Round 14 - Monza (Oct 2nd)

Congratulations Greg! Great series!

ANTHEMS

WINNING DRIVER


WINNING CONSTRUCTOR

Michal Janak wrote:

this race, after promising times from testing was disaster,  dont know what happen last day, but i was greatly fighting my car than othjer competitors,  after pray for points, i prayed for end of the race

hmmm now i know , the car has changed rear geometry after hit from J. Boss at T1 in 1st lap and then big hit from behind from P. Mikula in 1st lap Parabolica

My laps were more than 1s worse than in pre race warmup and yesterday testings

Michal Janak wrote:

Michal Janak wrote:

this race, after promising times from testing was disaster,  dont know what happen last day, but i was greatly fighting my car than othjer competitors,  after pray for points, i prayed for end of the race

hmmm  now i know , the car has changed rear geometry after hit from J. Boss at T1 in 1st lap and then big hit from behind from P. Mikula in 1st lap Parabolica

My laps were more than 1s worse than in pre race warmup and yesterday testings  

Sorry for that, I should have left more room for you. When I saw you brake I thought I'd be ahead of you by the time we'd reach the chicane and I focused on the car on front. I only realised you where still there when I had already turned in.

Michael Drechsler wrote:

I managed to survive the start and the first chicane, got into a good rhythm, could hold the bunch right behind me at distance, and the errors of some other guys in front of me allowed me to creep up a few positions. That resulted in a pretty fun battle with Juha, who had the ability to go faster than me, but apparently, his car was a bit more difficult to drive. At about 100 litres of fuel, my car fired the second stage and I could move a bit away from Juha, but traffic got me again into a situation, where he could attack me again, but spun off into the first chicane. Phew! Finally got rid of that annoying bee swarm called Alfa!

Thank you for saying I'm faster than my car.

This was probably the worst race I've driven so far.

I set a good time in qualifying, a lot faster than I'd done just an hour before in practice. My start was good, but after that it all went downhill. The car felt good, it was just... slow! Maybe it was the nudge I gave Michal that unsettled the car?

My early laps were slow. I was afraid I'd destroy the tyres too soon so kept back for a while. I found a few McLaren's to battle with but I failed to make an impression on them with the Brabham being a heavy car, especially early on. I just couldn't find the speed.

My advantage was supposed to be power. Unfortunately that power comes from an Alfa, which unlike a DFV only moderately appreciates being trashed beyond the rev limit. I dropped the attack mode as soon as I saw the engine life take a dive and waited for the fuel level to drop. Everyone in front just drove away.

Even on half a tank it wouldn't handle properly and I overshot 3 chicanes and made a trip through the gravel. After the umpteenth mistake I gave up and planned on cruising to the finish. My Brabham had other ideas though and pulled itself into a wall at the first chicane. One wheel lost but the engine still running, I still wasn't a DNF! I completed my lap and sat in the pitlane waiting for the race to finish.

It wasn't a bad car in practice, but I suppose the bump I gave Michal ruined my race because it ran nicely on a race setup during warmup.

First thing to say: Amazing coverage again!!!

Start:
Bad reaction time, good traction - but after 20m i lost my momentum because Didier overslept the start and Mick crashing into his back i had to brake and luckily saved my frontwing.
The next corners went really well and my car was surprisingly competitive - after two laps I realized why...
I just forgot to switch back to the Hard compound after qualifying

So i tried to keep the Softs alive, but left rear was too bad at the and i had to pit on 6th position. Why isn't it possible to change only 1 tire instead of all 4

P11 at the end, i don't think hard tires would have changed the result - so I enjoyed the battle with Michal (that was very close on exit Ascari ), Philippe and Jacob.

I don't know if i can make it to the last 2 Races, i hope for it.

Thanks to all the guys for this well-attended race again.

Results and points are up

With the Drivers' Championship decided, the Constructors' Championship is still up for grabs

Congratulations on the championship Greg

Great live coverage which I got to watch after my retirement.

27 starters

First of all, grats Greg, it's been a dominant performance all year long  

The race was a 52 laps sprint for me, full attack. Beating Greg is impossible unless he beats himself (Zandvoort), but there was some chance to beat Gerard. At least i thought so. I had the speed to get away in the first sector. Unfortunately, Lesmos, Ascari and Parabolica is Lotus' territory. It might not be visible, but Williams is a VERY loose car and driving it is a neverending struggle to find ballance between drifting and not overdriving the car. Especially when you're trying to hold a Lotus behind your back. The inevitable happened with some 10 laps to go and i had to settle for 3rd. Nevermind, it's not that bad after all.

I'm delighted to secure 3rd in the championship two races before the finale. There's no way i could move up to P2 in the championship, but it doesn't mean that i won't be back in Montreal and Glen as pumped up as always    

Again, amazing live coverage  

Pas de chance, Didier, tu patines beaucoup au départ, Juha arrive à t'éviter malgré un petit contact, Mick arrive derrière, et logiquement plus vite, t'aperçoit au dernier moment lorsque Juha se décale pour t'éviter, mais lui ne peut le faire et te détruit l'aileron AR (et le sien AV)

Scène hyper classique, dommage pour une fois qu'on aurait pu rouler ensemble !

Jacob Fredriksson wrote:

I would not call it a great start when you pushed me off the track.

I'm sorry Jacob, I didn't realize that I pushed you off the track, I knew that at the start my car went very wide but I didn't know that I pushed you off

Michal Janak wrote:

big hit from behind from P. Mikula in 1st lap Parabolica

I'm really sorry for that too Michal, I literally prayed at the braking zone that I wouldn't hit your car but my front wheels locked up

Pascal Mikula wrote:

Jacob Fredriksson wrote:

I would not call it a great start when you pushed me off the track.

I'm sorry Jacob, I didn't realize that I pushed you off the track, I knew that at the start my car went very wide but I didn't know that I pushed you off

No real harm done, so no worries. Just learn from your mistakes!

Congratulations to Greg for a well deserved championship

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Well....

Came into the event after having spent yesterday at a Floorball Referee Re/Up-Education for the coming season so clearly I were bit more tired than I'd usually be for these races.

In Qually I only did a race lap to get a feel for the car again as I didn't feel that I'd get far enough up the field to make it worth qualifying nor sure enough of my race pace as the car just wasn't working for me, as per usual

The Race got underway and I immedietly pulled to the grass to let those behind me past so that I could be at the back where I wanted to be for the opening lap, I expected carnage but good job by everyone involved to avoid any major pile-ups.

Then I settled in and tried to get up the field a little bit, had a small battle with Gianluca and Marcus which ended when I had gotten up the inside of Gianluca into the 3rd chicane and Marcus span in front of us, I checked up as to not hit him and I think I caught out Gianluca, sorry to have caused you to spin

After this I caught up with David and we had a nice little battle exchanging misstakes which let one and another through until he went wide coming out of Ascari and I could pull out a bit of a gap.

After this I also caught up to one more driver who I passed later, sorry but I was too tired yesterday and have now forgotten most guys I had around me and who I battled with...

In the end found myself in P17 or 16 and with a 26 second gap to Martin in his Renault and Michal in the works McLaren.
I tried for a couple of laps to go as fast as I dared (while not going so fast that I'd risk to crash out) but I was only able to pull or lose a few tenths every lap so decided that it was pretty much a lost cause and I just settled down and cruised for the rest of the race.

In the end picked up 10th position, a position that I wouldn't, and probably shouldn't, have gotten has others not run into trouble, a 17th or 18th place was my actual pace yesterday.


Never liked Monza and that view hasn't changed.

But I did take the time while cruising to share a thought to Ronnie, it was truly an unfortunate crash and loss of life. But where-ever he is, I'm sure he's still racing and winning

Cheers and see you all in Canada.

Bravo Greg
J'étais sûr que ton style kamikaze ferait merveille dans les chicanes de Monza

Grats to Greg for the win, the podium, and all participants.
Thx for your warm comments about the coverage.

Congrats Greg on the championship! A stunning season.

I tried really hard in qualifying to get my PB, but i had to start from 10th on the grid. 8th would have been the maximum i think.
The race start went well again, i started on the right hand side of the track and overtook some cars, so i was in 4th before turn 1. I couldn't go the pace of the front runners, even my race strategy was to start with soft tyres. So i was most of the time alone on track, made a few mistakes that cost 10 seconds in total i think. I pitted on Lap 26 for new soft tyres, and was back on track in 11th. My pace was in the 1.38s and i managed to get places back. As i approached Matthias car in 6th, he had to pit too. So there was one point for me this time. I´m happy with that on a track which i dont like very much. And finally a finish after 3 DNF in a row.

Congratulation for the championship Greg

I still dont understand my Connection Lost. I saw cars around me when I got the message, then they disappeared after a couple of seconds. There were no scoring glitch until I got the message either. I found this very strange. I thought I had seen it all in rFactor, but clearly not. Have had two Connection Lost's this season, which is two too many (but I don't think the problems are related. First one happened at Jarama, there there was to usual cars disappears for half a minute or so, then you got kicked out).

I think, hope and pray that those discos at the beginning of the year were caused by incorrect connection settings. Default is ISDN 56kb or something like that. Once i changed it to cable 256+, it's been all right.

thank you  guys    

que ce fut dur .  Grace a mon attaque de "kamikaze "    ( pour reprendre le terme de Gui ) dans le double enchainement de la 1 ere chicane je parvenais  a devancé de 9 dixiemes Gerard dans le 1 er secteur mais grace a la performance de la lotus dans le double lesmo / Ascari et la parabolica il me reprenait entre 1.2 et 1.5 s au tour en 4 virages    

apres mon depart moyen et la perte de la 2 eme place au profit de Petr , la seule issue possible pour moi etait de récuperer au plus vite celle ci ,  et de ne surtout pas laisser Gérard prendre ne serait ce que 300 m d avance sinon c etait mort .

heureusement des la sortie de la 2 eme chicane ,j ai reussi a faire les freins a Petr dans le 1 er lesmo .

Pendant 10 tours derriere Gerard ce fut "l horreur "  , au prix de risques enorme dans la 1 er chicane  je le recollais , mais dans la foulée tout le reste du tour il me larguait et j avais beau tout donner , il n y avait rien a faire .
Puis suite à une petite faute dans son secteur de prédilection  , j ai pu le recoller et la j ai saisi immédiatement l opportunité de le dépasser au freinage d' Ascari .

a partir de la , la situation était bien différente  , j etais en tete , et bien décider a vendre TRES CHEREMENT ma peau !!

3 fois il m a dépassé au freinage de la parabolica ( impressionnante la lotus a cet endroit ) mais dans la foulée , a chaque fois je lui refaisais les freins au freinage de la 1 ere chicane .
La stratégie était claire : ne jamais lui laisser ne serait ce qu une seconde de répit ,  et lui mettre le maximum de pression .

au 20 eme tour il a commis une erreur et il s' est retrouvé a 15 secondes .  

comme je n avais aucun appui aéro a 15 tours de la fin j ai perdu beaucoup de grip pneumatique , la voiture etait de plus en plus dure a tenir en piste mais impossible de ralentir un petit peu car il revenait a coup de 1.3 s au tour lors des 10 derniers tour  . puis a 2 tours de la fin , il a re commis  une faute et la c etait ok pour la victoire et le titre de champion f1 1978 HSO .

     


well done all finishers , see ya in Glen  

Bien résumé Greg.Bravo pour le titre de champion du monde 1978   J'ai regardé le replay,tu est un "Lucky Man" dans les chicanes,et quand tu as escaladé la bordure blanche.
Un tous grand remerciement pour les journalistes et le cameramen,vue gyroscopique.
Bravo a tous les participants qui ont rallier l'arrivée.

Firstly well done to Greg for wining the championship.
As for the race the Fittipaldi was surprisingly quick in qualy putting me on the second row, but to much wheel spin off the line dropped me down 10th. after a few laps I settled into what I thought was going to be another race long fight with Jan until I lost it with 20 laps to go at Ascari and beached it .Managed to get going again and claim 8th at the end.

Well doe to all finishers and thanks for the coverage.