Assetto Corsa Round 4 Mexico 1967 - Thu Aug 20, 2020

Very happy about last night, first podium, first win!

I have to admit if Jeffrey hadn't had the disconnection problem i wouldn't have won, but i was the second fastest driver on the track, so i'm quite satisfied!

Grats to the podium and thanks Caitlin for the amazing broadcasting

Regards

Lorenzo

 

This was my most FRUSTRATING race ever

I was really happy I qualified in P2 as I knew I would lose places at the start due to a waaay too long first gear. Funny, I tried to get in the draft of Jeffrey knowing he would pull away anyway but he didn't even let me

I was doubting to use the longest gear preset or not for the race. First gear is horrendous on the longest gear preset. On the shorter preset is was losing 7 tenths on the straight alone, since my car is already not so fast compared to other cars on the straights I went for the longest preset anyway. I have better lap times with it too.
Lost a lot of places on the start as expected, the getaway could have been a bit better but I would have lost places anyway. When I saw Kimi's Merc fly by on the straight as well I was thinking ooooh nooooo.... Very clean and respectful racing during the first laps.. soon Kimi's car would create a train of cars stuck behind him. That means I got in battles with more cars the longer I was behind him. I was losing so much time I decided to pit after just 20 minutes but I came out in a lot of traffic, so that didn't work well. When Kimi pitted later on he came out just in front.. Stuck behind him again losing more than 2 seconds per lap really. On the straight I lost so much ground I could not catch him in time to attempt a move after T1. And to pass on the chicane my first gear was too long. After that he was slow-boating through the twisty bits and I could not find a way past, especially since he defended his position making both of us lose even more time.. Eventually Mark got past in the chicane and due to fact Kimi was trying to hold me off he was able to pull enough of a gap for Kimi not to catch him on the straight. I even backed out of the twisty part at times so that Kimi would not go defensive and be faster so that followers would not catch that quickly.

P5 but yeah, extremely frustrating race. Didn't feel like a race at all honestly since I was more than 2 seconds down on the pace I should have had. I could easily have ended up 40 seconds further on the road and battle for the win since Jeffrey dropped out. Too bad about that really, especially when you have such a lead.

Monaco was frustrating due to the many incidents (also with Kimi..) and this one well, was not a race for me. Hopefully the next one will turn out better.

 

Here is a replay download.

I'm pretty sure more than half of the grid could deserve a penalty...
Guys, we need to keep in mind :
1) At the start, remember it's an endurance race.
2) Keep your lane if you're not sure of what other drivers are doing, don't think "It's all good or it's all dead".
3) Remember that brakes and tires are cold.
4) Always manage to keep a safe lane to a driver whose 1 of axle trees is at the same level of 1 of your own axle trees.
5) If you punt someone, let him pass.
6) If you want to go back on the track, do it in a safe way for everybody or don't.
7) Don't cut the track even if there is no penalty to suffer from.
8) Pit entry has to be as clean and clear as possible.
9) Pit exit has not priority.
10) Drive your car as you would if you really were in that car.

Of course I'm not above all these elementary rules, and I do some bullsh*** sometimes, but wanted to point out that some drivers seem not to pay enough attention to these.
It's immersive killer, respectful killer and of course fun killer.

 

It's ok

 

Listen to my commentary about your start! "LOOK AT MARTIKAINEN! LOOK AT MARTIKAINEN!"

 

1: I didn't say it was anyone's fault, and I didn't say it wasn't my fault. I said I got involved in it. I don't say whose fault an incident is, even in my opinion, until I've seen the replay.
2: The replay Maxime posted shows you moving across to the right at the point of contact (I assume due to you trying to avoid Mariusz's Alfa).

I'm going to leave it at that, since the rules state that it's not our place to determine fault for an incident. I'll leave it to whoever is handling the stewarding for this race.

 

When I saw this track for the first time I thought it was a bad conversion of an rFactor1 track as it looked awful compared to some of the highly polished tracks you can get. I was right it is an awful looking track but boy is it great fun. I really found a great rhythm to the track and the twisty bits were excellent fun to throw the car threw. Don't judge a book by its cover

Had a good start and got stuck into the melee going on behind what I assume was the pace car. Real David and Goliath battle ensued but that Merc was just too damn fast down the straights. To have any realistic chance of making a move stick you had to overtake it into the hairpin as demonstrated by one of the porkers. Got turned around at the hairpin by Mac but she waited for me to recover so no problems there. My pit stop took way too long and at the end I still had 11 litres of fuel so that really screwed up any chance of a top 5 finish.
Made a couple of mistakes the first I went too wide into T1 and smacked into the wall which nearly tuned me around. I lost a few places as I recovered slowly down the long straight. Then I hit a tire through the twisty section. Why don't they use these tires nowadays? They make you respect the track limits and I would say that there'd be no issue with there use on safety grounds. Bloody things

So once the pace car is taken out of the results I finished 6th. Although I think the rules state you have to stay behind the pace car so maybe even higher than that.

Well done to Lorenzo. I guess I can't moan about how sloe my car is. How it drinks too much fuel and therefore takes too long to pit. You're showing me up stop it

 

I've watched it ( like always ), awesome stuff, despite bad camera files but you handled it well.

 

Sorry about that. I'm not sure if there was a car in front that you had to check up for or something else but your car just suddenly stopped and I couldn't react in time due to the speed difference. Haven't looked at it in the replay yet.

 

I've watched the replay after reading the comments, and the driving standard is horrible, especially from some people that should give the right example. But I've learned from the race at Monaco that you can plough into the side of another car here, as it will be considered door to door

 

I think that incident was far more mild than you're making out. And a penalty wasn't assigned because you then drove into the side of the overtaking car 3-times on the next straight while flashing your lights; and then spun them on purpose a few corners later. You'd find other drivers receive penalties for wronging you if you don't retaliate - but if you do retaliate often Stewards tend to look the other way. When neither driver gains a lasting advantage there's no penalty to be assigned. This also falls into 2.8, conduct expectations. The Stewards have spoken for whatever reason they've spoken for. If you have faith that you can best me - then go and best me in the next races and don't hold onto the penalties from the previous ones.



Moving onto the driving standards discussion

Driving standards are a prickly subject in every single league I've ever been in and they always only improve when everybody just calms down a little bit, genuinely. Watching the race back there was a lot of Turn-1 stuff because of how wide and tightening the braking zone is. Also the really tight one in sector 2(?) is bound to have nasty things happen. Sometimes it's just the nature of tight circuits go. I expect Poznan and Willow Springs to be a little be better just because of the layouts. Both Rodriguez and Monaco have Turn-1's that tighten as they go through, which gives the illusion of a change for a corner-entry overtake that is almost always going to close off. Poznan has a lot of simple 90/180 degree corners with pretty clearly defined braking zones. So there might be less awkward shuffling between the big bruiser power-focused cars and the cars that actually have some brakes. Fingers crossed.

 

Me driving into you?? I was next to the armco following curvature of the track . If my car wasn't there at the last hairpin, you wouldn't have made the corner, you used my car to make the turn .
And the reason why I hit you is because you braked way earlier than normal, you had a very late entry into that corner, but that lap you braked so early you almost hit the armco on the inside all by yourself .

I can only facepalm at this comment...

 

Loved watching Caitlans coverage. Managed to miss all my passes from 18th up to 4th but wont hold it against the TV crew but then when it caught the 3 way action with Laurents BMW and Kimis Merc it was great to re-live Not sure why Laurent didnt enjoy it, its the nature of this class of historic touring cars with real David v Goliath battles on the cards. I loved the fact that once i got past Kimi i had to really hoon through the twisties enough to build a big enough gap so that his freight train wouldnt re-catch me on the long straight. Thats all part of the tactics of racing for me, great fun and made me smile after my grimaces at the early contacts.

 

So you handle stewarding for incidents you were personally involved in?
I've been a steward in other leagues before. Not one of them allowed people to handle incidents they were involved in themselves.

 

And this is exactly why neither of us got a penalty. We both had advantages/disadvantages certain places and ended up hitting each other pushing the limit because of it. No lasting advantage gained. No foul.

 

Surely it would be better having a small team to look at incidents so you get a range of opinions and views?