Round 5 - Marlboro British Grand Prix [Mar 10th]

That was a fun race!

Sorry for the messy last laps and the small contactI had with a lapped car. Before the next race I will visualize how much car there is to the right of the driver. These things are wide!

Edit: I also lifted a bit to give the position back to Jonathan after accidentally forcing him off and I think that almost caused a big calamity. Must have been fun to watch on the broadcast though

race was going great, i didn't seem to have enough pace but held in there and picked up from other's mistakes. unfortunately it was my turn, had a shift issue and blew the motor ;(

There were two Albertos? I see only one in the entry list

Anyway, good race with everyone, even with my cold

Awesome race, a lot of fun!!!

Well that seems to sum-up my race, I'm not included in any results.

@ Jan Kowalski
mate im sorry humped your rear in the warmup lap

little battles with Gerard  and Griffith but 80% of the race was boring as hell  

i was runing max wings but compare to the others it was like they had turbo's

cya at Hockenheim

Lukáš Vydra wrote:

There were two Albertos? I see only one in the entry list

No, for some reason after Dave quit, I appeared in his car. I was as spectator but maybe at some point did join him in the car out of pure accident.

David Sabre wrote:

Well that seems to sum-up my race, I'm not included in any results.

Results are posted, with you included after removal of that Spanish passenger of yours.

First time for me as stowaway in an M1 

The results table

That was a far more hectic race than I had en-visioned when preparing for the event yesterday. With me doing a lot of other stuff (mainly BTCC and refereeing) I had little time to prepare but I knew what I wanted from the car around here and was able to find that balance I was looking for.
The car was horrible on low fuel but at least the car ran very nicely with half to a full tank of fuel.

In Qualifying I was still fine-tuning the car but found the pace to get myself into 13th position, that I did on 70 litres in the car, couldn't keep the car on track with less than 20 litres in the tank


The Race got under way and I really wanted to survive the early laps to was conservative going into Paddock and Druids and got out the other side relatively unscathed. Then there was an incident at Pilgrim's Drop, just like I had warned about in the pre-race chat in the "box". I can't remember exactly who both of them were but I had the fortune of avoiding it as they both interlocked, just like I and Steve had done at Norisring last time out, and headed for the left-side barriers, reminiscent of Herberts crash at that very location

After this it took me a lap or so to catch up with Cezariusz and, while I was quicker in the turns, he was a lot quicker down the straights, presumably running more tape and possibly less wing then I was.
But after a while his mistakes cost him tire-wear and I was able to get a run out of Surtees and was able to sneak past in Hawthorn.

After this I could open up a gap and was trying to catch up with Gabriel but he had very good pace early on in the race. But then he started to drop back, I can only think that his tires either got too hot or he was getting a little bit tired, there is little space for one to rest even on the GP loop at this place...

With about 8 or something laps to go, I was close enough to start putting Gabriel under a bit of pressure but he was coping well and wasn't making many mistakes, he made one by running wide at Hawthorn which lead to me giving it a go through Westfield bend but I missed the gear going through Dingle Dell and had to concede for now.

It took me until Druids to catch back up and maintain the pressure. On the final lap, Gabriel made a mistake at Graham Hill corner, presumably distracted by Petr who were off on the outside on the exit. I went for a good run and we made slight contact side by side down Cooper Straight and I then sent it into Surtees but I overcooked it a little bit and, trying to get the power down on the exit, got squirly and ended up a bit too far to the left and me and Gabriel made contact again, I think that was more my fault than yours mate.

This allowed Petr a run on the outside but there was too little room and he was halted on the grass and we ran 3 and then 2 wide going into Hawthorn where I ran just a tad wide, sorry Petr, I think we made contact, not sure how it affected you.
Then Gabriel went slow out of the corner and let me by which seemed to cause a bit of trouble behind but I was out and could bring the car home in 5th.


Overall very happy with my effort last night, especially considering how my races has gone earlier in this Championship, but I suppose Brands is a good location for me as well.

Thanks to everyone I had a fight with during the event and I hope you all had as much fun as I had

Great fun last night!

Living 25 minutes away from Brands Hatch I've always had a soft spot for the circuit (but admittedly never do well here!). Was very pleased to off gained pole

The start was interesting - for some reason, apart from Monaco I am yet to hold or gain a place on the start... I cannot get these off the line as well as most So loosing out to Thiago on the start made it very interesting to be bottled between him and Jaques!

After a few laps I managed to pass back into the lead and set about setting as close to quali runs as I could to build a gap I could manage till the end but off course, with that comes certain risks and on lap 10 ended up spinning it but fortunately got it going again.

With 20 laps to go and 10 seconds behind Thiago and Jaques I had some work to do and I am very lucky they were battling as it allowed me to close quicker than I thought. By the time I was aback in second Jaques had a 2-3 second lead and honestly I don't know how it would have panned out if he didn't retire ( sorry to see that, thought maybe you ran out of fuel at first but either way felt bad seeing it ) My tires were gone by this time so I think if Jaques didn't retire then the win was in his hands. So all in all a good result for me but like other races this season I'm very fortunate it played the way it did for myself!

The broadcast was great as per - that last lap battle looked immense !!

The perfect race. Car was great to drive, good balance on setup.
Nothing to do with the leaders however. Congrats!

Lonely but none the less demanding race on such a track.
Inherited third when Jaques blew his engine. Bummer. 
But still. First podium.    

Well that was a lot more fun that it should have been after such a botched start from me

I finally position the car near the front of the pack and had a really decent car worked up to drive, even though I had no practice till a few hours prior to the race (12 hour Sebring race took all my P time away last week)
Was feeling quite good about it, got a nice jump at the start, annndd then missed second gear.  Cars screaming in my ear, it took me a second to notice it and by the time I got the gear engaged I was falling down the order.  Ended up losing 5 positions before I was able to tuck in and get stabilized.

Fell in behind G. Sterr and spent many laps trying to find a way around.  He was just fast enough to stay ahead, but slow enough that I wanted to GO!  lol.

Finally found a way around at some point...maybe he had an off or something, can't remember.
The next portion of the race was mostly follow the leader, don't make mistakes (try anyways)....and then slowly but surely a few positions were gifted to me.  Ended up all the way up to P6 at one point, fighting a 4 way battle for P4.  Mostly just pushing deep, trying to force some mistakes, but overtaking otherwise was not happening.

@Dave, sorry for collecting you there at Dingle Dell.  I did the same thing you did, followed you right through, clipped that same pesky piece of grass, and was semi out of control when I got into your sideways car.  Tried to push on through and make that quick as possible, just didn't have anywhere to go or enough control to go there.

Car got sketchy in the last 5 laps or so.  I was pushing to catch up after the incident with Dave, but could only do so much.
Then the last lap fun.    What a traffic jam that was...off into the grass 3 wide approaching Hawthorn Bend.  Cars all jammed up and I was not about to lose the momentum I had, but it was all for nil because I had to back out.  Fun though

Think I got into Jonatan there a bit...I did back out, then I we got bunched up again and I cut Diggle Dell.  No cut penalty, but I backed out anyways, did not want to take a position like that.  That cost me another spot in the end I think, but at least this race I got some points!  'bout time!  

Really enjoyable race, though I feel I had more than is shown in the results.  Try harder next time I suppose.
Thanks to all for the good racing, and our broadcast team as well for another great broadcast!

Grats up front.  Good, entertaining battle up there.  Enjoyed watching that.  

Made a bad start dropping several places, then through Surtees had a run on Jan Prusa and was along side before the bridge but he just seemed to veer into my forcing me off the track and into the barriers, I was sure my race was about to end , but was able to get back on track before Hawthorns. From then on had a good fight with Cezariusz and Juha managing to scrape a point for 10th.
Really enjoying these cars, well done to Grant and podium and thanks for the broadcast.

Very interesting race, didn't expect to get a podium.

Not a lot of practice for me, just 12 laps before qualify session. After making the laptime using a more aggressive setup I decided to pull back to the pit to practice some race pace with a more conservative setup. Not enough time to figure out some time shortcuts and braking points what made me struggle during the race.

It was a great fight with Grant, beautiful overtake with me posing for the photo in a powerslide, losing the position with class!!

I knew Jaques would try to do the same, I held the position for a couple of laps but he made it work in T1. It was great to be close to him, the pace was similar and my plan was to stay there to see what could happen. Grant overtook me again in T1, he already knew he could trust me

It was great, really happy to race this weekend, fantastic pace from Grant again. No chance to get him at all even being well prepared.

Feel sorry for Jaques, I know not everybody takes the risk of using H pattern, a lot of respect by doing that. (and for everybody who does the same)

Congrats Grant (incredible pace), and Thim (well deserved podium) !!
Amazing broadcast!!!!!!!!!!!

See you guys in Hockenhein!!!!