Brazil - Testing / Race reports

omg love brazil soooo much 1 of my fav tracks
done 20 laps today got into 14s not gonna be top pace but just feelin car out for bigger push in week
tyres aint lastin to long at mo

done more laps today got a low 14 happy with that but fightin the car into the high speed turns

PC is fucked, the way it is at the moment there's no chance I'll finish the race, but I'll turn up

Although not racing this weekend, last weekend as Race Control. I decided to pop some laps in and with help from Gary, i got into a really good rhythm and was consistently doing laps around 1:14/ 1:15 not the pace of the front but i was really happy with it. I look forward to next season and hopefully some close racing with lee ( i'm coming for ya lee!!!)

One more time paparazzi caught Jimi making some strange testing after they caught him having a secret testing with a McLaren car at the middle of the last season at Silverstone.
This time they caught him testing the new Michelin tyres for season 8 in Brazil, after the morning testing for the last race of the successful season 7.
The team decided that these outbreaks must be stop, so the team is searching for a person to manage the public relations of the team. lol

where did torro rosso get there hands on the perelli tyres hmmm lol nes report lol

Ok last practice as Williams Driver this season and we had a very historical Livery on our car from the 94 Season.

For the session i made my first laps since monday and car felt good but pace was bit off anyway i was very consistent and tyres hang on quite well so looking forward to last race of Season and my last Race in the Williams car for now.

Hopefully we can end this in style and make it one hell of a Race !!!

seemed to be half a sec slower in official prac but happy with car
made a slight wing change and car feels goood
practice starts learned thats first few laps on cold tryes need to brake earlier to get car in

cant wait for race
ps matt & dave great practice race lol

Well PC has stayed on today so it might last the whole race, i'll show up but without practice for a few days I'm not expecting much, just looked at times and dave is half second ahead after 1 day lol

Got pole by 6 tenths, all good.
Shit start so was like 7th or something, got up to 3rd catching the leaders with Dave.
When the SC came out I got stuck on the curb so went down to 6th. Got past Arjan, then came up to Dan Ribbans, got past him on the straight, pulled ahead and he decided he could brake 50m before the corner, took me out, basically did what he did to Matt at Silverstone, then says I'm a piece of work, yet he expects the car to slow down braking where he did.

how about we just leave it till race control view it

RACE -

So here we start an emotional final GP at brazil, starting p13

START -

So sitting in my box i was looking...and stareing and didnt notice my car rolling bkwards on grid, b4 the lights even went out i had a DT.

made a few places was up with dan / nick and alex when i did my DT.
came out 9seconds behind a massive battle from 3rd-8th me being in 8th.

as i caught upto the pack, ppl started to pit, so made my way up, eventully getting to alex, then myself and alex start catching the front 2 very fast,

and by lap 30, there was a 4 way fight for p1. and the racing was mega, very close and very fair between us all,

i pitted lap early, same lap as morgan, and managed to jump him in pits,
then 2 laps later alex pitted and i jumped him to, then again when florian pitted,
so p1.

after this it got sweet as, between me and alex, after 4 lap i backed off by a second so we could both do our normall laptimes and pull away from florian.

made 3rd stop, and came out 9seconds behind him, with both of us needing to pit 1 more time,
florian pitted then 7laps later SC came out, and we all pited for fresh tyres,

this kept me in p1, and stayed there till the end,

brilliant race, loved everylap, was great fair racing between us all,

and what a season, 1 of the best OGL has had, we have seen some amazing races, some kick ass overtakes,

gonna miss you all nxt season but OC ill be back,

nick wicked season again for us m8, both titles 2 seasons running,

florian a great title contender, we had our moments but all good.

cya guys good luck next season.

Quali: 4th. Very close between 2nd and 4th.

Race: i had a much greater top speed than Florian so just had to stay close in the middle sector. In first two stints, I got by twice. Didn't have enough pace to hold 1st; dropped to 4th during 3rd pit stops.

Long lull in the race until first safety car at pretty inconvenient time for me strategically. Then followed a pretty unfortunate incident. I made a mistake into turn 1, stayed tight as possible into 2, hit nic d. Dan L got by the pair of us. I muscled past dan into turn 3. Nic D (now 2 places behind me) decides not to brake for the next corner (turn 5), and takes me out probably in revenge. Not particularly annoyed, I'm merely stating fact looking at the replay. Naturally, a tad frustrating do testing and fight hard during a race for something silly like that to happen. Ah well, have a good off season chaps. Hope Nic D finds his brake pedal #

btw Dont take my word for it. If u want, have a look.

Quali

I was late cause a security didnt recognize me and he didnt let me get in the track.
With no quali tests, very hard to catch the 10th and after that the fuels gone. In 2 turns from 1.2 lap remaining went to 0.2laps and engine stopped. So penalty. Anyway 11th was good for the big competition there was and was not a problem cause the Brazilian starting grid is from the closest in the championship.

Race

A good start as usual, and then some close battles with the fronts as the tight corners at the start gave me this opportunity. But some bad memories woke up and i lost the brake point at the last tight corner and i hit a Virgin, i think Dan (sorry Dan), from behind. Lost the wing and i pitted. But wrong pit and i must made another pit to put the new wing. From bad to worst.
After this i was 35sec behind at P12.
From that point i was pushing hard every lap to close the gap, cause i knew that i could be in the 8th or 9th place. I was making personal fastest lap in every lap!!! A big race for me trying to make the miracle with 2 pitstops more already done when the others was at 0.
After the normal second pitstop at the middle of the race the plan was looking true. I took the 10th after Loz pitted too after Lee, so my mind was at the 9th and Gary.
Gary at that point was fast as i was, cause i couldnt close the gap, about 30sec, only a some tenths in the lap.
After his pit the 14sec was looking good for the end of the race. I eat 1-2 seconds but still he was fast and i couldnt eat this all until the end of the race.
Then SC came out. I made a wrong there. I was lapped car and i didnt passed the pack at the appropriate time, so sorry guys for the extra round behind the SC. At this point a loose any chance to take Gary cause he pasted the pack right and he made a big gap again.
So, i played defense for my tyres until the end.
But the second SC made my day. I close this gap to fight again to the last 4 runs.
I was confident for the pass and i was waiting the appropriate moment. I didnt push, just waiting the last lap. But unfortunately the front accidents gave me the 5th easy enough.
So, very happy for todays race.

A big day too cause i made my target true. I finished the season in the 10th with only a few races in my pocket, so i'm waiting for the next season for more

Qually didn’t go according to plan, I expected to get in top 6 but got a rude awakening with 8th. First start was great was 2nd or 3rd when red flag came down. Second start still ok and found out my race pace on primes was OK.

Had some good battles with Arjan all through the race. Got rear ended by someone in middle sector but didn’t cost me too many places.

Was on primes all race and when the second from last SC came out 19 laps from end it was perfect. I had done 21 laps on primes in practice and didn’t expect many to be able to go to end without stopping again.

Bugger………… another SC around 8 or 9 laps from end. Still OK in 4th and good pace.

2 laps from the end Alex arrived …………nuff said............... 9th pfft.

Last Report of the season so here we go

Quali i didnt do low fuel runs over the week infact i didnt do any runs over the week since monday so quite less practice but still good enough.

I took q1 to get braking points etc... but pace was bad

q2 tried softs but didnt gave me much more speed

q3 was bad as my 1st run had 2 or 3 big mistakes and the 2nd run had 2 or 3 minor mistakes but the gap was schocking.

1 Thing i notice is nearly everyone was running with low downforce compared to me with medium so i was thinking this could be hard in Race

Race


Start was good and 1st into t1 leading with Andrew and building a gap to rest.

Andrew i gotta say that battle was 1 for the ages really really cracking stuff m8 awesome driving.

After the pit stops i rejoined behind dave,alex but ahead of andrew who past me again.

Then we had 4-way battle wich was really cool aswell but andrew and dave pitted earlier and 1 lap later alex.

I was wondering if others had high tyre degredation as i still had lots left so went for some more laps to make 1 pit stop less than others.

Wich would have worked pretty well if there wouldnt have been saftey car.

Well screwed once again but thats life and i guess saftey will benefit me aswell in future so wont argue now.

After that i was defending quite hard to andrew but ok i think.

Another saftey car and i saw alex on the side but didnt knew what was goin on so just kept goin.

Was fighting hard with dave at end but my deficit in top speed cost me chance to overtake as some were up to 15k`s faster than me so no chance.

Another 2nd place ( looks like i develope into some Barrichello here lol) but more importantly Arjan finished a very luck 4th wich is best result for the Team.

The incident with Danny and Alex reminds me of Kobayashi and Hamilton in spa were lewis went back to take the normal line but kobayashi was still there.

Anyway the 2nd one was just unnecessary/or heat of the moment (i know that cause i did that myself in sepang).

The incident with Nicholas and Andrew was kinda same but not saying something against anyone.

Good last race everyone still only 14(including sc) so could have been more.