GP79: Rouen

What a tough race! Probably the hardest of the season. Seeing that any slight slip up is all but certain to meet a guard rail you have to maintain 100% focus almosy every second of a lap! Even the straights are bumpy and easy to get the car wandering off line.

I expected the top end cars to be about 1 sec faster than the Lotus, but I decided to focus on lapping as fast as it could but to finish without error! That would hopefully make up for some speed shortfall.

Qual went fine and pretty well exactly the lap time as I had expected to get. Though I messed up two laps of the three I had.

The race start I knew my car was like an ice-skate until 1/3 of a lap at least, so I had to be extremely careful but that was going to mean that a few close by cars would have chances to pass right away.

If I didn't boo boo turn 2 I might not have lost 2 spots so quickly, but then again it was probably good that I was not ahead of Ritchie into the hairpin!! LOL
I had begun to slow and brake quite early for the hairpin but then I saw the cars ahead closing on each other rapidly and it looked a worry! So I braked more to stay away from them and then locked the rears which spun me off! But that was a good thing because there was a clash of cars ahead and otherwise I might have been coming into the back of that!

Once all underway again it was quite uneventful.
There was no way I could match the Renault and Ligier speeds so I just focussed on that best lapping I could do and to see who crashed out to help me move up the list!
And a few did!

A great win by Roberto, seeing we ran top pace all race and he kept the total focus too! So I could never get closer.

And also great 'passing allowances' by any cars that needed to be passed. Very important on such a fast and dangerous track!
And also well done to all that finished! A definite track where being the 'tortoise' is likely to pay off to some good degree. But Roberto the 'hare' still did it anyway! lol

Ha Ha, nice i agree with you on that one Peter!

The first hairpin was madness, i saw Roberto had some trouble and was slowing rapidly faster than anyone else, by that time i was on the brakes and under steering, and then someone hit him gently. The sparks bounced off the track and then i knew it was too late for me aswell. I thumped him in the back and got some air time, but somehow escaped with minor suspension damage and could continue.

Sorry for that Massa, i was not anticipating my longer braking distance due to fuel and cold tires, and also i was shocked to see you were slowing so quickly he he. Bad anticipation on my part.

Anyway, as i was driving round thinking of how to apologize, i lost it and hit the barrier, causing massive damage to my suspension. I crawled around the track hoping i wouldn't spin trying to pit in. I made it, but after the stop i was last by over 40 seconds, and i knew i had some work to do.

Every lap i clawed about 3 seconds of Erickson, pushing my car to the edge. I had been doing very low 1:44's offline, but i couldn't pass the 1:46 mark online for some reason. Anyhow, after a couple of spins on my part, and on Erickson's part, i managed to creep past at the hairpin, where we both locked up and went wide lol.

I then had to catch the 2nd Mr Erickson, which was much harder, but after a spin on his part i closed the 30 second gap and scraped through as we were lapped by Peter. After that there was not many laps left, and with a few close calls i managed to finish it 3rd. A big relief for me!

Congrats to everyone on that race, i am just very disappointed at the way rfactor made me slower online lol.

Look forward to racing you all again, and yes, me, Richie, did finish! Wohooo...

Congrats to Roberto for the win! congrats to Peter and Richie on 2nd and 3rd.

Qual went good for me but I was surprised to get pole. I had just tried these cars about a day and a half before the race start. The race start went ok. I kept the lead for the first part of the race but I could see Roberto pushing me hard and as I went a little too deep into the hairpin Roberto got by. The car felt real good but I had not done full tank testing. Originally planned on a fuel stop only to find out you dont refuel these.

While following Roberto I clicked back the boost and was just gonna run easier laps to make sure I had tires at the end so I could push it hard. I dont think I could have caught and passed Roberto. He was just too strong today.

Then all of a sudden while driving down the front straight the screen freezes for a couple secs and then goes black and after about 7 secs total the screen reappears as I am crossing the fin line a bit sideways and there was no way I was gonna save it. My lap time even reflects this for that last lap and I havent found out what caused the freeze yet. I did Alt Tab to desktop to see a yellow triangle with a "!" in it but before I could click on it it went away :-(

Its disappointing as I felt I had good stable car and really was looking forward to the last half of the race.

Great job guys. These cars are a blast.

Sounds like your graphics card took a 'break' there George.
VPUrecover if nVidia. Where it stops all processing for X amount of time to cool down and reset itself and then things resume.
I had that last season at Buenos Aires - on the 2nd last lap when over one minute in the lead! About 8secs later graphics returned just as I was hitting a wall !

In my replay your car 'jumps' to the garage, which is what happens when no data is received by the server after about 3secs or so. Then your car is back on track and crashing away.
Again, exactly what a VPUrecover will cause in rFactor.

I am not sure if ATi have a similar process or not.

Nice race!
Could not do better than this in Qual with soft tyres (i never use qual).
Start was cold, LOL, first turns on the edge of LOW grip, so I brake very safly and softly before hairpin (oooh GPL memories).
Little contact there, back parts of the car were damaged, but still driveable with adaptations in driving style.
First 20 laps were fantastic chasing closely George with ultrafast-straight Renault, as you can notice on lap board I was pushing a lot, much faster with full tank car than with empty one.
I could say I drive these 20 laps at my 99%. After George problem I take it easier, but not too much because it's always dangerous to loose concentration in these beasts. So I begin to brake early, shortshifts and try to keep a 1:45 pace per lap.
Grats all finishers, this was, I guess, the most dangerous and demanding track we drove so far!

I was so pumped for this race so I managed to forget it until 30min before qual, not having driven the track before made it quite difficult but after practice I only had problems with the second to last corner down the long straight.

Qual went soso, had both runs a few hundred meters behind Peter. First run wasnt quick, second was about 1s quicker through the first two and then I went of into the second to last corner..

I think I got past Peter on the starting grid and then followed Massa and Sandman down the hill, I almost hit massa into the hairpin because he braked very very early but I managed to get the car on the inside so I didnt hit him. Kept on driving the 2½ laps I lasted noticing that Roberto gained a second each lap on the straight in his low drag spec Ligier. Thinking i could brake a little later I braked a tenth later and the car wouldn't turn in, and I didn't react fast enough to take the escape route forward so I hit the armco with the wheel first (of course..........) and thats that. DNF after almost 3 laps..

Don't know how well I would've done any way, front running cars showed very strong pace!

I'll have to leave a post-it note on my screen so I remember to do a couple of laps 'til next time, cheers.

Well... missed this one because my PC died... now lets hope I can get it up an running soon, wanna get back to simracing.

Congratulations to Massa... and to everyone who finished in one piece... tough track to do it.

Talking of the issues with graphics cards, towards the end all of a sudden my frame rate ditched to about 18fps. Only for about 3/4 of a lap, but it was enough that i had a few big moments lol.

I guess the issue was overheating, so next time i'll shove my fan next to the pc tower.

Grats to all who participated and those who managed to finish. Looks like it was a very intense race.
Unfortunately I was not able to attend this one :-( I've been looking forward to it for so long..Oh well..

Might not be able to make the next race either ,but from then on I should be able to..