26-09-2007, 12:06 AM
Yeaahhh, great race, people... The week before the race I was training hard and I tried everything: High downforce, low downforce, hard suspension, low suspension... and the result was always the same : I was unable to drive fast in this f****ng parking lot. So, I created a setup that was just easy to drive, without caring too much about speed. So my goal was just finishing the race. I was quite sure there was going to be a lot of incidents and I could get some points by just finishing.
It worked, but it wasn't easy. I made a very bad qualy (10th), but I made a great start(key for my race) and arrived 4th at T1. With the usual mayhem at T1, I even was 2nd for a moment, but things calmed a little bit and I was 5th. During the rest of the race, I as always defending myself against cars faster than me: some of them were quite faster (Hugo and T. Guerreiro) and some of them just slightly faster than me (Berto and Antonio). All of them were hard, but clean fights and I think we all had fun. I just concentrated in not making mistakes and didn't care too much about driving fast (a poor 1:23:606 was my best lap). Of course, this impossible-to-overtake track helped me, along with the fact that I think I was a bit faster on straights than the 2 Lotus. Special thanks to Berto, who overtook me twice. 2nd time, he braked very late in last turn, touched me a little bit and I spun. He waited for me and returned the 6th position. Clean racing, man... The final 6th position that was reaaally sweet for me...
About formation lap, I can understand Vitor's point of view. Anyway, I'm also in favor of it. From some previous tests, you begin the race with tyres between 60-65ºC which is a big improvement in grip over the usual 30ºC. The main problem in my opinion is that everybody has to be very disciplined in stopping at their grid positions because otherwise the engine of the first rows' cars (which are waiting for the others) is very likely to die. I have another suggestion for your next season which is public qualifying. Finding your way through the traffic is part of the essence of 79 qualifying. In another league I played, qualifying was 20 minutes with a maximum of 12 laps. Counting in and out laps, that means 4 flying laps for each one. That lap limit was enough for the track not being crowded all the time...
It worked, but it wasn't easy. I made a very bad qualy (10th), but I made a great start(key for my race) and arrived 4th at T1. With the usual mayhem at T1, I even was 2nd for a moment, but things calmed a little bit and I was 5th. During the rest of the race, I as always defending myself against cars faster than me: some of them were quite faster (Hugo and T. Guerreiro) and some of them just slightly faster than me (Berto and Antonio). All of them were hard, but clean fights and I think we all had fun. I just concentrated in not making mistakes and didn't care too much about driving fast (a poor 1:23:606 was my best lap). Of course, this impossible-to-overtake track helped me, along with the fact that I think I was a bit faster on straights than the 2 Lotus. Special thanks to Berto, who overtook me twice. 2nd time, he braked very late in last turn, touched me a little bit and I spun. He waited for me and returned the 6th position. Clean racing, man... The final 6th position that was reaaally sweet for me...
About formation lap, I can understand Vitor's point of view. Anyway, I'm also in favor of it. From some previous tests, you begin the race with tyres between 60-65ºC which is a big improvement in grip over the usual 30ºC. The main problem in my opinion is that everybody has to be very disciplined in stopping at their grid positions because otherwise the engine of the first rows' cars (which are waiting for the others) is very likely to die. I have another suggestion for your next season which is public qualifying. Finding your way through the traffic is part of the essence of 79 qualifying. In another league I played, qualifying was 20 minutes with a maximum of 12 laps. Counting in and out laps, that means 4 flying laps for each one. That lap limit was enough for the track not being crowded all the time...