rFactor 2 Round 4 Nogaro

Less than two hours before the quali, I realized that I had time to race today, so I signed up for the race and started practicing. Q went well and got on the pole.

R1. The pole position was on the worse side of the track, so Andrew passed me on the start. I chased Andrew the whole race, but I couldn't even get side to Andrew with the slipstream. I could have gone a little faster, but I just couldn't find any place to overtake, without taking huge risks. Almost got Andrew in last corner, but Andrew did a good job and won.

R2. I modified my setup to get more straight speed, but it was bad decision. The car was still not fast enough on the straight, and awful in corners. I was about a second slower than the first race. Then I tried too much I and drove to the wall. Game over.

Grats Andrew!

 

Sorry Martyn for the crash. I went off the track and had no idea where you were.

This mod and I will not be friends anymore. I have no faith in the car and cannot push to find a good pace. In both races I had also problems with tyre wear. At the end of race 1 59%, at the end of race 2 36%...

 

Had a very weird couple of races, some great battles at times. Race 1 had was tapped into T1 and that caused chaos so apologies for those that got tangled up, then the odd warping with Gerhard who stopped dead, then disappeared as i just as i was about to drive through him and appeared in my mirrors on top of Ken.
Then Race 2 was great fighting with Paul and Henri, although in the most part watching Henri fight the car and Paul nearly everywhere. After Henri spun had a great battle with Paul, but unusually for our battles it ended with us locking wheels on 2nd right hander after the straight and we both hit the grass. Think i have to miss the next round but look forward to the final one.

 

My tyres end of race 1
44.7 - 51.8
86.3 - 86.3

End of race 2
47.8 - 51.8
84.3 - 84.7

In comparison to Henri tyres after race 1
75.7 - 79.6
75.3 - 74.5

 

I've looked at the stats - the fuel tank was your straightline speed issue.

 

I didn't realize it effect so much, so I didn't calculate fuel accurately

 

Seems to be Andrew´s mod, congrats to the double.

Thanks Henri, your set up likely saved me. I drove a similar before, but I didn´t feel comfortable because the car was really a handful. (And not fast)
I tried different settings 6/14 and then ended up driving "full" wing, which was stable but still lacking in speed. Three laps were enough to gain nearly a second. I was a bit worried about my consistency, because this car/track combo bites if you get it slightly wrong, that happend in the first qual session. Really a fine line, but once you find the rythm it is no problem anymore. Probably hard to get there, my fastest lap yesterday was a 33 in race trim, now it was a low 31, gained two seconds within an hour. Not sure how, so I canot give an simple answer but it likely shows do not give up. I was in nomans land in Estoril and now I could sniff the podium race two.

To the races itself.
R1: I had a good getaway but I was blocked by the cars in front, there fore Ken could pass me. In hindsight this was no advantage for him, because of that what happend to Mark, Roel and Gerhard. All four were affected by that and the following incidents. I was fortunate enough to avoid the mayhem and take fourth. I was impressed by my pace then, constant 31´s, good enough to stay in front of Patrik.

R2: Better start, I passed Ken this time but probably I was way to conservative at turn four (I always had an early brakepoint there), that caught out Patrik, sorry. I was again fortunate to catch that half spin. I followed Paul, Henri and Mark, entertaining fights to watch, until Henri crashed out. Then I suddenly missed Ken in my mirror, I was worried to force him off but he got caught out by the curb. After that it was like race 1, until Paul was passed and seemed to have problems. He defended well, so I could not pass him. I thought about it to try an outside move at turn 13 but I was to worried to get stuck on the outside curb. Double P4 was good enough, never was that good. Looking forward to road atlanta.

If this is tldr, this video sums it up in three minutes

 

Agree with Henri that the pole was on the wrong side, especially with the grid not being staggered.

Race 1
From 2nd, took the lead into T1 from Henri (see above ) but didn't expect it to last long. On the back straight, Henri didn't seem to be catching me in draft so was able to keep the lead. Final lap he did get a run at me so had to defend into the hairpin, then I got a bit scrappy and nearly threw it all away in the final corner, but managed to hold on.

Race 2
Started on pole,but lost the lead to Henri in T1 (see above ). Expected him to run into the distance, but got a good draft down back straight and passed into the hairpin, and then started pulling a gap. This confused me and I was wondering if Henri forgot to load setup or something. Whilst he fought with Paul and Mark, I gained a 4 second lead, which I could hold to the end.

Congrats to podiums.

 

LOL Henri - 2 hours of practicing and such great driving! I spent more than 10 hours to steady the beast and best was around 1:30:300 in an offline race with AI. in average I was around 1:31 when all good. Maybe I have to try your setup next time when it was so helpful for Philipp

Q1 - actually I was just stepping off the tram and ran home to catch at least race
R1 - started last and fortunately (for me ) there was some mess in lap two and I was able to move to 5th. I was keeping the pace with Philipp then, but not close enough and fast enough to clear 3 - 4s gap.
Q2 - quite decent result at 6th place within 1 tenth with Philipp and Ken
R2 - 1st lap - unfortunate contact in middle of Philipp and Ken which makes me spin. I was then last, able to overtake some guys later. During one overtake I hit Klaus and make him spin Sorry for that! Then I was not bale to concentrate more and also the gap was too big to catch anyone. I was just driving to end and trying to make no further mistake.

I like the car but apparently I need still a lot of practicing to be closer to winners
thanks all and congrats to podiums!

 

Q1
Did a PB and got 3rd.

Race 1
Got an average start. I swear by the last race I'm going to get a lightning start. A car was alongside me on the left but as the first few corners were all right handers I kept my car in there to take the inside line and got 3rd through T2. Pulled away from 4th place but wasn't able to keep pace with Andrew and Henri. Spent the whole race watching the scrap ahead hoping the fighting would slow them down but it didn't such was their pace. Obviously I must smell a bit as it was a bit of a lonely race and nobody wanted to play with me.

Q2
On the first flying lap I threw the car off the track going into the first corner. The track felt greener than Q1. I couldn't match my lap time in Q1 but still good enough for 3rd.

Race2
Right lets get this cleared up. I have a confession to make. At the end of the race the red mist had overwhelmed me and I was pretty pissed off. Mark and I was having a great fight for 2nd when he punted me off the track. He didn't give back the place which I thought was unsporting of him. At the end of the race I smashed into Mark after the finish line and left the race. This is unacceptable behaviour on my part and unusual for me. I have now looked at Henri's video and see that I was completely wrong. Mark was on the inside line and I cut across his nose taking the racing line not realising he was there. The incident was my fault. Mark I really am sorry for my behaviour at the end of the race and for the incident itself. I guess none of you noticed it but I'll apologise to everyone as I say its bad behaviour.
OK that out of the way. At the start I once again got a sluggish getaway but again managed to fend off the attack from behind to keep my 3rd place. Henri was ahead and really struggling to keep his car on the track. I managed to sneak past and noticed that a lap or too later Henri had dropped out. Mark then launched his attack taking chunks of time out of me. We started to fight for position then the coming together which I've covered above. The incident meant that Philipp caught me soon afterwards. I think the half spin and off track excursion wrecked my front tyres as the last 3 laps I had no front end on the car and turning into corners was a real handful. I had to drop my pace to get around which gave Philipp several chances to slip past. Luckily I still had pace coming out of the corners and down the straight so I could fend him off to keep 3rd over the line.

Well done to Andrew for another double win. Yawn. Yawn.

Onto Road America. Not Road Atlanta Philipp so don't start testing on the wrong track.

 

HI

had a stinker of a first race ... got through the early carnage but got a wheel on the grass on the long straight and continued to slide as if on ice forever over to the airport, across the grass with no directional or throttle control .
Anyway it eventually DQ me so that was that.
Tried another setup for race two and found some good consistency although still way off pace . No problem Pascal I apologise my my contact with you too . I seen in an earlier incident , not with me , that you had lost a piece of your front wing . When I saw you run wide I took the opportunity to pass . Racing incident and no worries on my part.
As laps went on I could see you were limited by something , tyres aero , and started to chase as my cars handling was feeling pretty good.
Enjoyed this round and had some good help and advice from Ken and co beforehand.
Thanks and congrats to winners and pole

 

Thanks Paul for comments I was happy we normally never touch and have had several great races here and at RC, i hadn't seen a replay to look into it more so i'd put it down as RI and never of thought any more unless you'd of said. Main thing is sounds like we can go at it again next time if i can get close enough to you...

 

the same happened to me. fortunately during the practice. only way how to escape from the slide was an "escape" :|