GP3 Career Thread

Sounds like an interesting season there, Ferrari2007. Did you continue playing it? Or are you still at it?

Yeah has taken me a while mate but I'm still playing when I get the chance

Raced at Hockenheim last night, was another disappointing race though, qualified only 9th as the track was very wet and I struggled in the stadium sector losing a lot of time

The start of the race was also wet but it soon dried out after around 20 laps

I was soon up into 4th behind Schumi and the Williams cars, being chased by Berger and Alesi in 5th and 6th

3/4 the way through my race ended though

I crashed into a Tyrell while lapping them into the Ostcurve, this was unfortunate as I was catching Coulthard and Hill very quickly after my Pitstop and could of been set for a podium finish

Overall It's been an average season, with a few highs like the 1-2 in Brazil and the victory in Silverstone, with lows like the crashes in Argentina and Germany and an engine failure while 3rd in Imola

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Ferrari2007 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

Schumi
> is past Salo and quicker than me, as he attempts
> to pass me in the first corner he hits me and we
> both go off.
>


LOL, how real can a game get? :P:P:P

Great topic. Real interesting stories about your seasons.

I'm also doing something like a career, but not like that. I'm already going on my third season.

I basically run on a fictional carset with fictional drivers, and also some fictional tracks. All selected randomly.

The carset basically started to be one chosen by me (not randomly) in the first season with quite some official teams like Audi or Alfa Romeo. In order to a team be to able to compete on the next season it has to get at least 10% of the maximum number of points that a team can have at the end of the season currently running. For example, if in a season there are 10 races (totaling 180 points max) a team has to end that season with a least 18 points. In my first season those teams i've mentioned failed to obtain those 10%. And until now, I haven't been on a team that obtained it either.

My championships are based in 10 venues that can have 2 races (75km+75km or 75+150km) or just one race (Full F1 race distance). And my points system are based on which F1 used to have before changing it the current one, and I award with one extra point the pole sitter and the fastest lap.

After 2 and a half seasons, i've only managed to win one race (at Denver) and one podium finish (at Hungaroring) all in my first season. I've also managed to get some few poles, but poles don't win championships.

My second season was a totally disgrace as I've only managed to finish one time in the points without being on pole.

Now i'm on my third season driving for Peugeot Sport (an official team based on the Super Touring Peugeot team of the late 90's), one of three official Peugeot teams (the other two are from Le Mans and WRC). It hasn't been again a perfect season but at least now i'm not always dead last in all races, and I have already two poles (at Oulton Park, and at Cape Town). However, no finishes in the top 6 yet.

So far my best weekends were at Cape Town and Tsarskoye Selo. At Cape Town, on race 2 (75km distance), I've started from pole but i missed the start and dropped to 6th and eventually got back into second until pit stops came. After pitting while I was in fourth I had to drop out with a Water Leak problem. At Tsarskoye Selo, even starting and finishing in the middle of the pack it was the only venue as far I can remember i've managed to finish a double-header venue mistake free. Very good for morale.

Now, i'm off to Valencia. Tough track. Hard to get the right setup.

Cheers

Magny-Cours... I knew before I wouldn't stand a chance here; as I said I try to set up the performance according to the real 1991 results and Benetton was just nowhere at France in 91. However, I managed to qualify third (I guess my good qualy results are helped by the fact that I can fine-tune my setup, while the CC cars just use standard setup with standard ride height. For the race, I have to watch my plank wear and that advantage is gone) behind Patrese and Senna. At the start, I got some revenge on Senna for Montreal, this time I passed him for second into the first corner. At the front, Patrese pulled away to a huge lead, which he would not give up for any of the 72 laps.

Heading to Adelaide hairpin for the first time, Berger made a move on Senna for third but got it all wrong, spinning and taking me and Senna off track with him. Prost was now second behind Patrese, then came Mansell, Alesi and de Cesaris, followed by Senna and me (both of us avoiding a spin or contact), but I quickly dropped a few more places to 10th as I just was not on the pace. That's where I ran for most of the race, calculating that this was where I would eventually finish, but retirements from Mansell and Gachot got me up to eighth in the end.

At the front, Patrese continued to dominate and finally crossed the line 70 seconds(!) ahead of de Cesaris, who had a great race in the Jordan, Alesi and Martini, who had simply made no mistakes, something that was not at all true for Prost, who spun twice and thus finished 6th behind Piquet, who, just like me, was not on the pace. Thanks to Berger's no-score (he retired after a great run from last to 7th within 20 laps following his first-lap spin), it's now Patrese who leads the points with 32 over Berger's 28, Senna's third with 19 and on 16 are Piquet, Mansell and Modena.

I kkep reading your posts and finally got inspired ,too

I have just started 1994 F-1 season driving with R. Ratzenberger on Simtek.
1st race - Brazil. I got the pole position but knew it wouldn't be an easy race. I mad e a great start making a 4-5 sec gap between me and 2n Hill. Somewhere on 11 lap I started losing it as Hill and Schumi were getting closer and closer. At the first corner of the lap 12 I got passed by Hill and one lap later by Schumi. Then I came to the pit lane and dropped back to 12 position. After some retirements and pit stops I got back to the 4th place. There was nobody in front of me as Hakkinen was 30 sec in front. Then I saw in the mirrors, the race leader,Damon Hill trying to lap me but instead of slowing down and making it to the inner side of the first corner (just as he did when he passed me for the first time that day) he hit me in the back. With God's providence, I was intact but Damon fell off the track and retired. This way I came third as my one-pit-stop strategy turned out to be successful. The winner - Mika Hakkinen. 2nd - Schumi

2nd race - TI Aida, Pacific. I came 4th in the qualifying session but had a good setup an high hopes for the race. Lights out - I pass Schumi, Senna, and Damon easily and lead the race. I make a 3 sec margin between me and Schumi. It goes on like this for the next 20 laps. Then Senna overtakes Schumi and comes closer and closer to me. I had to go to the pit-lane anyway so I let him pass me...Well, new tyres - new hopes. I leave the pit-lane and with new soft dries I make a flying lap tightening the gap between me and Alesi. At the final corner Alesi seemed as if he was going to the pit-lane but at the fateful moment he turned to the left right at the time I was passing him on the left. He hit me in my rear right and I retired in 21 lap right in front of the pit-lane entrance. The winner - Senna, 2nd - Schumi. Good thing is that David Brabham made his best and came 4th. Now Simtek is 4th in the standings with both drivers having points already.

3rd race - Imola, San Marino. My favourite racetrack. I made third result in the qualifiers. The pole for Berger, Hill second. The qualifying session was in sunny weather condition and I was looking forward to a fascinating race bearing in mind that I had an awesome setup for Imola. Unfortunately, the sunday afternoon said 'hello' with heavy rain. I put hard wets on and satrted the engine. I managed to overtake Hill but Berger was not that easy to deal with. I passed him at Traguardo and took the lead. Unexpectedly I made a huge margin driving in torrential conditions...5...6...10 sec advantage over 2nd Senna. Then I started noticing that my tyres were not performing well as just a few laps before. I wanted to make a margin over Senna and waited a few additional laps. When I stopped for monsoons, luckily, all the top rivals did taht too. Later on ,Hill, Alesi and Herbert retired all within the same lap. Now there was only me racing against Senna, but his Williams couldn't keep my pace. Then Berger suffered from oil leak and retired. Senna kept losing it to me. After the second and the last pit-stop I had still a 40-second-advantage. From now on ,taking into account my driving Simtek I kept waiting for a mechanical failure for the remaining 20 laps...but it didn't come. This way I claimed my first victory in this season .2nd - Senna, 3rd - Schuamcher. Another good news is that David Brabham finished 6th which put another point to the team's kitty. Now Simtek is the leader in the stats while I'm 2nd in the WDC only two points short to Senna. Only 8 drivers crossed the finish line. What an amazing horror!

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Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2008 11:42PM by abdelkader.

4th race - Monaco. I hit the pole position but didn't know what to expect during the race. Green light - I keep the pole but Schumacher pushes very hard. After 15 laps I had only 2-3 sec advantage over Schumi. While we both were battling for 1st place Senna woke up in third position as he made a couple of flying laps and managed to overtake Schumacher (not mentioning the help of a couple of backmarkers who helped this happen). From now on Senna was right behind me. After about 30 laps I was 7 sec ahead of Senna but it was the time when most of the cars were expected in the pit-lane. Schumacher was the first to go down. When he got back to the track he made a flying lap but was many seconds behind me and Ayrton.After my only pit-stop I was heavy with fuel while Senna light and still with no visit in the pits. Luckily, the advantage remained the same throughout next 2 laps and Senna finally pitted. When he left the pits he was second. Now I knew that only a catastrophe would deprive me of the second victory...and here it is. I was 6 second ahead of Senna while I saw some backmarkers in front - Wendlinger and Bernard. I passed Bernard but Wendlinger seemed to have lost his temper - he didn't want to let me pass him. Suddenly my 6-second advantage melted down as an ice cube. Senna was right behind. When I slowed down not to hit Wendlinger Senna overtook me and took the lead. I was pissed off. I managed to pass Wendlinger and started chasing Ayrton. I was 5 seconds behind but suddenly I saw marshals holding yellow flags. A few hundred meters later I noticed Senna standing on the track after a serious spin. YES, YES, YES!!! He dropped down to third while Schumi got 2nd position. Now I was in the lead and heading for a victory. 15 laps from the flag Schumacher announced his second coming. He was suddenly right behind me. While lapping Blundell I had to slow down (4 laps from the flag) and it was when Schumi took the lead for the first time. Luckily I regained 1st position one lap later and kept it until th end. This is my second win this year. Simtek on the lead in Constructors' Champ. and I'm the leader in WDC four points clear of Senna. 1st - me, 2nd - Schumacher, 3rd - Senna

Meanwhile while lapping my @#%^%* teammate - David Brabham I hit slightly his back as he hit the brakes for no reason...I think I'll have a word with him later on :P

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Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2008 08:19PM by abdelkader.

Hey, great reading there, abdelkader - keep going and good luck!

My next race was Silverstone... and this time it was all my won fault that I didn't take points, or so I thought until 8 laps from the end. I had qualified on second, behind Patrese and ahead of Mansell and Senna. Mansell made it past at the start and shadowed Patrese all through the first stint, before he took the lead at the stops. I'll return to that story later...

I was holding off Senna, Piquet and the Ferrari for a dozen laps or so in third, but then, under pressure from Senna, I made a mistake and spun to 10th. After that, I fought Gachot until he crashed out and also benefitted from Piquet's suspension failure, running 8th when all stops were done. However I knew that de Cesaris in 7th was too far ahead, let alone the two McLaren running 5th and 6th, respectively. So I was angry at myself for wasting a real chance for points early on with that spin, until I came to realise that I wouldn't have scored anyway when my engine blew up on 51 of the 59 laps.

At the front, Mansell had led Patrese after the first stops, until Mansell had to stop again for electronis failure and dropped to fifth. He drove a great race thereafter and made it back to third behind Patrese and Prost in a dramatic finish, overtaking Senna and Alesi within the last six laps.

Senna came fourth, Alesi and Berger took the remaining points. Patrese now leads Berger by 42-29, followed by Senna (22) and Mansell (20).

Thanks I wish the same to you

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Round 9, my home race at Hockenheim. Some worries about a lack of outright speed in qualy, but very good grip in the Motodrom still gives me seventh on the grid. Patrese takes pole from Mansell. I am very confident for the race, because if I can stay with the top cars through slipstream, the lack of BHP might not be as bad as expected.

The race starts very hectic, and it continues like that all the way through. Mansell challenges Patrese into the last chicane, misses his braking point and drops to the back, returning from lap one in 20th and last place (Pirro and Gachot already crashed out). Patrese leads from Prost, Senna, Berger and Piquet, with me close behind. Senna has an off this lap and drops way back, the same fate moments later happened to Berger. So three fast cars were more or less at the back now, fighting their way through the pack...

I find my speed is good enough to keep up with Piquet and exiting turn 1 on lap 4, I prepare my attack - which doesn't come as my engine blows up yet again. Very sad, because given what the race went like after that, I may well have been on for the podium. Anyway, Patrese now lead from Prost and Alesi, who had passed Piquet. Mansell is up in the top ten by lap 8 and still improving, while team-mate Patrese retires on 13 laps. That gives Prost the lead, which he keeps until his first stop on lap 16. The other Ferrari of Alesi now leads until retiring with some mechanical problem just after half distance, Prost is now back in the lead, followed by, yes, Nigel Mansell...

Prost keeps the lead at the second round of pit stops and still runs 17 seconds ahead of Mansell with 14 laps to go. Mansell gets closer and closer, but has no chance of catching the Ferrari - but 4 laps from the end, Prost retires with a water leak. Mansell, who was last after lap one, wins from Modena (who again capitalises best on the huge number of incidents), Senna, Piquet, Berger and Lehto.

5th race - Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona, Spain. I made second result in the qualifier, being beaten only by Senna in the last minute of the time, and hoped for something more...but well.

The race started very well as I passed Senna who took the pole position. While coming to the first corner of the race I was on the lead but then Berger who started from 4th place pushed me off the track. After a terrible spin I got back to the race in the 22nd position. Within next two laps I managed to climb up to 15th place. Unfortunately, it was the race during which the lack of BHP on my Simtek was clearly visible. I passed Irvine and got 14th but on the start-finish straight he caught me once more...and the Berger kind story happened again. I was pushed off. When I got back to the track (again :/ ) I was already 20 seconds behind the 21st driver. I made it to the pit-lane and retired. #%$%&^$#%*%. The winner - Senna, 2nd - Schumacher, 3rd - Hill ,who overtook Berger three laps from the finish. Simtek lost the leadership, so did I. Now Williams-Renault and Senna are on the top.

6th race - Montreal, Canada. My God, I think some evil forces have come over me and Simtek-Ford.

I qualified 9th and knew I wouldn't have an easy time here in Canada. As I expected, the start was extremely hectic. Schumacher got out of the race shortly afterwards. Senna (2nd in the qualifying stage) also retired. I hit the Barrichello's back and had to pit in first lap to repair the nosecone. When I left the pits I was nearly 45 seconds behind Pedro Lamy. Damon Hill won the race before surprising J.J. Lehto of Benetton and even more surprisingly astonishing Ukyo Katayama of Tyrrell. Lehto was the only driver who crossed the finish line in the same lap as Hill. All the rest of the grid were lapped at least once. 9 drivers failed to finish the race, including me. I retired after 5 laps.

Now Magny-Cours...one of my most hated tracks ever. I'm third in the standings but Simtek's position has gone downhill since the victory in Monte Carlo.


<<EDIT>>
I think Jackal it's all your fault

In my country there's an old custom which says that if somebody wishes you good luck you MUSTN'T say "thank you"...but I did.

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Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2008 05:54PM by abdelkader.

Great reading. Very realistic. Don't stop telling the story of your career



Well, as for my season i've finished Valencia, which also meant the season got halfway through. I think it's just me, but I don't remember seeing such dominance by a group of drivers this season comparing with the previous two. In the past season it seemed that a driver just needed to have a couple of great weekends to be in front during all season, which eventually would generally backfire in the last round and he would lost the championship in the last race.

Now, at least the top five drivers are running for points like there's no tomorrow and at each round you see at least couple of them qualifying in the top 6 for one of the races. And at Valencia was no exception.

The weekend at Valencia was very strange and hectic. It rained on all three days of the event, but not necessarily on all sessions. Which meant that it rained on Practice 1 but on Practice 2 we had clear skies and a dry track. Wet Qualifying for Race 1 and Dry Qualifying for Race 2. A Dry 14 laps race and a very wet 28 laps race.

My qualifying for both races was awful. A bad rain setup for Race 1 and a car on my last flying lap of the session made start from last.

On Race 1 I managed to gain 7 places on Lap 1 leaving me on 15th place. While I was trying to get the 14th place from one of the official Porsches I was hit by it on the first chicane making me spin and lost some time. As for the Porsche, two other cars couldn't avoid it and collided with it and retiring all together right there. I would eventually finish 15th as the traffic jam that that wreck created made the cars which were behind me get stuck in it. So when i got back to the race I was was right behind them. The was won by the other Porsche, who took the pole and the fastest lap extra points as well

On Race 2 an unexpected heavy rain shower fell down the Valencia 15 minutes from the start and a wet race was declared. Again, at the start I managed to gain 7 places, but since I though the track would eventually dry out and I wouldn't make any pit stops I chose a part dry part wet setup with hard wet Michelins, which eventually wouldn't work and made me have troubles on controlling my Peugeot. So, at the beginning of lap 4 of 28 while I was dropping a place at the first chicane to one the Childress cars I was hit by it, sending me hard to the wall. My car was wrecked. The other guy made a beginner's mistake and let his Chevy engine to turn off.

The race (like my writing:P) was a bit long and boring. Except for the end where the cars who chose to go all the way without pitting were loosing lots of time to the ones who did. Because of that lots of overtaking started to happen, including the one which gave the victory to the #21 Lola MasterCard-Peugeot, who passed the official Le Mans Peugeot team around the outside while braking to the last corner of the Spanish track on lap 26 of 28. At the next braking point, my teammate, who at that time was in third, quickly got into second but the difference between hard wets and monsoon tires was not very big and couldn't get the #21 car for the win.

Halfway through the season, you can say that the teams championship is being dominated by the American engines (Ford and Chevy). And surprisingly, the best Peugeot powered team (of four) only comes in 4th place. As for the drivers, the top 5 is separated by 10 points after 9 races.

Next Round: Sakhir. Is the second 300km race of the season, and it's going to be hard for the cars and drivers running on the heat of the desert.

Cheers and good luck.

wow. The number of career reporters is still growing. Fantastic

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2008 09:10PM by abdelkader.

7th race - Magny Cours, France. The qualifying day started with a heavy rain but I took it with joy as I am quite good on wet surface. I easily took the pole. The race day, contrary to the qualifiers, was sunny and dry. I wasn't optimistic as on dry surface the lack of BHP causes more discomfort at Magny Cours. Green lights - I keep the pole but Schumacher must have missed it as he dropped to fourth. A real quick action was performed by Berger who climbed from 6th to 2nd after a few hundred meters from the start. Senna third. hakkinen dropped to 5th from third. In 17 lap Senna passed Berger and took the vice-leadership. In lap 23 I went to the pits and left it in 4th (then got 3rd position as Berger pitted in the same lap). Senna and Schumacher had a little bigger fuel load and more BHP so they easily increased the margin. I was looking in the mirrors keeping J.J. Lehto away...until the moment when my gearbox broke into pieces in lap 28. My, unexpectedly, quite a decent race was ruined.
The winner - Senna, 2nd - Schumacher, 3rd - Hakkinen.

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Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2008 10:56PM by abdelkader.

8th race - Silverstone, GB. Qualifying stage, I got 6th place but 2 seconds slower than the pole taker - Hill. The race started on dry surface but even before the lights went out, the rain was falling. I gained one place during the start and was going 5th. Senna suffered from a huge spin and retired early on as well as Berger, Wendlinger, Bernard and Fittipaldi. All the grid but me chose soft tyres while I took intermediates. After 6 laps when the track got wet they went to the pits and I took the lead. At this moment I thought everything was under control. I was 20 sec ahead of Hill and didn't know whether to pit and change deteriorating intermediates to full wets or stay on the track as planned, I waited two more laps and saw that my 20 sec advantage became 18 sec advantage. I decided to pit and changed tyres...I don't know what I was thinking when I changed the strategy then - I decided to go for one-stop strategy. This made me extremely heavy with fuel. As I covered only about 10 laps of the 60-lap race I still had 50 laps with a heavy burden onboard. I got passed even by the backmarkers. I was astonished by the fact I was passed by Brabham - my teammate. At one of the corners I got pushed off by Pedro Lamy. Meanwhile, by going pretty slow due to fuel load, I gathered a long tail behind me and now after my spin they all passed me. I ended up in 15 position and soon got lapped by the top drivers. I retired after 27 laps of the race as I was not competitive at all.
The winner - Schumacher, 2nd - Hill, 3rd - Hakkinen. Fourth place was taken by David Brabham which translates into another amount of points for Simtek...but I hardly remember scoring for them myself

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2008 02:01AM by abdelkader.

abdelkader schreef:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 8th race - Silverstone, GB. Qualifying stage, I
> got 6th place but 2 seconds slower than the pole
> taker - Hill. The race started on dry surface but
> even before the lights went out, the rain was
> falling. I gained one place during the start and
> was going 5th. Senna suffered from a huge spin and
> retired early on as well as Berger, Wendlinger,
> Bernard and Fittipaldi. All the grid but me chose
> soft tyres while I took intermediates. After 6
> laps when the track got wet they went to the pits
> and I took the lead. At this moment I thought
> everything was under control. I was 20 sec ahead
> of Hill and didn't know whether to pit and change
> deteriorating intermediates to full wets or stay
> on the track as planned, I waited two more laps
> and saw that my 20 sec advantage became 18 sec
> advantage. I decided to pit and changed tyres...I
> don't know what I was thinking when I changed the
> strategy then - I decided to go for one-stop
> strategy. This made me extremely heavy with fuel.
> As I covered only about 10 laps of the 60-lap race
> I still had 50 laps with a heavy burden onboard. I
> got passed even by the backmarkers. I was
> astonished by the fact I was passed by Brabham -
> my teammate. At one of the corners I got pushed
> off by Pedro Lamy. Meanwhile, by going pretty slow
> due to fuel load, I gathered a long tail behind me
> and now after my spin they all passed me. I ended
> up in 15 position and soon got lapped by the top
> drivers. I retired after 27 laps of the race as I
> was not competitive at all.
> The winner - Schumacher, 2nd - Hill, 3rd -
> Hakkinen. Fourth place was taken by David Brabham
> which translates into another amount of points for
> Simtek...but I hardly remember scoring for them
> myself

Such a shame... I always tend to put very little fuel in the car when it rains. I always go for 3 or maybe 4 pitstops, pretty much always win then

All right. I'll keep this in my mind for sake of the future races

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Here's rounds 10 and 11, Hungaroring and Spa: Hungaroring started off well with 5th in qualy behind polesitter Patrese, Prost, Mansell and Modena. In the race, I knew that tyre wear would play a massive part so I went for three stops, but I never got to know if that would have worked ot, as I retired with an oil leak just a few laps after my first stop, running 9th at that point with none of the cars in front having pitted yet.

Patrese led the race for most of the first half, except a few laps where Mansell led due to stop strategy. Prost had looked strong in the opening stages but crashed out a few laps before me, Patrese retired with an oil leak around half-distance. That left Mansell leading from a surprisingly strong Modena (dunno where he came from, checked the perf settings and everything seemed as intended...), Senna (who had made the mistake of a one-stop strategy) and Piquet. Modena, however, lost it with just 7 laps remaining and thus handed the two Brazilians the podium places - he was still classified, but several laps down and out of the points. Pirro took fourth ahead of Berger, who had an additional pit stop due to some technical problem, and Brundle.

On to Spa, where I started 7th. Pole went to Ayrton Senna, with Patrese having a nightmare qualy and starting 17th. I had my best start of the season and went to the very inside of La Source, running third through Eau Rouge behind Prost and Senna. Berger overtook me after 4 laps, Alesi did the same just before my first stop. At the front, Senna and Berger had passed Prost and led in dominating fashion. The stops didn't bring about any changes to the top four (McLaren leading Ferrari), but behind both Williams made up places temporarily by being on one-stoppers. Piquet had already retired with engine failure, while Senna crashed into Herbert when trying to lap him, giving Berger the lead from the two Ferrari.

As Patrese (gearbox) and Alesi (crash) both retired later on, it was now Berger leading from Prost and Mansell, while de Cesaris, who had stopped twice, was hunting down Mansell thanks to his newer tyres. I tried to do the same with Schumacher, who was 5th in his debut thanks to one-stopping, and while de Cesaris passed Mansell three laps from the end, I couldn't quite reel in Schumacher and finished 6th.

Now, we all now Schumacher took over the #19 Benetton following Spa, so I had decided before the start of the season that if I should gather more points in the first 11 races than Moreno did in the real 1991 season, I would keep my seat - otherwise, Schuey would take over. Now as Moreno took 8 points and my score is 7 so far, I'll have to start Monza in the Jordan... as well as Portugal, while I'll have to miss out on both Spain and Japan, before I'll do Adelaide in a Minardi, just like Moreno did in 1991.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2008 04:08PM by Jackal.

9th race - Hockenheimring, Germany. I knew before the qualifying stage that I had a good setup and if the weather was fine and the car didn't break down, I had a huge opportunity to score here. In the qualifying stage I took 4th position and promised myself to perform better during the race. The pole went to Senna having Hill and Schumacher behind. The start was hectic. I managed to overtake Hill and Senna which put me on the lead. Schumacher finished his home race early in the second corner as he managed to pass both Williamses too, but being too hotblooded he hit my rear right wheel which catapulted him into the air and he crashed. Now I was in the lead having Senna and Hill behind. Covering lap after lap I was witnessing a civil war between the Williams' drivers. Second place holders were changing at least 5,6 times until the pit-stop round. Some two laps before the pit-stop both Williamses disappeared from my mirrors...don't know why as neither of them visited the pit-lane nor retired. After my first and the last pit-stop that day I got back to the track in third position but only because Hill went to the pits earlier and Senna was still to pit. Anyway, I was in third, having Senna 2nd and (!) J.J. Lehto in 1st place. Senna finally went to the pits and now it was down to me and Jyrki Jarvi. Luckily, his advantage was melting with every lap. In lap 27 I overtook Lehto and now I knew that only a mechanical failure might have prevented me from winning. Lehto was going 2nd only for next 10 laps when he got passed by Senna and Hill. About 5 laps from the flag the situation got back to normal ,I mean I was in the lead while Senna and Hill were battling for 2nd position swapping places every lap. In the final lap both, Lehto and Hill run out of petrol and retired.

The race was full of retirements which happened, how to put it...on the team basis. First Alesi, then Berger, then Wendlinger, Frentzen, Hakkinen and Brundle. Othe rvictims were Bernard, Morbidelli, Barrichello, Katayama and Fittipaldi.

The winner - ME , 2nd - Senna, 3rd - Herbert

Finally, the evil ghosts have been expelled I have won and scored for Simtek.

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Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/2008 07:18PM by abdelkader.

Hey, I thought that the first Spanish GP at Barcelona was already in the spring. Guess I was wrong;P

Congrats for your win at Hockenheim abdelkader. Seems that in your season a Senna/Hill rivalry is getting started:P

Round 6 @ Sakhir:
It was the second 300km race of the season. More than a fast car, all the teams knew the most important thing for that long race was to have a car that wouldn't break down and last for all the 57 laps. It would be a hard thing to accomplish as only 10 cars managed to cross the finish line, and my wasn't one of them The curious thing is that all the DNF's were due to break downs.

Throughout all weekend my team gave me a super fast car, which made me earn my 3rd pole of the season by 0.7secs.

During the race it continued to be fast. My start was the most perfect one for as long as I remember. Didn't lose any position and at the end of lap one I was more than a second from 2nd place Team Jaguar car. But my kind of perfect weekend turned into a disappointing one when at lap 17 my suspension broke leading me to my 5th DNF in 10 races while I was leading by more than 2 secs.

In the end the race would be decided in the pits, not by strategy but by the quickness of the pit crews. However, that might bring some controversy inside the Ford team, as the pit stop for the #1 car, who's also leading the championship, was slower than his teammate preventing him from getting a podium finish, instead of the #2 car, and extend his lead in the drivers points to 5 instead of 4.

The engineers at Peugeot got out of Bahrain with a huge headache as only 3 of the 8 Peugeot powered cars managed to finish the race. And maybe the worst part was that only one was from a factory team who finished 10th. The other two were from the privateer team Lola MasterCard/Peugeot which is the team of the race winner and 5th place finisher, making the team climb in the constructors standings to 2nd, trailing the official Ford team by 15 points.

Now, the caravan goes on to a South American tour, where the last four rounds will take place (3 in Brazil and 1 in Argentina).
First venue: Campo Grande.

Cheers

Racer#73 Wrote:
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> Congrats for your win at Hockenheim abdelkader.
> Seems that in your season a Senna/Hill rivalry is
> getting started:P

Thanks for that. It was like a blessing after four consecutive failures.
A Senna/Hill rivalry...hmmm, maybe but they are both separated in the standings so their battle isn't so harsh at this point. In fact, it was the first race in which they were both so agressive towards each other.

WDC: 1 - Senna 46p, 2 - Schumacher 38p, 3 - Ratzenberger (that's me) 34p, 4 - Hill 20p, 5 - Hakkinen 18p, 6 - Lehto 17p.

As you see, Senna has twice as many points as Hill.



> But my kind of perfect weekend
> turned into a disappointing one when at lap 17 my
> suspension broke leading me to my 5th DNF in 10
> races while I was leading by more than 2 secs.

Yeah. I drive one of the weakest F-1 teams so I know what it means to suffer from a DNF. Even when being a race leader you keep thinking "What will this be this time? The gearbox, suspension, oil leak, water leak? ...Oh, it's a loose wheel. Another DNF, what a shame <irony mode on>

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