Here we are for the first european event of the year, we are in Turkey and Istanbul is the venue of the 4th round of the league.
A nice track with fast curves that eats a lot tyres, the race strategy can be the key factor on this track, the driver championship is open for many of us and we look forward for an exciting race.
Our team has done something memorable on qualify placing 6 drivers on the first 8 positions, of course is the best result of the season for us.
The pole position of Flickspeed is not surprising much but is amazing to see that our team II filled the front row with Laurent Vaisman on 2nd position, fantastic result!
Third and fourth places for LRT driver Ricardo and Luciano from Storm then we have in sequence: Inigo 5th, Eleanor 6th, Nemesis 7th and Manos87 8th, impressive team result, our competitors seem to have some setup problem.
The leader of the league MariusMNM is 11th Graur Catalin 16th, Walter976 18th, Schumi_1st 23rd and Mihai Calota 24th.
THE RACE (View race results)
RACE HIGHLIGHTS – BY MARIUSMNM:
For the second time in a row we raced all together, 25 drivers this time, someone suffered of lag issues and had to struggle to bring some point home.
The fight for the victory has been really exciting with Laurent, Nemesis, Flickspeed, MariusMNM and Ricardo Ferreira from LRT all with similar pace and with chances to reach the top step on the podium.
Ricardo got a fantastic victory taking advantage of his pit stops, Laurent is 2nd with an excellent and clean race and Nemesis is 3rd after recovering several positions, congratulation to all!
Consistent race for Graur Catalin 4th with lag problems while unfortunately Flickspeed (leader for about half race) and MariusMNM had the same problem during a pit stop pressing twice the speed limiter button which costed them a drive-through penalty, Marius got very nervous because of this fact and crashed his car getting a final 15th place, Flick compromized his chances for the final victory and arrived 6th.
Good result for Walter976 that after a terrible first stint has been able to climb the standing until the 9th place, Schumi_1st is 14th but had a not enjoyable race due to lag and cars disappearing and jumping all around the track, Mihai Calota is 16th.
Inigo got disconnected after 22 laps while was fighting for the podium, very frustrated he’s not sure he will continue to race until will find a fix for this connection problem, good luck boss!
Manos87 and Eleanor had 2 different accidents on lap 1 damaging seriously the car, DNF for both but already focused for the next round, that’s the spirit we like.
A pity for all those that had lag issues and couldn’t enjoy a great race made of a lot of duels and overtakes, really we cannot mention all of them as they are simply too many.
A brilliant result for our team that will increase the gap from Storm and Lowland Racing team, the driver standings become more and more interesting, we can say that this round has shuffled the cards concerning the battle for the new champion, never seen such balanced F1 league, congratulations to all drivers!
We go to the warm Spain now, Barcelona is the land of our boss Inigo, hopefully he can take part of this event. We’ve already been informed by Flickspeed and Laurent that they cannot take part of this event, team II will be absent but we wait them in Monaco for the 5th round.
Let’s go to Catalunya!!!
COMMENTS
Flickspeed 22 May 2011, 16:49
It was a very hot day in Georgia. I was drinking lots of water all evening but that became a problem for the 58 lap race. I had an amazing start to the race, dropped laurent and ricardo 2 seconds out of the first 3 corners. Then dropped the pace and here the surprize came. Laurent and ricardo were pushing really hard from lap 1. Don’t know how they managed but their pace grew and grew every lap. So I upped my pace, but seemed like their tires were better. Not sure what ricardo was using but Laurent was on mediums. I was on softs. They eventually passed me at 1 point. But then on my last stop with 18 laps remaining fresh softs on I came out of the pits 4 seconds ahead of Laurent. And was catching Ricardo fast. My tires finally came to life. In testing the soft tires were very good with less fuel and lasted longer, So it was a perfect opportunity to catch and pass Ricardo, but that could never come true because of maybe +3 km/h speening in the pitlane. All because of the fact I couldn’t get rid of all the water I drank :D So I it was not comfortable at all to race hence why I made that small speeding mistake during pit entry. The again when I served drive through I pressed the speed limit button twice and got another stop and go. So lost my 4th place to Graur Catalin. And in addition was hasting so fast that I damaged my car a little on my stop go entry in the pitlane so the car was going left all the time. Then at the end of the race I tried to atleast get some fast laps in and spun allowing danny to catch up. Then on the final lap Danny3L hit me from behind, spun me out and went ahead to finish 5th. Danny admitted his mistake, but for some reason nobody paid any attention to this and danny and storm racing remained with 8 extra points vs me and omrt with 8 less :(
I Otermin 21 May 2011, 16:11
for me a very very sad race. i also have to say i enjoyed a lot but when i saw connection lost, i became very angry. i started very well, it was my best start from season, and i could pass luciano, but he loocks like very agressive, and i thought like he will not have time to end the race and maybe he wanna destroy my race because i didn’t understand his moves, when he take advantage he brakes for i catch him when i catch him, he was faster and when we were in paralel, he was doing stranges moves, also in straight he move to the grab and braked when we were 100% throttle with a very dangerous move, and i overtake him and after some laps surprising he disconencted. but loocking for last disputes i was not surprise and it was why i was more carrefully because i knew he will try to make me do an accident for dispute me again.
after this troubles, i had a black skin in my mirrors from a renault and i thought was locutus and i was closing all doors, but i remembered that marius had also renault,(because i remember from videos) and i press tab for loock for names and he was. then as i was slower in chicane, befores start 3rd sector, i split it and i let him pass, i wan to go behind him for push together, (better than brake together) and try to catch laurent), then i started to be faster, but as i knew all marius had in game, i was very carrefull and i prefer to don’t overtake, so we were very save, finally after lots of laps i overtake him when i saw he was braking me strong (provably for tyres ) then i pass him and he wntered box. i did some more laps and i entered too in box and i saw him in front of me but with big diference, so loocks like is very important when you decide stop in box after this and some laps i lost conexion, and i lost all chances for get a podium and get an excelent result for first time in this season for me.
now i will not provably take more part for this season untill summer but let’s see :) (i have to confirm that i am with lot of effort to qualy for spain gp, but will be imposible provably)
Marius Nicolae 20 May 2011, 06:17
My place on the start grid was 11 ( i dont know why :) ) , in turn 1 i was in P6 behind Nemesis and beside Locutus , i have pas Locotus before sicane and i was outside from Nemesis and i was able to be first in that sicane and pas him. Then my fight was with Ingo, i have push hard to overtake him …and few laps latter i pas him ( nice fight there ) , but i use the tire to much trying to overtake and i cant leave him behind me , he push me hard until lap 17 , my strategy was to pit in lap 19 ….but i dont know why i pit in lap 17…and i have a big mistake in pit lane , i have push twice the limit button and i have drive in pit with 115 km, normal i take a penalty and 2 laps latter i was in for that penalty …and from that point i was so nervous and lose my pace gap …..some crash there and the car going very slow. I have try just to finish the race you dont know what will be the end of race. I have finish in P 15 and like in China , i lose some important points from my mistake . I hope to be in front in Spain , for me now dont mather the qual so much …because the qual is some food and race another :) Congratulation to all and cya in the next track.
Walter976 19 May 2011, 21:21
Very nice and extensive report Laurent, indeed the battle for 1st place has been spectacular, I watched the replay and really enjoyed it, I invite everyone to do the same, it will deserve a dedicated video.
My story: finally the first clean lap 1 of the season but a terrible first stint with a couple of spins due to my faults but also Keenan that was having over 1000 ping and was jumping all over the place, really scaring to pass him even if I was much faster.
Finally he realized to have serious lag issues and let me by, from that moment my real race could begin.
I had 2 good final stints, no mistakes and good confidence with a lighter car, I passed some drivers and I recovered nearly 20 secs to Schumikov.
To be mentioned the final 5 laps where I made all possible to pass him but being carefull to not ruin our race, I managed to suprise him at the hard breaking when entering the slowest part of the track but we had Nemesis just behind ready to lap us. He first passed Schumikov than I let him by braking on T1 but a very smart Schumikov followed him getting back his position.
Indeed a nice move by Schumikov, congratulations to him, I was faster than him but he had a better top speed so he managed to defend well his place… if I only had few more laps I could organize another attack.
Well, I’m happy for my first “clean” race of the year, is nice to bring the car home without any damage :-)
Congratulations to all the team and to all those drivers that made me enjoy so much this race! Of course, thanks Tyka!
Laurent Vaisman 19 May 2011, 13:35
Started from second, behind teammate Flickspeed. We got through T1 without incident and then it was Flick, myself and Ricardo, fighting for P1 for numerous laps. Ricardo got me for P2 at the hard braking after the long back stretch but he went wide and I snuck back on the inside to retain position. At the start of lap 4, we touched (hopefully without damage on his end) going into T1. I was on the outside and he was on the inside. I broke a little later than him and turned in but he broke less and we touched side by side. Thankfully neither of us spun but it did get me back into 2nd behind Flick. He tried me on the outside of Turn 8 but couldn’t quite make it stick. Good job on trying though, hehe. Then we touched again a little but no consequence and then at the end of the lap, I think Ricardo forgot to brake because I saw a puff of smoke in my mirrors and Ricardo barreling towards me. I was expecting a contact but thankfully he just went wide. Again on lap 5 he outbraked himself into the final hard braking area. He had the speed but damnit, I wasn’t going to make it easy on him! Hehe.
He got by exiting T1 on lap 6 when I flat spotted my front and went too deep but then he did the same two corners later and I regained my position. More battles on lap 7 with Ricardo but then he hit the curb outside T11 and fell back. This was indeed fun! Thank Ricardo, very much enjoyed it. Some rough racing but I don’t think either was being overly dirty. Hope you enjoyed it as well!
Flick had sort of gotten away while we were fighting so I set out to catch him. Kept it steady until pit time. He pitted one lap sooner than me so I knew that I would have fresher tires by the end of the race. If I could stay close to him, perhaps I could reel him in in the final laps. I thought too far ahead. I came out in second but I noticed that Ricardo was getting closer again so it would be a fight to see who would be first.
By lap 32, I had caught Flick and Ricardo had caught me. Oh my, nerve wracking to say the least. I tried a couple of moves, couldn’t get by. Then on the last braking point of lap 33, Flick went too deep and I tried a cut back move but I gave it too much gas and spun the rear wheels and went onto the grasscrete, gifting 2nd to Ricardo. What a silly mistake on my part. Next lap, Ricardo and Flick go deep into the corner and Flick solo spins. Ricardo first, me second. With Ricardo’s speed, I knew that catching him would be very hard and my only chance would be staying out longer and having fresher tires at the end.
Ricardo pitted lap 38 along with Nemesis who was having a solid fourth place. Flick pitted lap 40 and took himself out of the running with a little speeding problem. I pitted lap 42. I had 16 laps to go with new tires so I knew if I could push it. Whether I would catch anyone, I didn’t know but I was going to try. The problem was that Nemesis was catching me as well as I was catching Ricardo. The gap kept going down and down and we were catching Ricardo! 8 seconds, 6 seconds, 4 seconds, only one lap to go! In the end, less than 3 seconds separated me from Ricardo and 1 second behind me was Nemesis. I wonder what would have happened if we’d have had a few more laps. Looking at the replay, Ricardo was driving on cords. Curses! That said, P2 is good for me, good for OMRT II and was really a fun race to be part of.
Thanks to those mentioned in this recap. The driving was hard but fair and truly my most memorable race here at Tyka so far, and not just because of the result!
Thanks Tyka!