Spanish Grand Prix - Race Reports

Post your Spanish race reports below...

Q - 4th was 1st run on soft's, could have done better but was happy with fourth.

R - DNF - due to connection problems.
Got a good start and was up to second by turn four, then for the next few laps had a good battle with RDS and the two red bulls, pitted the same time as RDS as kept him behind me had another good battle with him until Cookster came out of the pits, as he was on cold tyres I knew I had to get past him fast if was going to keep him behind was front up behind him going though turn three kept close along the straight heading to turn four, I was able to keep a tighter line than Cookster and got a better run into turn five positioned my car on the outside got 3/4 of the way beside him ready to turn but Cookster clearly didn't see me as he keep coming across forcing me onto the grass. On my rust to get back on the track I cut right across the front of demon so slowed down to let him past, then had a good battle with him for a while until going around turn 3 lost it big time. After that was a poor race and the connection was drop so DNF.
Look forward to the next race and hope the connection holds out!
(Cookster check your mirrors. HA jokes & Demon if you were recording your race I'd like to see my spin lol)
Good racing Guys!!

Qualifying - 1st - Had a decent qualifying session. Qualified on the primes, it wasn't the perfect lap that put me on pole but ill take it.

Race - 1st - Had a terrible start, tried a new starting technique and as people would have guessed... It failed! Lost 3 places at the beginning, But I knew that everyone in front was on Options so all I had to do was to keep up with them until they pitted. I did exactly that, I Passed Vernon on the 1st lap as he went a little wide into turn 8 and then passed RDS a couple of laps later as he made a little mistake which put me up into 2nd behind C-Lucas. Passed Lucas using the DRS on the straight which put me in 1st place. All the front runners then pitted for their first stop, so for me it was a question of putting in some good consistent times on worn out Primes. Pitted on Lap 11 and got out just in front of RDS & Lucas, I knew it would be hard to keep the lead on cold tyres, A couple of turns later RDS passed me. Lucas also tried to pass me which looking back at it, was a very brave move. I didn't see him coming around the outside and I just took my normal line, Unluckily for him this meant that he went onto the gravel. I was then behind RDS94 and heard my engineer tell me that he was fuel saving, so I decided to do the same for 3-4 laps. He made a little mistake at turn 12 and went slightly wide, so that was my moment to get in front and try and create a little gap by turning my engine up to Standard. Pitted for my last stop on lap 25 for Options. It felt so good to be on options after running worn primes! Again I only just came out in front of RDS but I knew that he would be on Primes. I opened the gap and put in the fastest lap for the race and just made sure I kept it cool and didn't make any stupid errors.

Well done to Vernon on getting 3rd place on his Red Bull debut!

Qualified- 2nd

Couldn't get the primes heated up intime for my flying lap which was obvious to see as I couldn't get under the 1:20 barrier. Stuck on a set of options and immediately set a time of 1:16.594 which was good enough for 2nd place.

Race - 3rd

Started on option tyres, had a flying start and took the lead by turn 1 but by the time I reached turn 4 I was down to 4th place as I was suffering with severe understeer with a heavy fuel load. After a few laps I could keep up with RDS94, C-Lucas and ThaCookster and we were having a great 4 way battle for the first third of the race. After the 1st round of pit stops ThaCookster started getting away and C-Lucas lost connection. I was keeping up with RDS94 no problem but I couldn't actually gain enough on him to get in a position to think of an overtake. By the second stops I was only 1 second behind RDS94 but after my stop I really struggled to get my primes up to temperature so lost a lot of time to RDS94. I had a problem with trying to keep with RDS94 because my fuel was on the limit to make it to the finish. With 3 laps left I had no choice but to give up the chase on RDS94 and go into lean fuel mode, but I couldn't relax and cruise to the finish as DemonRacer1974 was only 2 seconds behind me and catching me. I had enough to hold him at bay and just enough to cross the line in 3rd place.

Well done to my team-mate ThaCookster for the win and to RDS94 to finish 2nd.

Good result for the Red Bull Racing team with a 1st and 3rd.

See you all in Monte Carlo!!!

Vernon-ator_1991 (Joe Vernon)

After the winter stop i decided to not put to much effort eny more in over-practicing tracks. i started to loose a bit of the fun out of it. Not a great qually result, but then again i havent practice this track one minute without traction control.
Thanks to a great setup from my teammate i felt the car quit nice on the track.Great Start, everybody respecting each other space on the track. At the race i had some nice battles with Linden ( to keep him of my gearbox) and i allso was quit proud of a verry clean overtake (outbrake) in corner one without use of DRS. ( i think i overtook PaulB) . At sertain point i overtook a ferarri in the DRS zone, and tought i allready goth passed but accidentaly cut him of a bit to soon (sorry for that, i tought i was allready ahead enough)
my speed and non-practice resulted in a couple of corner cuts at the last chicane section with resulted on lap 30 into a 20 sec penalty. btw that was one penalty of 20 secs. not two of 10 secs. (i've had quit some corner cuts, about five or six times. but never intentional to gain time)

Altough again a lousy result, a enjoyed the race a lot.

thanks for clean racing guys!

dizzy

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

Q - "7th/8th (i think !!) Could'nt switch the tyres on over 1 flying lap..hoping for better race."

R - 4th
"We all had a good run down into turn 1...ran a little wide myself...calmed myself down & just drove my own race.
Car working well, i was able to really push at certain times..but was unable to catch the leaders...was slowly catching 'Veron' towards the end, but too little to late..missed out on 3rd..but can't grumble with a 4th.

Much needed pionts !! But another good race, See you next week...

Qually ? think it was 8th
rubbish qually opted on primes.

Race was rubbish for ferrari this weekend, but given the drivers moving around and cockpits not quite fitting properly we our number one driver dnf due to num bum and me struggling to get a good lap in,
so we have a agreed to shove this behind us and forget spain, lol what cata who??
race finish 9th pure luck

see you all next week.

Qly - 3rd on the grid in a car i wasn't happy with so was fairly pleased with the result of QLY.

Race-2nd

Had a good start and got past cookster, vernon took the lead into the 1st corner then coming up to turn 4 vernon went wide into the corner so i took the lead. Then I was in the lead up until lap 3 when i came down to braking and got the rear of the car coming around on me so i lost 3 places in one corner. On lap 8 i pitted for primes because the options what i had started on was gone and vernon had caught me up in 2 laps when i had a 3 second gap so i knew it was about time to pit. Then vernon pitted the lap after me, Lucas was right on my gearbox when i'd come out of the pits so had a good battle with him then when vernon had pittled lap 9 he was just coming out of the pits and i had drs on lucas which helped me get the jump on vernon just, it was the three of us coming down the pit straight me in the middle, lucas on the left and vernon on the right i got the jump just very lucky. Then lap 11 i think cookster pitted he was on cold tyres c lucas tried to go for the overtake on the outside unfortunately lucas spun whilst trying to overtake so he fell well down in positions. I took the advantage of cooksters cold tires and took the lead for two laps. About 5 laps later i went in for my last stop had a quite boring race in 2nd then. Around lap 26 vernon started closing the gap it went down to 2.6 then i maintaned that gap to the end so was quite happy with my race .

I should start to get the reports in a bit earlier in the week..

The Race
Had a bad qualy. Didnt practies as much as needed before the race.

Had a nice clean start, got out of the first corner without any incidents.
On the first lap, In the last chicane before the start/finish straight, i outbreaked myself and lost 2 positions.
Then it were some god racing in the middle of the pack, before my first pitstop on lap 8.
Got out behind C-lucas and Demonracer after my fist stop. They had a great battle for like 5-6 laps. Then C-lucas lost control of his car.
So i past him. Then i had a battle with my new teammate for a couple of laps. Did my second stop on lap 20. C-lucas did 1 or 2 laps more.
When he came out of the pits he were just in front of me. Were behind him for a couple of laps. Then he lost connetion on the start/finish straight. Nice for me, not so god for the team.

Then i were pretty much alone to the finish.

Qualification:
I had a good qually on my options, p 3 (as i recall)..still 1 full sec. after Cookster, but I was happy with my time.

Race:
Lost a couple of positions on lap 1, but after I got a feel for the car, I stayed at 5-6 pos. for the whole race.
I had a couple of good battles along the way, and was quite happy with setup and feel, although I still lack some speed in generel on race day..work in progress