Here's the second part of my season review from the AG:F1.
Week 8 - São Paulo
Car: McLaren
Grid Position: 6
Finish on track: 4th
Div 2 position: 1st
I was very pleased with my qualifying lap, and being on the third row of the grid kept me out of the usual melee of the first few turns of the race. I followed Red Rhinoceros for much of the race without getting near enough to properly challenge him. Because we were on opposite tyre strategies, once I changed onto softs I could chip away at the gap and make him sweat. I finished the race with no penalties, so the 6 seconds that Rhino had added on demoted him below me and I got my third Div 2 win of the season, keeping my decent lead at the top of the leaderboard.
Week 9 - Las Vegas
Car: McLaren
Grid Position: 10
Finish on track: 7th
Div 2 position: 5th
Las Vegas is a track with some tight corners, but I forgot its also got some long straights when I opted to race with maximum downforce. To make it more difficult I also clipped the wall on lap 3, meaning I needed the extra pit stop to change wing. After that it was damage limitation, just finish the race and hope others didn't. Unfortunately it was mainly Div 1 drivers that were crashing out, so I finished 5th in the division, getting some points but the gap at the top between me and Hilly89 was narrowing.
Week 10 - Abu Dhabi
Car: McLaren
Grid Position: 7
Finish on track: 5th
Div 2 position: 3rd
I qualified just ahead of my new teammate Berty44 and pipped him to the first corner, but he'd be right on my tail for the next 10 laps until he went into the pits. A prang with S8TY that removed his front wing would eventually scupper his chances though. I was trying to stay within sight of Red Rhinoceros yet again but to no avail, but the more pressing matter was to see off andybrill89 behind me. We swapped places twice before he tried to nip inside on a tight bend, I didn't see him so just followed the racing line and I hit his front wheel with my rear, sending him spinning but luckily not doing any damage to my car. I finished 5th on the track and 3rd in Div 2, but the win for Hilly89 put him level with at the top of the leaderboard going into the final 3 races of the season.
Week 11 - China
Car: McLaren
Grid Position: 2
Finish on track: 8th
Div 2 position: 6th
We had a reduced field of 10 this week, but I had my best qualifying lap so far this season, starting on the front row in position 2. A nice clean start had me just behind the leader Diode X but it was to all go wrong on lap 3. andybrill89 was running on softs so caught me but the DRS didnt quite get him up to my car, and he broke too late on my inside of the turn to spar the side of my car as I tried to go left. That spun me around and lost a few places. I caught @buncey on the long straight a couple of laps later, but it was my turn to misjudge the breaking as I went past him, returning the favour to Andy with the bump, and damaging my wing in the process. Annoyingly it was right at the start of the lap and I had to limp all the way round to pit for a new wing. Rejoining near the back I was chasing Berty44 in his Red Bull, catching him in the corners but losing him again in the straights, another breaking error and misjudgement meant I had to pit for another front wing and work my way up from dead last. I got up to 8th (partly thanks to Burga boii completely cocking up his pit entry and crashing!), with a 3 second penalty near the end meaning I couldn't leapfrog Gazgrass on the final results. 6th in Division 2 was not too disappointing considering my title rival Hilly89 finished 4th, so I'm only 4 points behind in the championship.
Week 12 - France
Car: Red Bull
Grid Position: 3
Finish on track: 1st
Div 2 position: 1st
Another reduced field with only 9 on the grid, which fortuitously meant I was given a Red Bull on probably the easiest track of the season. Another good qualifying lap put me on the 2nd row of the grid, and got a clean start to stay 3rd once the field had spread out a bit. Having the fastest car meant I didn't have too push too hard and made sure I didnt go off the track and incur any time penalties. I got up into 2nd place in the latter stages of the race and was chasing my rival Hilly89 and I could see he'd got 9 seconds of penalties so i didnt have to risk the overtake to still win as long as I stayed close enough. Coming into the final turn of the race I was only 2 seconds behind, the win would be mine, so Hilly very sportingly slowed enough to let me go past and take the chequered flag. I also had the fastest lap for the first time, so the maximum points gained by me flipped the positions of the top 2 in the Div 2 championship so I would go into the final race 4 points ahead.
Week 13 - Portugal
Car: Ferrari
Grid Position: 3
Finish on track: 3rd
Div 2 position: 2nd
it was a great finale to the season with a big field of Div 2 drivers, which pushed me down to driving a Ferrari. I knew that although Portugal has a couple of long straights, there are a lot of tight corners and the danger of picking up track limit penalties was high, so I went safe again with the increased downforce preset. It helped in qualifying as a lot of people invalidated and I started in P3 again. After letting Burga boii go past without trying to put up a fight, I spent most of the race trying to catch Hilly89 as we dueled it out for the title. It took most of the race too reel him in, and in the last few laps I was concentrating on my driving while keeping an eye on the penalties, In the end I got within 4.5 seconds of him, and with his 9 seconds to my 6 seconds on the time penalties, he finished 1 and a half seconds ahead, to clinch the championship!
Week 8 - São Paulo
Car: McLaren
Grid Position: 6
Finish on track: 4th
Div 2 position: 1st
I was very pleased with my qualifying lap, and being on the third row of the grid kept me out of the usual melee of the first few turns of the race. I followed Red Rhinoceros for much of the race without getting near enough to properly challenge him. Because we were on opposite tyre strategies, once I changed onto softs I could chip away at the gap and make him sweat. I finished the race with no penalties, so the 6 seconds that Rhino had added on demoted him below me and I got my third Div 2 win of the season, keeping my decent lead at the top of the leaderboard.
Week 9 - Las Vegas
Car: McLaren
Grid Position: 10
Finish on track: 7th
Div 2 position: 5th
Las Vegas is a track with some tight corners, but I forgot its also got some long straights when I opted to race with maximum downforce. To make it more difficult I also clipped the wall on lap 3, meaning I needed the extra pit stop to change wing. After that it was damage limitation, just finish the race and hope others didn't. Unfortunately it was mainly Div 1 drivers that were crashing out, so I finished 5th in the division, getting some points but the gap at the top between me and Hilly89 was narrowing.
Week 10 - Abu Dhabi
Car: McLaren
Grid Position: 7
Finish on track: 5th
Div 2 position: 3rd
I qualified just ahead of my new teammate Berty44 and pipped him to the first corner, but he'd be right on my tail for the next 10 laps until he went into the pits. A prang with S8TY that removed his front wing would eventually scupper his chances though. I was trying to stay within sight of Red Rhinoceros yet again but to no avail, but the more pressing matter was to see off andybrill89 behind me. We swapped places twice before he tried to nip inside on a tight bend, I didn't see him so just followed the racing line and I hit his front wheel with my rear, sending him spinning but luckily not doing any damage to my car. I finished 5th on the track and 3rd in Div 2, but the win for Hilly89 put him level with at the top of the leaderboard going into the final 3 races of the season.
Week 11 - China
Car: McLaren
Grid Position: 2
Finish on track: 8th
Div 2 position: 6th
We had a reduced field of 10 this week, but I had my best qualifying lap so far this season, starting on the front row in position 2. A nice clean start had me just behind the leader Diode X but it was to all go wrong on lap 3. andybrill89 was running on softs so caught me but the DRS didnt quite get him up to my car, and he broke too late on my inside of the turn to spar the side of my car as I tried to go left. That spun me around and lost a few places. I caught @buncey on the long straight a couple of laps later, but it was my turn to misjudge the breaking as I went past him, returning the favour to Andy with the bump, and damaging my wing in the process. Annoyingly it was right at the start of the lap and I had to limp all the way round to pit for a new wing. Rejoining near the back I was chasing Berty44 in his Red Bull, catching him in the corners but losing him again in the straights, another breaking error and misjudgement meant I had to pit for another front wing and work my way up from dead last. I got up to 8th (partly thanks to Burga boii completely cocking up his pit entry and crashing!), with a 3 second penalty near the end meaning I couldn't leapfrog Gazgrass on the final results. 6th in Division 2 was not too disappointing considering my title rival Hilly89 finished 4th, so I'm only 4 points behind in the championship.
Week 12 - France
Car: Red Bull
Grid Position: 3
Finish on track: 1st
Div 2 position: 1st
Another reduced field with only 9 on the grid, which fortuitously meant I was given a Red Bull on probably the easiest track of the season. Another good qualifying lap put me on the 2nd row of the grid, and got a clean start to stay 3rd once the field had spread out a bit. Having the fastest car meant I didn't have too push too hard and made sure I didnt go off the track and incur any time penalties. I got up into 2nd place in the latter stages of the race and was chasing my rival Hilly89 and I could see he'd got 9 seconds of penalties so i didnt have to risk the overtake to still win as long as I stayed close enough. Coming into the final turn of the race I was only 2 seconds behind, the win would be mine, so Hilly very sportingly slowed enough to let me go past and take the chequered flag. I also had the fastest lap for the first time, so the maximum points gained by me flipped the positions of the top 2 in the Div 2 championship so I would go into the final race 4 points ahead.
Week 13 - Portugal
Car: Ferrari
Grid Position: 3
Finish on track: 3rd
Div 2 position: 2nd
it was a great finale to the season with a big field of Div 2 drivers, which pushed me down to driving a Ferrari. I knew that although Portugal has a couple of long straights, there are a lot of tight corners and the danger of picking up track limit penalties was high, so I went safe again with the increased downforce preset. It helped in qualifying as a lot of people invalidated and I started in P3 again. After letting Burga boii go past without trying to put up a fight, I spent most of the race trying to catch Hilly89 as we dueled it out for the title. It took most of the race too reel him in, and in the last few laps I was concentrating on my driving while keeping an eye on the penalties, In the end I got within 4.5 seconds of him, and with his 9 seconds to my 6 seconds on the time penalties, he finished 1 and a half seconds ahead, to clinch the championship!
Congratulations to Hilly89, a deserved title winner, doing it in a worse car than the rest of the drivers in Division 2, and a big thanks to all those that turned out for some fun racing every Monday night. Special thanks goes to andybrill89 for doing a superb job bringing it together. See you next season!
Written by member Big B 1970