Malaysian Grand Prix - Race Reports

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Q9

R9

What I can say..... I loaded the Wrong settings for the Track ;-(

Got a clean start but then spun it about 5 times on the first lap, the Toe settings was well out on my car and the STIFF suspension didnt help.
bad race for me...

next time ....

Well this was probably the best race I've seen us race so far... Yes for some it may have been disappointment, but for the first time not because of someone else's fault. For me this race was full of emotions, i had my adrenalin pumping from the start.

Qualifying:

Prepared for this race entire week, did couple of races with bandits on other tracks ("Last bandit standing" - but this is another story)...
but still remained focused on Malaysia GP.

So at the start of the qualification there was a broadcast on "local BBC" channel hosted by will not name who **caugh**deamon**caugh**...
that Lucas is qualifying on Primes.

So I thought hmmm... lets focus on him, cause I knew he is one of the quickest at the moment.
I slapped on the set of prime tires and went on to qualify. Did a 2 lapper.. landed on 3rd place..

Pitted again, and slapped another brand new set of Primes with 7 min left on the clock. I did another 2 lapper, and improved my time again but remaining in 3rd, so given that i was on primes, I accepted the grid position without noticing that someone bumped me down to 4th.
Oh well...

Race:
Video is provided in the Race Videos Section!

I started on the cleaner side of the track in 4th position.
Start was OK... I didn't have any major issues before corner one, as we reached corner 1, we had so much traffic that i had to go wide cause I knew I had at least 2 row of cars beside me.

So coming out of corner 2, I lost 3 positions trailing in 7th... that was a major blow because gap between me and Lucas started to grow super fast in the 1st stint. I was on Primes so they were due for change on lap 10... My first Target in front of me was "Deamon" on lap 1.
He was defending the inside of most corners, so I remained patient knowing that he was going to go wide every exit of the corner that he defends, though that was costing me time.

On lap 2, i saw a little room on the outside that he left for me... CHEERS FOR THAT M8... most other drivers would've taken me out of track, cause I was overtaking on the outside of the 90* turn.

From then on, next target was "Mr. Ravve".. Manage to catch him on Lap 4, right on the straight I switch on the DRS and made a move on him which got me in 5th position. All looked great, and the next target was set to be "Ambassador" who was +1.6 sec in front of me. We reached the braking turn before the back straight and my left rear tire went on to the green painted area while i was breaking... instantly locking up my rear tires and sending me into spin... that little moment cost me about 8 seconds. Ravve easily took his position back, and Daemon was not to far behind of me.

All that hard work was lost in the matter of a second. Oh well... i reset my mind, and start chasing again.
At this point i was back in 6th. I was chasing Ravve for 3-4 laps shaving time of the gap between us.

On lap 6 i think "PaulB" pitted for primes. So that moved me to 5th position.

On lap 7 I think "Ambassador" pitted. That moved me to 4th.

On lap 8 just when i was about to attack Ravve, he pitted. Moving me into 2nd position...the gap at that point between me and lucas was +21 sec. I thought..."WTF - this boy run away that far within 8 laps"

At the end of lap 9 my engineer decided to call me in, but I knew i was due until lap 10... then suddenly I saw Lucas pit as well.
I knew that we were on the same strategy. and he seemed to pit a lap early. So I stayed out 1 more lap than him.

Came out just within +1.5 seconds behind of him... but noticed huge difference in traction. My car wasn't stable and couldn't hold grip. At that point I realized I am not racing Lucas anymore, so I switched to mix 1, and pitted at the end of that lap.

I managed to get out of pits in 3rd position with Options fitted on. But out of corner 1 lost grip due to cold tires, losing position and sandwiching myself between Ravve and Ambassador. Gap to Ravve was +1.4... but because his tires were warmed up he kept pulling away.
I managed to keep the gap within +2 seconds, until my tires warmed up. Was chasing Ravve AGAIN... for about 2 -3 laps.
At the end of the lap 13 I was on Ravve's gearbox coming into last corner, where he seemed to go just a little bit wider that usual leaving me small room for me to cross over. I blasted the throttle taking the chance, and noticed Ravve leaving me room and not shutting the door on me... CHEERS 4 THAT M8...
I managed to pass him with DRS on for the second time...That boy was sure keeping me busy all race.

I was finally in solid 3rd with "PaulB" +12 seconds in front of us by lap 14th.

I was chasing him until lap 27 cutting the gap down with each lap. When suddenly I caught him so quick that I start to think that his tires gave up on him and he reached the cliff. On lap 28, LAST LAP of the race, i was on his gearbox coming out of 1st corner, when he went wide and gave me chance to cross over. After that... he disappeared from my rear few quite fast which definitely was a signal that tires were shot.

I was in solid 2nd place by mid last lap, when suddenly i was given a present from Lucas's ISP... when he lost connection. =D...
I finished the race in 1st.. but we all knew that Lucas did such a great work fighting for 1st position, plus leading the whole race.
We knew right away that it wasn't fair to punish him for his connection problem, unanimously voted to give him his well deserved 1st place.

=) Sorry Lucas, but i did get your XP though hahaha... can't do much about that !!!

I want to thank absolutely everyone for keeping this race ULTRA CLEAN. It was really fun racing in Malaysia.
Great Work guys, see you in China.

jesus Punch !! talk about epic report !!

Hard to follow that !!

but For me...What we lacked in numbers, WE made up for with QUALITY !!

Q-8th " Had a setup issue, hopingfor better race package."

R-7th " What a great race, clean & fair. Got off to ok start...no collision's at turn 1. Everyone respecting there 'fellow drivers' some truly good racing. I was struggling on 'options'...was defending hard, while trying to keep it on the track.

Pitted for 'primes' which helped my setup a bit !! I was then able to settle down & just drive the car.
Had real good fun/battles with few drivers (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE !!)..

Really pleased for Team Mate...great win 'LUCAS' dispite technical issue's !!

Hoping for much better race next week.

Looking forward to a track which suits us !!"

See you there.

This race weekend was 99% perfect!
Before going into the race I knew I was pretty fast, decided to qual on primes, (decided to tell my team mate but then heard it was played out on the BBC) 1st run did three fast laps as 1st lap and got a decent time, was tempted to sit in the garage the rest of the session but the thought would try again but only do one fast lap to see if can get fresher tyres which worked :D
Race:
Was looking forward to the start of the race, for once I got a pretty good start made it in the 1st corner 1st half way around the 1st lap I saw I had created a big gap already, which was good. Tired to make the tyres last as long as possible as wasn't sure how many stops I was going to make. By the time of the 1st pit had a big enough gap to come out in front of punch! Went on the option tyres and the grip they give are brilliant! Was lapping quite fast, coming toward the 2nd stop I asked my team mate where he was on the track and he said in the last corner I then said watch out next lap as I'll be coming past! (Lapping the Number 1 driver in your team is always nice :D) Then pitted for another set of primes and raced to the the final lap.
Then all hell breaks loose, a house mate shouts to me 'can I unplug the net?' I though he said 'can I turn the heating off?' so I said yeah ok. Half way around the last lap I get the message on my scree saying lost network connection!! I couldn't believe it! Was thinking that's a new way of having a race taken away from you.

Get back online moment later to see some races have messaged me saying they have giving me the win due to me leading every lap! Thanks guys!!

Can't wait till the next race!
McLaren 1-2!!?? I hope

Lousy and to carefull qually, i really need to work on my agression or defense a bit because i'm loosing to much places like this.

I was indeed, just like everybody else verry happy to see a clean start. everybody goth of the line great, and no incidents at turn 1. the way its suposed to be!
a bit of a poor start, like i said, i'm way to carefull in the begining witch cost me valueable places. some contact with linden was unfortunate (especialy for him) but i had good fun enyways. came to a point where i was catching up with deamon, when i went for the overtake i locked up my brakes and gave demon a little bump, thanks god not with to much harm done,(sorry for that mate) and lost some 4 seconds with that. afher that was difficult to catch up again, since my tires where going to waste. But a great battle that took multiple laps, worth much more in fun then the position i would take.

p8 not to great result, but i had fun ennyways!