- 11,921
- California
- GTP_WRP001
Thanks Marc. I'm curious to see the fast laps for EU as I'm pretty sure I saw a 1'42 in that race... not that it aided my overall result much, but I did predict we'd see at least one 1'42 during the race with that crazy draft.
Race Reports.
EU:
Had an OK first quali lap, but didn't get into the 1'43 as I was taking it fairly conservative hoping to get a really good 2nd hot lap and it started out that way... I was a down (slower) by about 0.15 going into the bus stop to gooners 1'43.2 which would be a very good lap, but I cut the bus stop badly and aborted the lap. Luckily 1'44.0 had me starting 2nd as I guess everyone else had some quali problems also. The first few laps were fun with Pekka and Gooners. I was basically just sitting back and letting them beat and bang and bounce which they were doing. Figuring I'd save my tires and they'd take each other out. I lazily coasted into the bus stop (not nearly pushing) and somehow still managed to spin... there went my tow from the first two and it takes so long to get this beast up to speed from a stop I went from 3rd to 6th. I had decent pace and figured I'd claw my way back to fight for 3rd, but in my 2nd stint Pekka and I made some contact going 2 wide into turn 1 and he went off track and I slowed until he recovered and passed (how did he still came back to win?). Litchi and Hydro both went by while I was waiting and my 2 stop strategy was destroyed. From there I was alone the rest of the race and still managed to spin twice. Not very good execution on my part as I thought I had the pace to battle at the front. Not enough pace to match gooners in raw lap times, but enough pace to stay with him with this freakish draft.
NA:
A much better quali session this time. 1'43.7 and 1'43.6 for my two laps, but still I started 2nd with Pekka running a 1'43.5 so it didn't really matter that much
. Gooners missed quali so he started in the back. That left jtv, pekka and I in a three way battle in the front. Marc started 5th behind Lin and it's always harder mid pack in turn 1 so the front 3 were able to break away pretty quickly over the first couple laps. Mostly Pekka leading and me following because that appeared to be the quickest way around track. I did take the lead at times coming around the start finish. I would have much rather push / bump drafted Pekka to be honest and try to break away from jtv, but whenever I got close to him he seemed to jump all over the place. Either he wasn't wanting to be pushed or the connection was just too jittery so I decided best just to pass if I had momentum and we'd each take turns pulling. Funny thing is Pekka still managed to find spots in the infield to pass me 
so he still ended up towing me down the straight.
The first 10 laps were steady and close with Pekka and we had some good side by side battles. At some point I think we dropped jtv from the immediate draft, but he was lurking close behind. I jumped into the pits and Pekka kept going sticking with the 1 stop strategy that earned him the EU win. Gooners short pitted and I came out just in front of him and not too pleased about that. Jtv was pulling into his pit stall just as I was leaving mine so the gap there was at least a few seconds. Gooners followed me for a lap, I think passing once and I re-passed and then we approached Lucas. Approaching the bus stop the timing was perfect for me. I knew I could get by safely before entry to the bus stop and I knew gooners would have a hard time slipping in and would end up behind Lucas. So it was my chance to break the draft given that Lucas was on worn tires. It worked, but not exactly as I had planned as they had a bit of contact and both fell back significantly. I wasn't trying to set up any carnage there guys, it just worked out that way.
A few laps later only Hydro and Pekka were left in front with their worn tires and 1 stop strategies and I was gaining time in chunks of 2-3 seconds per lap. Pekka, who had the bigger gap, apparently ran out of tires completely as I passed him as he couldn't keep it straight which left on Marc in front.
Fast forward 10 laps and we've both pitted and after lap 21 I found myself about 7-8 seconds behind Marc on fresh tires whereas his were at least 5 laps old. I chipped off about 1.25 second per lap trying to actually keep my pace fairly even and safe as there was no pressure from behind. My goal was not to catch Marc until his tires were in fairly bad shape and not use my tires up trying to catch him. Marc is much better at saving tires and good tactically so I knew if he could hold on he would and it would be a crap shoot on the final lap. So I took my time catching him saving tires as much as I could.
On lap 26 I passed Marc, as he predicted on the mics 4 laps earlier, but he quickly re-passed under the draft. My goal at this point was just to have the lead into turn 1 and then use any "tread" advantage I could muster in the technical sector. I managed that on the next lap (27) having pulled enough lead exiting the bus stop that Marc was on my bumper, but not in front by turn 1. Then the idea was to basically use up that tire saving in one trip through the technical section, basically a single all out hot lap through the infield, and I managed to execute that fairly well and got just enough of a lead to break the draft when we reached the straight. From there is was just about playing it safe and not screwing up the bus stop. It seems the bus stop is just as hard when you try to take it slow and I had a few misadventures there even trying to be safe, but managed to hold it together to the end for the win.
I think a two stop strategy was slightly faster overall (and definitely safer), but it really came down to having no incidents [for a change] and luck. Where you hit traffic and what traffic pulled you versus held you up. I was fortunate to lose gooners early on in stint 2 otherwise that battle would have used up any tire advantage gained. I was fortunate Pekka went one lap too long on tires and fortunate Pekka pulled me for much of the first stint enabling me to get some gap to Marc before my pit. And fortunate Marc started the race mid pack because another 5 seconds and I probably can't catch him or I push too hard to do so and have nothing left once I do.
Maybe two perfectly executed races and the one stop strategy ends up winning, but the probability for at least some minor incident going 15 laps per stint is fairly high so I think that leaves the 2 pit strategy as the preferred one. It doesn't matter because i could not manage 15 laps on these tires anyway so it wasn't a very hard decision.
Thanks for the racing guys. We ended up with two fairly strong fields of 8 and 11 after just a few days ago it looked like we'd have a hard time reaching 6. 👍 One more week for me and then a month off. I'm going to miss watching the Speedy feeds while I'm away from home though.
PS. Marc, if I'm not mistaken is that your fourth 2nd place finish in a row going back to world tour stop 2? Frustrating in a way, but pretty impressive consistency. And the four races were all won by a different driver.
Race Reports.
EU:
Had an OK first quali lap, but didn't get into the 1'43 as I was taking it fairly conservative hoping to get a really good 2nd hot lap and it started out that way... I was a down (slower) by about 0.15 going into the bus stop to gooners 1'43.2 which would be a very good lap, but I cut the bus stop badly and aborted the lap. Luckily 1'44.0 had me starting 2nd as I guess everyone else had some quali problems also. The first few laps were fun with Pekka and Gooners. I was basically just sitting back and letting them beat and bang and bounce which they were doing. Figuring I'd save my tires and they'd take each other out. I lazily coasted into the bus stop (not nearly pushing) and somehow still managed to spin... there went my tow from the first two and it takes so long to get this beast up to speed from a stop I went from 3rd to 6th. I had decent pace and figured I'd claw my way back to fight for 3rd, but in my 2nd stint Pekka and I made some contact going 2 wide into turn 1 and he went off track and I slowed until he recovered and passed (how did he still came back to win?). Litchi and Hydro both went by while I was waiting and my 2 stop strategy was destroyed. From there I was alone the rest of the race and still managed to spin twice. Not very good execution on my part as I thought I had the pace to battle at the front. Not enough pace to match gooners in raw lap times, but enough pace to stay with him with this freakish draft.
NA:
A much better quali session this time. 1'43.7 and 1'43.6 for my two laps, but still I started 2nd with Pekka running a 1'43.5 so it didn't really matter that much
. Gooners missed quali so he started in the back. That left jtv, pekka and I in a three way battle in the front. Marc started 5th behind Lin and it's always harder mid pack in turn 1 so the front 3 were able to break away pretty quickly over the first couple laps. Mostly Pekka leading and me following because that appeared to be the quickest way around track. I did take the lead at times coming around the start finish. I would have much rather push / bump drafted Pekka to be honest and try to break away from jtv, but whenever I got close to him he seemed to jump all over the place. Either he wasn't wanting to be pushed or the connection was just too jittery so I decided best just to pass if I had momentum and we'd each take turns pulling. Funny thing is Pekka still managed to find spots in the infield to pass me so he still ended up towing me down the straight. The first 10 laps were steady and close with Pekka and we had some good side by side battles. At some point I think we dropped jtv from the immediate draft, but he was lurking close behind. I jumped into the pits and Pekka kept going sticking with the 1 stop strategy that earned him the EU win. Gooners short pitted and I came out just in front of him and not too pleased about that. Jtv was pulling into his pit stall just as I was leaving mine so the gap there was at least a few seconds. Gooners followed me for a lap, I think passing once and I re-passed and then we approached Lucas. Approaching the bus stop the timing was perfect for me. I knew I could get by safely before entry to the bus stop and I knew gooners would have a hard time slipping in and would end up behind Lucas. So it was my chance to break the draft given that Lucas was on worn tires. It worked, but not exactly as I had planned as they had a bit of contact and both fell back significantly. I wasn't trying to set up any carnage there guys, it just worked out that way.
A few laps later only Hydro and Pekka were left in front with their worn tires and 1 stop strategies and I was gaining time in chunks of 2-3 seconds per lap. Pekka, who had the bigger gap, apparently ran out of tires completely as I passed him as he couldn't keep it straight which left on Marc in front.
Fast forward 10 laps and we've both pitted and after lap 21 I found myself about 7-8 seconds behind Marc on fresh tires whereas his were at least 5 laps old. I chipped off about 1.25 second per lap trying to actually keep my pace fairly even and safe as there was no pressure from behind. My goal was not to catch Marc until his tires were in fairly bad shape and not use my tires up trying to catch him. Marc is much better at saving tires and good tactically so I knew if he could hold on he would and it would be a crap shoot on the final lap. So I took my time catching him saving tires as much as I could.
On lap 26 I passed Marc, as he predicted on the mics 4 laps earlier, but he quickly re-passed under the draft. My goal at this point was just to have the lead into turn 1 and then use any "tread" advantage I could muster in the technical sector. I managed that on the next lap (27) having pulled enough lead exiting the bus stop that Marc was on my bumper, but not in front by turn 1. Then the idea was to basically use up that tire saving in one trip through the technical section, basically a single all out hot lap through the infield, and I managed to execute that fairly well and got just enough of a lead to break the draft when we reached the straight. From there is was just about playing it safe and not screwing up the bus stop. It seems the bus stop is just as hard when you try to take it slow and I had a few misadventures there even trying to be safe, but managed to hold it together to the end for the win.
I think a two stop strategy was slightly faster overall (and definitely safer), but it really came down to having no incidents [for a change] and luck. Where you hit traffic and what traffic pulled you versus held you up. I was fortunate to lose gooners early on in stint 2 otherwise that battle would have used up any tire advantage gained. I was fortunate Pekka went one lap too long on tires and fortunate Pekka pulled me for much of the first stint enabling me to get some gap to Marc before my pit. And fortunate Marc started the race mid pack because another 5 seconds and I probably can't catch him or I push too hard to do so and have nothing left once I do.
Maybe two perfectly executed races and the one stop strategy ends up winning, but the probability for at least some minor incident going 15 laps per stint is fairly high so I think that leaves the 2 pit strategy as the preferred one. It doesn't matter because i could not manage 15 laps on these tires anyway so it wasn't a very hard decision.
Thanks for the racing guys. We ended up with two fairly strong fields of 8 and 11 after just a few days ago it looked like we'd have a hard time reaching 6. 👍 One more week for me and then a month off. I'm going to miss watching the Speedy feeds while I'm away from home though.
PS. Marc, if I'm not mistaken is that your fourth 2nd place finish in a row going back to world tour stop 2? Frustrating in a way, but pretty impressive consistency. And the four races were all won by a different driver.
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Apologies to those expecting me to be faster. 
