Split 1 - R1: Zhuhai - 15th May 2017 (1 Viewer)

[m4nu]

Puh, what a season opener! Zhuhai really does not suit me, only P13 in qualy which was by far my worst result. Anyway I had great fun with @Battenberg @Feanor @SBart_uk and @MelBonkers. In the end P7 for me, missed my aim of beeing in top 5 but whatever... It was really great fun driving the car, super hyped for Monza!

 

[Cluck]

I'm sure more than 20 minutes practice before the race might have helped me tonight, as would a setup that wasn't rather heavy on the wing (I was running 1F/6R ). For what it's worth, I just set a sub.1m24 lap with 1F/1R and the car was quite stable too. Ah well.

Quali was a disaster. I couldn't hook a clean lap up and ran out of time so had to settle for 11th.

From the start, I moved right to get myself some clear air ahead of me, giving me plenty of time to brake for T1. Out of T1 I found myself up to 8th. By the exit of T5 (I think) I was up to 6th. And that was pretty much it. With that heavy wing I was no match for Suomy and Stu, who cruised past me like I was standing still, so I settled into a rhythm of thinking about what I had for dinner, what jobs I was doing tomorrow, whether I would join the induction session, in short, a million things other than the drudgery of being in no-man's land in 6th place. Still, that was a far better result than I was expecting, going into the race.

Congrats to the winners of both classes and to both splits. Not a bad start to the season but a finish is a finish .

 

[PatatorJohn]

Puh, what a season opener! Zhuhai really does not suit me, only P13 in qualy which was by far my worst result. Anyway I had great fun with @Battenberg @Feanor @SBart_uk and @MelBonkers. In the end P7 for me, missed my aim of beeing in top 5 but whatever... It was really great fun driving the car, super hyped for Monza!

Close call at 8:20. I totally mixed my braking marker while watching bart at my left. I'm more than happy it didn't had consequences

The race was great fun in any case

 

[m4nu]

Close call at 8:20. I totally mixed my braking marker while watching bart at my left. I'm more than happy it didn't had consequences

The race was great fun in any case

Yeah that was a very hairy moment, luckily nothing happened!

 

[Puffpirat]

What a start to the season. Great race and congrats to @ProjectPD well done mate. Also @Col_McCoy great race, bit of an over motivated move though

Sorry I had to leave TS early, brought my boy to bed and fell asleep with him

 

[Tom]

Wow, I knew the competition would be hard but DAMN. My race pace wasn't great, but I did a wonderlap in qualifying and started far too high up the grid. I was too cautious at the start and lost a few places, but ended up 4th after a few cars tangled ahead of me. As the top 3 took off ahead, I had a great time holding up @Cluck and @Suomy in the early stage of the race. Each time Cluck got close, I held him up just enough to let Suomy get right on his bumper, temporarily taking the pressure off me for a good few laps. Both cars got past, and promptly disappeared up the road.

I was then managing a small gap to @t0daY, and pitted at half distance. Somehow @Feanor had a huuuge undercut and rejoined right into mine & t0day's battle, where I was hassled for a good few laps. Lots of PTP defending going on! Feanor got a good run on me coming out the last corner, and t0day boosted his way to make it 3 wide. I could see what was going to happen, so I gave up the corner, and took a late apex to get an undercut to avoid any potential mess. This was the right move, as t0day locked up & biffed Feanor a little bit wide. I cut to the inside, but t0day had half spun onto my line, and grazed my side as I squeezed past. No harm done, could have been a lot worse! Feanor then spun off ahead a few corners later, and t0day was back on my tail.

t0day caught back up immediately, and pressured me into a mistake at T1. I had a few wobbly moments under heavy braking, but this was the biggest one yet. I was on full steering lock at one point. @Blue Monkey was now chasing me down bit by bit as the final laps came closer. I had a tiny bit of PTP left, but I think he had 1 shot more than me. I defended into T1 on the last lap, but was too cautious on the apex after dropping it a few laps before. I went for 2nd instead of 3rd, and Monkey zipped around the outside in a great move.

It was a tough race, but considering my race pace, I'm pretty happy with a top 10 finish. Hats off to all the guys mentioned for the great racing, and also to @Hobbnob and @falcon2081 on the good work on the stream!

 

[Cluck]

Yeah, that was the highlight of the race for me, Battenberg, simultaneously trying to get past you whilst holding Suomy off. I did nudge him into T4 (? the VERY sharp right hander), having forgotten to brake a little earlier from the draft I got off his car , which gave you back your place again temporarily. Those were a fun (albeit frustrating ) few laps. Once Suomy was past, though, I had little to race for except to hope somebody crashed ahead of me - my high wing setting was doing me no favours at all

 

[Jamesl91]

My race was not so good. Started P13 and was battling for P8/P9 until I spun in L12 in the damn hairpin. Rejoined and tried to fight back. Pitted in L16 and my crew decided to fill up the car. Then I rejoined and got some damage due to some touches in a couple of battles. Made a mistake by trying to give room to Thomas in the final corner and went wide. Rejoined in P24 and tried to fight back to the front. In the last couple of laps had a nice battle with Rick Grimes and finished P19.

Again, sorry for the touch in the first corner Rick Grimes! And sorry Thomas for screwing up chances for points for our team/

This is my stream. I'm mad with myself.......

Watching our battle on replay reminded me how fun it was! Especially when I overtook 2 of you into the hairpin. Probs my favourite moment along with defending against @FuBii

 

[SBart_uk]

Well I had a fun race for some reason I decided not to use my push to pass at the start and lost a few positions. Then at the hairpin it looked as if there would be a collision between the top 2 and somehow in anticipating that it sent me into a spin and unfortunately ended up in someones way. I think I was down in 11th after that and started trying to make up some places. After a while I came up behind t0daY who defended wonderfully and it took many laps to find a way past and was great fun. After that I think I had a pretty lonely race until the last lap when i saw Suomy on the grass on the last hairpin but i didn't quite have enough to get past before the finish line.
Edit : Sorry Ramiboo! dunno why it spun...but today ive discovered that i get better performance by maxing everything out. Project cars was using like 50-60% of the gpu on medium settings and i was struggling with some stutter at the start of the race...now i've got it on ultra and its using 110% and getting a steady 90fps...weird :/

 

[ramiboo]

Well I had a fun race for some reason I decided not to use my push to pass at the start and lost a few positions. Then at the hairpin it looked as if there would be a collision between the top 2 and somehow in anticipating that it sent me into a spin and unfortunately ended up in someones way. I think I was down in 11th after that and started trying to make up some places. After a while I came up behind t0daY who defended wonderfully and it took many laps to find a way past and was great fun. After that I think I had a pretty lonely race until the last lap when i saw Suomy on the grass on the last hairpin but i didn't quite have enough to get past before the finish line.

someone = @ramiboo

 

[Col_McCoy]

@Blue Monkey, here is the setup I run at the Zhuhai race.
It's actually the default setup with some minor tweaks, so I don't know if you can call it a base setup or not.
As for differential, it was about 15% accel 75% decel.
I saw some guys talking about radiator... I won't tell too much, but in my oppinion the cars can run at higher temperatures than 110

 

[Col_McCoy]

So yeah, was a bit surprised being up the table so far during qualifying. Was even able to manage to keep it during the race and confidence grew and grew with every braking point I hit perfectly. Just last corner coming on the straight isn't mine, lost loads of time there.
A highlight video of just 8 minutes is up, showing nice consistency, some battling and lapping.
Once again very very sorry to @Puffpirat on the 'divebomb'. Wasn't intentional, just missed the braking point by a lot of metres and decided to really fly past you, so I wouldn't run into you steering in for the corner ;-). Would have been a great last few corners since I saved almost all my KERS for the last 2 laps!