSI
what an eventful race that was.
Qualifying:
Over the season I realized too late that feeling comfortable with the car behaviour (setup) in race is much more important than having the setup for one ultra fast round. The race in korea I concentrated much more on race setup and it did work quiet well, so I did the same for interlagos.
My plan was to start on primes so my laptimes in qualy were ok and being on 3rd was the best I could reach as I knew that pipeslice and shaggy would go in the 1.07 s with options tyres. The good thing was that pipeslice and shaggy were very close, so they would battle in the first couple of rounds and as you can imagine this is the best which can happen if you drive behind them with primes.
Unfortunately we had to restart after qualifying so all these thinkings and strategies were obsolete.
But we wanted to give pj the chance to attend, especially after his good practice results and as so often in live giving something means getting it back later twice... :-)
Race:
After a messy start we decided to restart, which was a good decision I think, because we were all a bit out of rhytm.
Now there was 65% heavy rain possibility. The fact that "HEAVY RAIN" was predicted, leads me to adapting my setup for these conditions, so I choosed a bigger ride height and more neutral balance (much less oversteer characteristics), which was a little bit gambling as it is ever.
I knew that the first part of the race would be hard, but I also knew that my setup was brilliant for primes and only little adaption shouldnt change this fact. The start was very good as I was third after the first corners and could catch ardius in the second round.
Now I could follow pipeslice quiet well, althought after the first 6 or 7 rounds he seems to find some more time and could slightly drive away.
The other side was that pj had an amazing pace behind me, which was one key of my success later as he was able to fight and hold his position against the fresh world champion. I was really surprised pj and again my congrats to this big improvement, great !
I cant really remember but in round 10 or so, just after it had started to rain, shaggy was able to overtake pj and now I was really hoping that it will rain heavier as pipeslice was able to drive away slightly and shaggy was coming with big steps behind me.
Now one of the best parts of this game started. The times becomes slower and the track becomes slippy. 1,5 seconds ahead was pipeslice and 1,5seconds behind me shaggy. Suddenly pipeslice had two big oversteer moments in a row. I saw this and was able to brake earlier in these corners, which was really cool and a big advantage for me, cause he had to analyze the grip first. Than he was again in gravel and I could overtake him. Pipeslice is an awsome driver, so I knew that if he begins struggling it is a good Idea to go on full wets now. To my surprise Pipeslice and Shaggy right behind me went for another round on drys, which definitely makes me a little bit smiling.
I was able to rewin the first position next round because they pitted.
Ok now I was first. It was wet and we were on full wets. I knew that it would be a tough session now, as my setup wasn't really working cause it was not wet enough, and it was that window where you must go on full wets and can drive nearly as fast as on dry conditions. Shaggy was gaining much time and was 1 second per Lap faster under these conditions. My tactic was to defend my position as long as possible due to the fact that my time would come if it becomes more wet. And I did as I try to brake quiet early to give him no chance when acclerating out of the corners. After 2-3 laps playing this game it leads to a little touch from behind, which was because I couldnt really find grip out of turn 9 (Pinheirinho) and was feeling that shaggy could try something now so I decided to drive the hairpin (turn 11) in a very inner line, which made me so slow that shaggy must hit me slightly. I went into gravel and pipeslice could pass also, it costs me about 4 or 5 seconds. Shaggy was very fair and let me repass, although as I said it was not his fault or mine, it was a normal race incident. But I think his decision to let me repass shows why he becomes the deserved world champion this year.
The rain becomes heavier and heavier. Infact This was absolutely brilliant for me and my setup... Than suddenly the window of going fast on full wets was over and the cars began to swim a little bit. Pipeslice and Shaggy thought this would be the tire wear and pitted, I knew ok my tyres are yellow but only about 10 rounds or so to go and my setup should compensate the grip difference.
I quickly realized that my car was pretty well balanced under these conditions as I hadn't any significant oversteer or understeer. It was just very neutral and fairly easy to drive under these conditions. The 3-2 ride height was doing its job now.
I was able to drive without any mistakes absolutely constant times, although shaggy was gaining over half a second per round, sometimes even 1 second but he seems to have some issues with car handling under these conditions as his times were very different every lap.
So I was able to drive the thing home, without going to much on limit, which helped a lot under these conditions.
So after some bad luck in the past races before korea the luck was with me in this race.
I'm really happy with it and looking forward for the final race for this season.
Best regards
DarkPSI
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