Round 11 - Grand Prix de Belgique [Jul 2nd]

Still a good result for my home race. It moved me to sixth in the championship, with fourth place within reach. Thanks to Mick for the excellent setup! Juha #2 Bos. Sunday 2 July 2017


Oh the irony.

Maybe I should call it a day racing, and console myself with being Benetton Engineer.

I would like to congratulate David Jaques on winning the championship. Clearly, he and this mod are like ham and cheese. A match made in heaven. But watching him drive the Jordan at speed; this was not quite the cakewalk the points chart would suggest it was. He drove 10 10ths the whole time and it showed.  A well earned championship indeed. Only way it could have been more perfect is if he had won the title on Canada Day (July 1) but close enough

Mick Chapman wrote:

Still a good result for my home race. It moved me to sixth in the championship, with fourth place within reach. Thanks to Mick for the excellent setup!      Juha #2 Bos. Sunday 2 July 2017


Oh the irony.

Maybe I should call it a day racing, and console myself with being Benetton Engineer.

You're doing a great job as my race engineer. You're something like Benetton's version of Jürgen Barth.

Cheer up, we'll go for it again at Monza. I'm sure your Hockenheim setup will come in handily.

Given recent incidents Team Leyton House has chosen a new livery similar to the one seen here that will vary slightly from race to race. Colors will vary by including colors from nearby qualifiers and colors of the track at key points (direct request from Mike). Team Leyton House asks that other teams cease speculating this has anything to do with recent driver behaviour or a certain sick driver's frequent repaintings of the walls in practice.


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Mike Becnel wrote:

Great broadcast and congrats to David J with a convincing win.

Grats to Mr Jundt for a great finish in that crate.

Two David J's doing their best

Never thought I'd get to race for points with that "shoe"(Footwork, get it?), but I gladly take the point


Trying to keep that upcoming Belgian at bay

I expected a lot in this race, on Thursday a simple mistake kick me from top 3, today i started faster than the front package, theres a gap for me, but mike closed which led to a touch that resulted in damage to my car and for Janak, I will not blame anyone, it was an insignificant touch with a catastrophic result!

Damaged and 2 seconds slower than normal, I made a race to defend the position, Juha surprised me with the overtaking that he did in les fagnes, luckily I managed to recover, but the battle continued until the 11th lap, unfortunately ended in a Negative way, I went too far in Les Combes,  ended up on that curb next to the track that threw me back to the track where he was, I saw that I was wrong and just gave the fairplay, but i know that wasn't enought,  I'm sorry for that Juha!

Laps later the ligament of my finger gave up the race and I had to leave , it was difficult to accept that I had caused problems, but the game continues, now is to work more in the car and correct the mistakes for the next race!

Finally, Points!

Started slow, car felt different for some reason, let Gerard and Paolo go by in first few laps trying to stay out of trouble until I hopefully found my rhythm. Stayed on back of the Victor train waiting for any opportunities.
Petr Joined the train but disappeared, didnt know why until watched broadcast. I dont remember feeling any contact but looked like we might have touched at exit of La source?
Then Paolo lost his frt wing on the back of Gerard.
Shortly after Gerard lost grip headed onto long back stretch, with nowhere to go I lost my wing in his sidepod.
I went in for repairs and began the long climb back.
Had no idea Gerard retired until race was over and saw the big flip. Wonder if we could have carried a fight up to Juha if not for that moment?

Congrats D "Jakes" on win & champ
Congrats other Yanik on 2nd
Congrats Juha for podium, GDPiccolo another great drive, and Jundt for points in the FATwork!

Raul Jereb wrote:

Well, Im really dissapointed.

Even I am not making such begginers mistakes any more, Karel.
Id understand if you hit me in first turn, but c'mon.. I spent whole day practicing with AIs, slower, just to adopt avoiding others..

This supposed to be a big day for me, first race on new PC, 3 monitors, I really practiced a lot since it is completely new feeling (yes Im braging a bit ).. and I was not able to complete not 1 lap!!

If I was drving with 26 Raul Jerebs, Id understand.. but man.. whole track for yourself and you pick to go over me!

Raul, I am very sorry. I have to check replay because during the race I was pretty sure I did not hit you...I better run to grass to avoid you and did not feel any contact at all If I were aware I hit you i would excuse immediately here. During warm up Francois noted me because of lag, so I tried again and ask and everything was OK...so I hope it has no relation to that. If you can, please give me your replay or post o video so I will be able to check also from your perspective.

Victor Montenegro wrote:

Damaged and 2 seconds slower than normal, I made a race to defend the position, Juha surprised me with the overtaking that he did in les fagnes

To be honest I surprised myself because it wasn't planned. I was on the wrong side of the track and missed my brake marker. It worked out rather well.

Victor Montenegro wrote:

luckily I managed to recover, but the battle continued until the 11th lap, unfortunately ended in a Negative way, I went too far in Les Combes,  ended up on that curb next to the track that threw me back to the track where he was, I saw that I was wrong and just gave the fairplay, but i know that wasn't enought,  I'm sorry for that Juha!

I think you were trying a bit too hard there. I don't think I've ever battled with someone so intent on holding on to his place which gave me a lot of work pressuring you into a mistake, and even then I couldn't get through. Especially when you kept outbraking me at Les Combes. You're hard work.

When we entered Les Combes I was ahead of you so it surprised me when I suddenly got ran into. Thanks for giving the place back, but you should have given me some room or tried to slow down more because it was inevitable I'd be there after overtaking you halfway down the Kemmel straight.

Brian Janik wrote:

Had no idea Gerard retired until race was over and saw the big flip. Wonder if we could have carried a fight up to Juha if not for that moment?

Congrats D "Jakes" on win & champ
Congrats other Yanik on 2nd
Congrats Juha for podium, GDPiccolo another great drive, and Jundt for points in the FATwork!

You were keeping the same rhythm as me so it could have been a nice fight I reckon. I never gave up trying but kept a slight margin after the damaged I incurred earlier.

Karel Marciniszyn wrote:

Raul Jereb wrote:

Well, Im really dissapointed.

Even I am not making such begginers mistakes any more, Karel.
Id understand if you hit me in first turn, but c'mon.. I spent whole day practicing with AIs, slower, just to adopt avoiding others..

This supposed to be a big day for me, first race on new PC, 3 monitors, I really practiced a lot since it is completely new feeling (yes Im braging a bit ).. and I was not able to complete not 1 lap!!

If I was drving with 26 Raul Jerebs, Id understand.. but man.. whole track for yourself and you pick to go over me!

Raul, I am very sorry. I have to check replay because during the race I was pretty sure I did not hit you...I better run to grass to avoid you and did not feel any contact at all  If I were aware I hit you i would excuse immediately here. During warm up Francois noted me because of lag, so I tried again and ask and everything was OK...so I hope it has no relation to that. If you can, please give me your replay or post o video so I will be able to check also from your perspective.

I took a look on server replay...it was very bad from my side. On replay it is visible I was able to avoid crashing you in cost of running into grass but no matter that there was no visible contact your car sudenly move to side like if I hit you one turn later you were hit by another car but I am afraid that the bend of suspension was done by our ghost contact following my mistake

I am sorry for that...I would take a lesson from that and avoid driving cars I cannot handle

After Imola, I decided to let my Modena-Lamborghini free for a better driver because I was very disappointed to be not qualify for race after 3 attemps. When I saw that a place was available in the Modena-Lamborghini team, I decided to come back for Belgium GP and I am very happy today because Spa-Francorchamps was my first participation in this championship.

Now, I am realistic. Several absences allowed me to qualify but I was very happy to participate at this race and even more happy to cross the finish line. 9th is a good result for me even if there were a lot of DNF. I stayed on track, 0 mistake, not very fast but I crossed the finish line. Very very happy ...

Very impressive by David Jundt result ... After 1 point with the Fondmetal at Phoenix, now, 1 point with the Footwork ... I would like to be the first to open the Modena-Lamborghini team points ... but it is a dream ... However, I will be present for the national GP of my team, at Monza, even if all tifosi will support iconic team which is Ferrari. I hope to be on the grid ...

Congratulations to David Jacques for the championship ...

Thank you for the broadcast. It's very nice to talk a little about the end rankig drivers ... Thank you again.

Karel Marciniszyn wrote:

I took a look on server replay...it was very bad from my side. On replay it is visible I was able to avoid crashing you in cost of running into grass but no matter that there was no visible contact your car sudenly move to side like if I hit you    one turn later you were hit by another car but I am afraid that the bend of suspension was done by our ghost contact following my mistake

I am sorry for that...I would take a lesson from that and avoid driving cars I cannot handle

Argh, dont worry Karel, it was an incident, I know you did your best not to touch me, I was sooooo down yesterdey I had to react, but for the record, NOT A SINGLE CURSE WAS SAID IN ANY MOMENT EVER!!!

I was pretty slow during whole week, tbh, I had very small time in practiceing, and it was all becose of whole new perspective, and I approached yesterdays race as pure pleasure, so I was so sad when it ended in first third of a first lap..

But not to worry, again, I just had to let go the steam..

See you soon on track!

Between the absences and pulling off a small miracle the morning of quali 2, I somehow managed to put this underpowered Coloni onto the grid. Found 2 full seconds during quali testing just hours before the second quali and was VERY excited when I saw the starting grid and there I sat 24th in line.

Saturday night I spent hours creating a race set that would last...hours nursing the car because I was pretty much forced to drive the thing at the limit at all times (in terms of really working the engine more than anything else)....all I wanted to do was actually finish and I thought that a long shot with the car...but, after many extended practice stints in the car I slowly began to realize that it was quite a bit tougher and possessed more stamina than I had first imagined. Again, I was happy.

The race was uneventful for me. No way I was going to be competitive with anything else on track. The straight line "speed" of the Coloni is abysmal, at best. EVERYONE was blowing by me on the straights and it didn't corner much faster than most..

I did get a bit ambitious, hoping to find a top 10 spot and score the car. I was hoping attrition nearer the front would bless me with such a position but it was not to be. Fell right outside the scoring range...but, a P11 in this thing? Sure, I'll take it.

Grats to David on the win and to the rest of the podium and finishers.
Clean lapping by those that whizzed by me a few times (thanks for that) and I tried to give plenty of room and stay out of the way (hope everyone found quick passage by me)....

Might be the only time I actually manage to quali this thing...but, I have found a few helpful things in terms of setup and also in driving style with the car, so who knows...maybe I'll get lucky again

...and away we go.

Should have extended the congrats to all finishers!!!!
Good battle between Ray R and Jonatan, fantastic result for Haas!