My F1Time Blogs

F1Time - S19 - Race11 - Monza, Italy

Round11, F1Time Season 19, was at the fastest circuit of Monza, Italy.
Sow has a full 10 point lead over RC going into this race and one knows
that RC is not the one who gives up so easily. And what awaited in Monza
was an absolute surprise to many and Shock to some.

The weather was a tricky one in Monza. Mild rain of 3mm was forecasted
in the early parts of the race followed by temperatures of 27 Degrees.
This prompted most of the c1 to go for a 3 Stop strategy while RC and
Nuno Duarte opted for 2 and 1 stop respectively. Though the WU was
topped by Sow, Vitor had some other plans for Qual. He came with the
POLE position while Sow had to settle for second. V Nogtev found some
pace in this track as he came up with the third best time in Qualifying.
Eld joined him in the second row while RC had to settle with the fifth
best time. When the race started, Nogtev immediately got past Sow and was challenging Vitor. RC again had a poor start in the rain as he lost a
position. Jerusevicius who was seventh in the grid made a lot of
positions in the initial laps as he started challenging Sow for the
third spot. Vitor was the first to pit in Lap14 and also the first to
Drop Out as his engine blew while coming out of the Pits. Nogtev, Sow
and Jerusevicius - all three then lead one lap each and pitted the
next lap. The Race leads were changing every lap!!. When all the three
stoppers done with their pits, RC was leading. Sow, Eld and Jerusevicius
was behind him that order. RC immediately put some fast laps and when
he pitted on Lap24, he still came out first. Perfect one from RC and that
made the difference. Eld in the meantime overtook Sow and eventually the
racelead on Lap27. But again the lead stood for jus one lap and Eld
pitted. Sow pitted on Lap31 and RC regained his lead. Nuno Duarte,
the only man on 1 stop pitted on Lap 27 and that made him a point
contender. RC and Eld had their last pit on Lap41, Sow had it on 42.
With RC sure to win this race and balance the 10 point lead which Sow
had, now the question was the points which Sow would get as those will
also be his lead against RC. He was running good in his second place
as once again tragedy struck Sow. He had an Engine Explosion with just
2 laps to go. RC got the win with Eld and Jerusevicius sharing the
Podium. Nogtev came fourth. The win made RC equal his tally to that
of sow and also take the DC lead by virtue of his more wins. Now we
have a real fight in hand in c1.

c2g1 story was evident from the WU and the later qualifying when Stephen
topped the first and took the POLE. L Mandler was the only one
challenging Stephen, but we guys were not sure if he would resort
back to 'unusual' saving methodology used in the previous couple of
races. Nezam was back in pace after a while and was third in the grid.
And me..! I was fifth, the best i cud achieve this season. When the
lights went green, Stephen jus pulled out of the rest. I made a good
start and was challenging L Mandler unsuccessfully for that second spot.
Eventually i got hold of him and moved to second. Irman too made a good
start and was running third. Our team was in a three stop strategy while
most of the others were with two stops. I had to pit on Lap15 which put
me down to 9th place. By Lap21, when the two stoppers had their first
pit done, Stephen was still leading with Irman and Tej behind him. I
was running a good fifth. The order stayed the same after the next round
of pits as well. But with Irman having tyre wear,Tej was able to get past
him and finished second. Bakas's wear helped me as i finished fourth
overtaking Bakas in the very last lap. The result was a very good one
for me as well as our team. Thomas though could nt finish in points
and came nineth. Once again I made the wrong strategy, but this time
it didnt prove that costly.

posted by [ - Aswin - ] @ 10:56 am