Ill be driving for Williams as Nico Rosberg for the 2006 season. Race distance, damage and AI difficulty are all set at 100%.
Bahrain Grand Prix
Practice
The long straights of the Bahrain International Circuit made me opt for a low downforce setup and set the rear wing as low as the engineers would let me. However the sweeping high-speed sections of the track required front downforce so I chose a quite aggressive front wing setting but this gave me problems in the turn 9-10 combination where I often caught oversteer and locked the rear wheels under braking. This I corrected with front biased brake balance and then I loosened up the front suspension to counter the understeer it caused in the slow corners.
Qualifying
I chose a two stop strategy because while I am quite good at tyre management I tend to go off track sometimes at T9-10 and this can really ruin your tyres. I went out as the lights turned green and set a provisional pole time of 1:34.111. My second lap didn't go very well, while I was four tenths quicker after the second sector I subsequently went wide at the second to last corner, lost traction, spun and crashed hard against the barriers. However my first attempt put me fifth on the grid behind my teammate. Ahead of us Alonso had pole with Schumacher in second and Räikkönen spoiled the all-Williams second row with a last minute effort which put him third.
Race
I made a brilliant start and led the pack coming down to T4. Since I knew they were all 1-stopping I had to pull a gap before my pitstop, and while I was able to setup a good rhythm doing low 1:35s, I spun once and my lead was three seconds at the time of my stop.
This put me down to third 2s ahead of Räikkönen but my target was Schumacher 10s up the road. The gap closed quicker than expected as the leaders hit traffic which in turn caused a constant squabble for the lead between them and their pace dropped off dramatically.
As Schumacher tried a move up the inside in T1 I snuck up behind and passed him on the inside of T3, caught Alonsos slipstream down the straight and passed him into T4, but this time I couldnt shake him.
We were banging wheels for two full laps until we hit a pack of four cars to be lapped, I seized the opportunity and passed them as quickly as I could while Alonso got stuck and the gap came up to 5s, he then pitted a few laps later and I thought victory was mine, as I pitted my lead was a safe 27s, I thought.
I had apparently picked up some damage whilst battling with Alonso and traffic which had to be fixed and my stop took 16s!
This made me emerge side by side with Schumacher and I tucked in right behind him to slipstream him into T4, but as I was about to pull out to make my move my mirrors were full of smoke and fire, engine failure
But I wasn't alone as the cars placed 2-6 all went out with engine failures and Massa came in second a full minute behind the leader
Malaysian Grand Prix
Practice
I'm usually terrible at this track and despite finding a setup I'm comfortable with I was 18th only ahead of the Midlands and the Aguris with a 1:36.5 while my teammate was 4th with a time two seconds faster than mine, oh boy...
Qualifying
This went even worse, a scrappy first run put me 18th with a 1:37.1 and on my second run I spun off and crashed!
To top it off Webber qualified 3rd behind the Renaults, Alonso got pole.
Race
The start was pretty strange, I had set my 1st gear ratio too long and was dreadfully slow off the line but my otherwise short gearing gave me an advantage down the straight and I was 5th coming out of T2!
During the next two laps I disposed of Räikkönen, Webber, Fisichella and Alonso, I had come from 18th to 1st in three laps 
. I had trouble getting away from them and on lap 5 I spun at T2 which put me back down to 5th. I repassed Kimi into T4 but he tried to get me back through the fast chicane, we touched and while I barrel-rolled into the barriers he merrily continued on his way . As the race continued noone was able to get away at the front and as the race came to an end only 3.1s separated 1st-6th in a race only 9 cars finished.
Alonso won his second race in a row ahead of Schumacher and Fisichella.
Australian Grand Prix
Practice
This is the circuit I'm the most comfortable around bar none, probably because it's usually the first race of the season in most F1 games
. However my best lap was a 1:27.929 which put me a disappointing 16th.
Qualifying
The session started badly as I spun on the exit of the fast chicane 11-12, I aborted the lap and pitted for new tyres. This meant I still had two hotlaps left but I had to do them on the same set of tyres. I really hooked up the first one and recorded a time of 1:26.961, the next attempt was even faster but I binned it in the notorious chicane. This put me 11th on the grid between the BMW's, the midfield was extremely close with less than .4s separating Webber in 7th from Liuzzi in 13th. Räikkönen stopped Alonso's run of poles with a last minute effort that put him first.
Race
The first corner at Melbourne Park is pretty much the definition of first lap incidents, this made me opt for an unusually conservative approach to the race start and I was still 11th coming down towards T3, but as the field spread out a little I went on the offensive and made past five cars on the remainder of the lap. During the next couple of laps I passed the heavier cars in front of me and started to build a gap over Alonso in 2nd. At the time of my pitstop I had extended it to about 8s despite a major spin(guess where) in the middle of the stint that wiped out my previous advantage. I came out in 2nd just ahead of Räikkönen with Alonso 16s in front. Traffic helped me to close the gap rather swiftly and thanks to my teammate I was right on his gearbox as he made his only stop of the afternoon. This enabled me to extend the gap before my final pitstop and I emerged 5s ahead with five lapped cars between us. I could then cruise for the last 16 laps and won the race by 20s . Alonso settled for second and Schumacher was third over a minute behind.
San Marino Grand Prix
Practice
The Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari is a really fun and challenging track, I particularly like the Villenueve chicane, Aque Minerale and Rivazza. After binning it through Villenueve at least seven times I had finalized a setup that felt almost perfect for the track, only a touch of oversteer through longer slower corners like Tosa was an issue.
Qualifying
Due to the layout of the track with a short pilane and a chincane after the entry I decided to opt for a 3-stop strategy. This will hopefully allow me to qualify near the front and I'll be able to bulid a gap to the heavier cars behind, however a badly timed safety-car could ruin the race and just a SC at anytime will make things very difficult.
I went out early and set a time of 1:23.576 and immediately binned it through Traguardo, I then followed the rest of the session smugly from the pits as no one came close to beating it. The surprise of qualifying was the Toro Rossos of Liuzzi and Speed lining up in 2nd and 3rd being the only ones to set a time within one second of the pole-sitter. The majority of the field was miles behind, Webber and Coulthard in 5th and 6th was 1.8s and 2s behind. Both Schumacher and Alonso messed up quali and will line up in 9th and 16th respectively.
Race
Being on pole with soft tyres and a light fuel load turned out to be rather nice, all alone at the first corner is a luxury I can get used to. As I finished my first lap I was already 2.5s ahead of the chasing pack of Liuzzi, Speed, Fisichella and Webber. I continued to pulla away from Liuzzi at a rate of 2s/lap and the Toro Rossos was leaving everyone else behind! On lap 10 Flavio was furious with Fisi being so far ahead of Alonso he decided to push his secret button and the engine went bust. An extremely hairy moment at Aque Minerale had cut my lead with 7s but as I pitted on lap 16 my lead was a healthy 25s and I came back out well in front, the race seemed destined to be a real snooze-fest. Liuzzi decided to do the casual audience a favour and spun at Traguardo on lap 20, as he rejoined the track his teammate hit him at full Speed (
), Liuzzi came out unscathed but Speed lost his front wing. Schumacher whom had worked his way up to 4th decided to pass the ailing bull on the outside of Piratella, expectedly Speed understeered into the side of him which resulted in a spin for the German. The Fezza blocked the cars behind for TWO WHOLE SECONDS so the stewards had no choice but to issue a safety-car...
If you haven't played rFactor you wouldn't know why this is devastating. My issue wasn't that I lost my 35s lead, I was pretty much sure I wouldn't survive the SC anyhow. In the prior races I had SC's deactivated as the AI is just awful during this but I had forgotten to do this after my reinstall. So, notable events during SC: Uncountable front wings knocked off including Liuzzi who despite being in 2nd drove into the safety-car, 5-6 retirements (including Schumacher) mostly due to crashes when the SC stormed off the track at Tosa and crashed hard into the barriers, the SC is indestructible but everyone had to stamp on the brakes to wait for it to rejoin.
The order at the restart was Rosberg, Webber and Alonso who had came up to third due to everyone and their grandmother losing their front wing at least once during the mayhem-car. I began to push hard as I had to build a gap in just 10 laps to come out infront and my teammate did a great job holding Alonso up until the universe realized that Webber was in a fantastic position and blew his engine. Alonso wasn't much faster than Liuzzi had been in the beginning and I was pulling away quite easily as he made his only stop of the afternoon which promoted the cars that only lost one front wing and actually had some pace ahead of him with Speed and Massa at the front. The second half of the race was a breeze at the front but Alonso wasn't going to let me close up too much in the championship and every car between us retired, most due to engine problems but Massa and DC got Ralfed whilst lapping him. Only seven cars finished and Alonso was a lap behind! He has finished in front of all the AI cars in all the races, there seems to be some sort of conspiracy here...
In the end a utterly dominant weekend for Rosberg as he scored his first Pole, Hat Trick and Grand Chelem!
Championship Table
Alonso now leads Rosberg with 16 points and Schumacher 22 and still serene at the front but he has been thoroughly outpaced the last two races and should at least be a little worried. Rosberg finally finishes and wins races, can he keep his momentum on to the Nürburgring? Toyota couldn't believe how the last race finished with a 4-5, Trulli qualifyed 20th and Ralf crashed into at least four cars during the race. The Toro Rosso team can't believe how a sure-fire double podium turned into a double retirement and they are now last in the WCC...
Bahrain Grand Prix
Practice
The long straights of the Bahrain International Circuit made me opt for a low downforce setup and set the rear wing as low as the engineers would let me. However the sweeping high-speed sections of the track required front downforce so I chose a quite aggressive front wing setting but this gave me problems in the turn 9-10 combination where I often caught oversteer and locked the rear wheels under braking. This I corrected with front biased brake balance and then I loosened up the front suspension to counter the understeer it caused in the slow corners.
Qualifying
I chose a two stop strategy because while I am quite good at tyre management I tend to go off track sometimes at T9-10 and this can really ruin your tyres. I went out as the lights turned green and set a provisional pole time of 1:34.111. My second lap didn't go very well, while I was four tenths quicker after the second sector I subsequently went wide at the second to last corner, lost traction, spun and crashed hard against the barriers. However my first attempt put me fifth on the grid behind my teammate. Ahead of us Alonso had pole with Schumacher in second and Räikkönen spoiled the all-Williams second row with a last minute effort which put him third.
Race
I made a brilliant start and led the pack coming down to T4. Since I knew they were all 1-stopping I had to pull a gap before my pitstop, and while I was able to setup a good rhythm doing low 1:35s, I spun once and my lead was three seconds at the time of my stop.
This put me down to third 2s ahead of Räikkönen but my target was Schumacher 10s up the road. The gap closed quicker than expected as the leaders hit traffic which in turn caused a constant squabble for the lead between them and their pace dropped off dramatically.
As Schumacher tried a move up the inside in T1 I snuck up behind and passed him on the inside of T3, caught Alonsos slipstream down the straight and passed him into T4, but this time I couldnt shake him.
We were banging wheels for two full laps until we hit a pack of four cars to be lapped, I seized the opportunity and passed them as quickly as I could while Alonso got stuck and the gap came up to 5s, he then pitted a few laps later and I thought victory was mine, as I pitted my lead was a safe 27s, I thought.
I had apparently picked up some damage whilst battling with Alonso and traffic which had to be fixed and my stop took 16s!
This made me emerge side by side with Schumacher and I tucked in right behind him to slipstream him into T4, but as I was about to pull out to make my move my mirrors were full of smoke and fire, engine failure
But I wasn't alone as the cars placed 2-6 all went out with engine failures and Massa came in second a full minute behind the leader
Malaysian Grand Prix
Practice
I'm usually terrible at this track and despite finding a setup I'm comfortable with I was 18th only ahead of the Midlands and the Aguris with a 1:36.5 while my teammate was 4th with a time two seconds faster than mine, oh boy...
Qualifying
This went even worse, a scrappy first run put me 18th with a 1:37.1 and on my second run I spun off and crashed!
To top it off Webber qualified 3rd behind the Renaults, Alonso got pole.Race
The start was pretty strange, I had set my 1st gear ratio too long and was dreadfully slow off the line but my otherwise short gearing gave me an advantage down the straight and I was 5th coming out of T2!
During the next two laps I disposed of Räikkönen, Webber, Fisichella and Alonso, I had come from 18th to 1st in three laps . I had trouble getting away from them and on lap 5 I spun at T2 which put me back down to 5th. I repassed Kimi into T4 but he tried to get me back through the fast chicane, we touched and while I barrel-rolled into the barriers he merrily continued on his way . As the race continued noone was able to get away at the front and as the race came to an end only 3.1s separated 1st-6th in a race only 9 cars finished. Alonso won his second race in a row ahead of Schumacher and Fisichella.Australian Grand Prix
Practice
This is the circuit I'm the most comfortable around bar none, probably because it's usually the first race of the season in most F1 games
. However my best lap was a 1:27.929 which put me a disappointing 16th.Qualifying
The session started badly as I spun on the exit of the fast chicane 11-12, I aborted the lap and pitted for new tyres. This meant I still had two hotlaps left but I had to do them on the same set of tyres. I really hooked up the first one and recorded a time of 1:26.961, the next attempt was even faster but I binned it in the notorious chicane. This put me 11th on the grid between the BMW's, the midfield was extremely close with less than .4s separating Webber in 7th from Liuzzi in 13th. Räikkönen stopped Alonso's run of poles with a last minute effort that put him first.
Race
The first corner at Melbourne Park is pretty much the definition of first lap incidents, this made me opt for an unusually conservative approach to the race start and I was still 11th coming down towards T3, but as the field spread out a little I went on the offensive and made past five cars on the remainder of the lap. During the next couple of laps I passed the heavier cars in front of me and started to build a gap over Alonso in 2nd. At the time of my pitstop I had extended it to about 8s despite a major spin(guess where
) in the middle of the stint that wiped out my previous advantage. I came out in 2nd just ahead of Räikkönen with Alonso 16s in front. Traffic helped me to close the gap rather swiftly and thanks to my teammate I was right on his gearbox as he made his only stop of the afternoon. This enabled me to extend the gap before my final pitstop and I emerged 5s ahead with five lapped cars between us. I could then cruise for the last 16 laps and won the race by 20s . Alonso settled for second and Schumacher was third over a minute behind.San Marino Grand Prix
Practice
The Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari is a really fun and challenging track, I particularly like the Villenueve chicane, Aque Minerale and Rivazza. After binning it through Villenueve at least seven times I had finalized a setup that felt almost perfect for the track, only a touch of oversteer through longer slower corners like Tosa was an issue.
Qualifying
Due to the layout of the track with a short pilane and a chincane after the entry I decided to opt for a 3-stop strategy. This will hopefully allow me to qualify near the front and I'll be able to bulid a gap to the heavier cars behind, however a badly timed safety-car could ruin the race and just a SC at anytime will make things very difficult.
I went out early and set a time of 1:23.576 and immediately binned it through Traguardo, I then followed the rest of the session smugly from the pits as no one came close to beating it. The surprise of qualifying was the Toro Rossos of Liuzzi and Speed lining up in 2nd and 3rd being the only ones to set a time within one second of the pole-sitter. The majority of the field was miles behind, Webber and Coulthard in 5th and 6th was 1.8s and 2s behind. Both Schumacher and Alonso messed up quali and will line up in 9th and 16th respectively.
Race
Being on pole with soft tyres and a light fuel load turned out to be rather nice, all alone at the first corner is a luxury I can get used to. As I finished my first lap I was already 2.5s ahead of the chasing pack of Liuzzi, Speed, Fisichella and Webber. I continued to pulla away from Liuzzi at a rate of 2s/lap and the Toro Rossos was leaving everyone else behind! On lap 10 Flavio was furious with Fisi being so far ahead of Alonso he decided to push his secret button and the engine went bust. An extremely hairy moment at Aque Minerale had cut my lead with 7s but as I pitted on lap 16 my lead was a healthy 25s and I came back out well in front, the race seemed destined to be a real snooze-fest. Liuzzi decided to do the casual audience a favour and spun at Traguardo on lap 20, as he rejoined the track his teammate hit him at full Speed (
), Liuzzi came out unscathed but Speed lost his front wing. Schumacher whom had worked his way up to 4th decided to pass the ailing bull on the outside of Piratella, expectedly Speed understeered into the side of him which resulted in a spin for the German. The Fezza blocked the cars behind for TWO WHOLE SECONDS so the stewards had no choice but to issue a safety-car...If you haven't played rFactor you wouldn't know why this is devastating. My issue wasn't that I lost my 35s lead, I was pretty much sure I wouldn't survive the SC anyhow. In the prior races I had SC's deactivated as the AI is just awful during this but I had forgotten to do this after my reinstall. So, notable events during SC: Uncountable front wings knocked off including Liuzzi who despite being in 2nd drove into the safety-car, 5-6 retirements (including Schumacher) mostly due to crashes when the SC stormed off the track at Tosa and crashed hard into the barriers, the SC is indestructible but everyone had to stamp on the brakes to wait for it to rejoin.
The order at the restart was Rosberg, Webber and Alonso who had came up to third due to everyone and their grandmother losing their front wing at least once during the mayhem-car. I began to push hard as I had to build a gap in just 10 laps to come out infront and my teammate did a great job holding Alonso up until the universe realized that Webber was in a fantastic position and blew his engine. Alonso wasn't much faster than Liuzzi had been in the beginning and I was pulling away quite easily as he made his only stop of the afternoon which promoted the cars that only lost one front wing and actually had some pace ahead of him with Speed and Massa at the front. The second half of the race was a breeze at the front but Alonso wasn't going to let me close up too much in the championship and every car between us retired, most due to engine problems but Massa and DC got Ralfed whilst lapping him. Only seven cars finished and Alonso was a lap behind! He has finished in front of all the AI cars in all the races, there seems to be some sort of conspiracy here...
In the end a utterly dominant weekend for Rosberg as he scored his first Pole, Hat Trick and Grand Chelem!
Championship Table
Alonso now leads Rosberg with 16 points and Schumacher 22 and still serene at the front but he has been thoroughly outpaced the last two races and should at least be a little worried. Rosberg finally finishes and wins races, can he keep his momentum on to the Nürburgring? Toyota couldn't believe how the last race finished with a 4-5, Trulli qualifyed 20th and Ralf crashed into at least four cars during the race. The Toro Rosso team can't believe how a sure-fire double podium turned into a double retirement and they are now last in the WCC...
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