Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to another race report! This past week, we raced around the Bahrain International Circuit across all divisions and F2, and it sure lived up to expectations! Let’s begin the report with Elite, which had some very close battling and post race penalties that spiced things up quite a bit!
It was Hoopolicious who finally took his first win in SLR Elite, pulling off a last lap overtake on fellow American FRA Freeman9, who was leading most of the race. A perfect qualifying and a near flawless drive for Freeman was unfortunately hampered when he was given a 10 second penalty added onto his race time from Australia, which dropped him to 8th. A disappointing qualifying for Midzy15 left him starting 7th, and a strong recovery drive followed, with a win nearby. ZyDRAD took his first podium of the season after dropping back slightly from his P2 starting position. Xx JamHam xX came home to finish 4th in another solid drive for the season 4 champion. Behind him was Crispy2001, KevinGT9839, and gho3t COLT, who recovered brilliantly after an early Q1 exit to finish 7th. Freeman finished in 8th as we know, with BDunk and bezzas1 behind rounding out our points finishers. Jito DV finished just behind in 11th, with SLR Niki picking up 12th in what I believe was his best result in Elite and first Q3 so far, so well done to him! UKBeastAssassin brought his Haas home in 13th with raceroller22 behind in 14th. V2 x Combat dropped from an excellent 4th to 15th after he was handed two post race penalties. SLR Smoke68 dropped back from his starting position of 12th to 16th, with the Darnell brothers of SLR Southerner and SLR Darnell coming home in 17th and 18th. Finally, MeRkz47 rounded out our finishers after unfortunately being caught up in a lap 1 incident. Our only non-finisher was reigning Elite champion HamJam2002, a disappointing race for the Brit after being caught up in an incident and picking up damage.
That concludes this week’s report for Elite! Be sure to tune in on Sunday 7PM BST and all other divisions for Vietnam, a track I’m sure many in the SLR community love and hate. Have a great one everyone, stay safe and stay well.
Qualifying
Pole Lap: 01.24.609
1. FRA Freeman9
2. ZyDRAD
3. Hoopolicious
4. HamJam2002
5. V2 x Combat
6. Xx JamHam xX
7. Midzy15
8. Crispy2001
9. SLR Niki
10. Jito DV
11. bezzas1
12. SLR Smoke68
13. KevinGT
14. BDunk
15. MeRkz47
16. gho3t COLT
17. UKBeastAssassin
18. SLR Darnell
19. raceroller22
20. SLR Southerner
Race
Fastest Lap: 01.26.754 MeRkz47
1. Hoopolicious
2. Midzy15
3. ZyDRAD
4. Xx JamHam xX
5. Crispy2001
6. KevinGT
7. gho3t COLT
8. FRA Freeman9 +10 sec
9. BDunk
10. bezzas1
11. Jito DV
12. SLR Niki
13. UKBeastAssassin
14. raceroller22
15. V2 x Combat +20 sec
16. SLR Smoke68
17. SLR Southerner
18. SLR Darnell
19. MeRkz47
20. HamJam2002 (DNF)
V2 x Combat cutting the track in Q1
Outcome: 10s + 2LP
Reason: Excessively cutting the track during qualifying.
V2 x Combat cutting the track in Q3
Outcome: 10s + 2LP
Reason: Excessively cutting the track during qualifying.
Division 1 grid of SLR struck down under the light of the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir. After an exciting race at Albert Park in Australia, the division 1 drivers of SLR have proved once again that this will be a very exciting year for division 1. In qualifying drivers were forced to take the absolute maximum out of their machinery. With the top 10 in Q2 only separated by only 0.287 of a second. Williams driver BrindyBoi67 coped best with the pressure as he took pole in the 2nd race of the season. Followed by the McLaren’s of SLR Rando and SLR Semm. Who was followed closely by the two Mercedeses of SLR Dylan in fourth and SillyBunny47711 in fifth?
As the 5 lights came on everyone was on the edge of their seat. BrindyBoi67 had a decent start as he was clear from behind going into turns 1 and 2. Behind him, however, both McLaren’s had some trouble at the start and SLR Dylan kindly took advantage of that. SLR Semm tough saw his chance on the outside of the Mercedes going into turn 1 and got his place back and moved up into P2. The Mercedes of SillyBunny47711 also managed to overtake SLR Rando and moved up into P4
After a couple of exciting laps, things had calmed down a bit. Until BrindyBoi67 had lost his Williams coming out of the right-hander and crashed into the barrier. This brought out a VSC. Multiple drivers took advantage of this as eight drivers who all started on softs made their first stop. Newly race leader SLR Dylan and P2 driver SLR Semm both stayed out. This was a great opportunity for the likes of SLR Rando, SillyBunny47711, and CechThisOut to undercut the two drivers who hadn’t stopped yet on those old softs.
Unfortunately, bennett628, SLR Connor and SLR Ranga picked up a drive-through penalty, for speeding under the VSC as they came out of the pitlane just as the VSC was ending. All three drivers were not given a delta yet. Which resulted in them picking up a drive through and pretty out of the picture for a good result (FIX YOUR GAME CODEMASTERS).
After 1 lap SLR Dylan went for his only pit stop. SLR Semm stayed out one more lap before pitting. This meant that the entire top 10 had pitted. Riggsey x was leading the race with a 3-second gap to SLR Rando in 2nd. SLR Rando had a 3-second gap to SLR Dylan and a 5-second gap to SLR Semm and SillyBunny47711, his main rivals. After cutting through the pack SLR Dylan was now in 2nd pace 2.1 seconds behind SLR Rando. Who had some trouble getting past Riggsey x. SLR Dylan was desperate to get in the DRS range of SLR Rando as he was in -0.28 laps of fuel. Which would result in him not getting to the finish line. As the podium finisher last time out in Australia Riggsey x finally made his only pit stop, he came out in 13th. But he was on fresh softs, which would make the job very easy to cut through the traffic.
As there were some more clean fights on the track Riggsey x saw himself in P8 after only 4 laps. Meanwhile, SLR Dylan had managed to close the gap to SLR Rando but was unsure to make the finish as he was now in -0.48 laps of fuel. Meanwhile, SLR Morgan was in P9 after starting 19th in the race because of his qualifying ban. As the last few laps of the race flew by, we were on lap 29 and the final lap of the race. SLR Dylan was going for the move on SLR Rando into turn 1. His ERS, DRS and 2 laps fresher hards made the job fairly easy. SLR Rando tried to fight back but it wouldn’t matter. As SLR Rando stayed in the 1-second gap of SLR Dylan he tried to get a good exit out of the last corner on the track, but because of his worn hards, he lost the backend of his McLaren. He managed to keep his car out of the barrier. But SillyBunny47711 was not too far behind him and saw his chance of a P2 instead of a P3. SLR Rando though crossed the line first with SillyBunny47711 just behind him. The two drivers were separated by 0.320 of a second.
Lewisod came home in 7th after starting P13, making up 6 places in the race. Riggsey x came home in P8 after also making up 6 places in the race. The biggest gainer however was SLR Morgan making up 10 places to come home in P9. Despite his drive through SLR Connor still grabbed a point finishing in P10 with bennett628 just behind him. SLR Ranga picked up the fasted lap of the race.
Qualifying
Pole Lap: 01.25.010
1. BrindyBoi67
2. SLR Rando
3. SLR Semm
4. SLR Dylan
5. SilyBunny47711
6. CechThisOut
7. SotierClock110
8. SLR ranga
9. bennett628
10. SLR McKeon
11. SLR Connor
12. JH199
13. Lewisod
14. Riggsey x
15. Lil Wiggy
16. SLR Gooner
17. tooman3sweets
18. Kovaqq
19. SLR Morgan
20. SLR Liamm
Race
Fastest Lap:01.27.314 SLR ranga
1. SLR Dylan
2. SillyBunny4771
3. SLR Semm
4. SLR Rando +5 sec
5. CechThisOut
6. SotierClock110
7. Lewisod
8. Riggsey x
9. SLR Connor
10. SLR Morgan +5 sec
11. bennett628
12. tooman3sweets
13. JH199
14. SLR ranga
15. SLR Liamm
16. SLR Gooner (DNF)
17. BrindyBoi67 (DNF)
18. Lil Wiggy (DNF)
19. SLR McKeon (DNF)
20. Kovaqq (DNS)
Rando pit entry cut
Outcome: 5 seconds and 1 License Point
Reason: Rando cuts the pit entry after a late dive into the pits from a VSC. Given previous outcomes (e.g Australia season 6 and Russia Season 5) we feel he should be given the same treatment. Note: Giving us a 17 page FIA Rules list does not mean we will be changing our opinions. The rules will be specified from this week forward.
Ranga vs SLR Morgan and Riggsey X
Outcome - 5 seconds and 1 license point awarded to SLR Morgan.
Reason: Given the circumstances, Morgan should not have been going full throttle into T2 as ranga was along side to the right of him. Therefore he squeezed ranga off the track. Ranga then proceeded to come back on the track unsafely along side riggsey causing ranga into a spin. We don't feel riggsey nor ranga need to be penalised for the incident after the Morgan incident.
It must be said, the amount of penalties has slowly declined in Div 2, and for the second week in a row only one penalty was handed out! Definitely worth a pat on the back for everyone, even though next week we could be in for some carnage at Hanoi.
Anyways, we saw some rather interesting tactics take place in qualifying as rockamad73 took pole ahead of Coupe a Benz and craigfk, whilst SLR FemPest only finished P4 after being put off by OwenHowell36 close behind him, who would’ve gone P3 but invalidated his lap. There was a few crashes in qualifying too, which included both AlphaTauris Crash in Q1 in SPhh and SLR Barlow.
In the race it was a hectic start as we saw many position changes, with the likes of SLR Teddy making huge gains on the run down to Turn 4. There was a lot of carnage with a few spins and plenty of lap 1 wing damage, seeing the likes of SLR Panther and Coupe a Benz pit.
Most people’s strategies worked as planned right until lap 18 when a Safety Car came out after everyone had pitted. SLR FemPest decided to stay out on his hards with not too much left of the race, but most of the others on his strategy went in. This worked wonders for the likes of SLR Barlow, ZachIsBeast25 and SPhh, who had all recently pitted so went right up the order. With a spin off the restart for SLR FemPest, craigfk took the lead on fresh softs and would continue to lead the rest of the race and take the win in just his second race back in Division Two. SLR Barlow got driver of the day as he gained 13 positions in the race and finished P2, whilst pole man rockamad73 took P3 to make it a double podium for the Renault team.
ZachIsBeast25 and SPhh finished P4 and P5 respectively with their alternate strategies paying off, the latter starting from P20! Then followed the two Mercedes, the two McLarens and Division Three runner up SLR b33n in the Haas, who got his first points since his return to Div 2.
Fingers crossed we shouldn’t have too many connection issues next week and hopefully we shall have some fun out in Hanoi next Saturday, for an awkward new track that not many will race again after Saturday, it will definitely be one to look out for.
Qualifying
Pole Time: 1:25.333
1. rockamad73
2. Coupe a Benz
3. craigfk
4. SLR FemPest
5. MRC R Leah
6. SLR Teddy
7. SLR Panther
8. OwenHowell36
9. l DarkXenon l
10. SSR Halo
11. dRaSt1k bLazE
12. ZachIsBeast25
13. SLR iCallum
14. Original96
15. SLR Barlow
16. SLR Nealix
17. SLR Scopezz
18. SLR Hicklin
19. SLR b33n
20. SPhh
Race
Fastest Lap: 1:28.192 - l DarkXenon l
1. craigfk
2. SLR Barlow
3. rockamad73
4. ZachIsBeast25
5. SPhh
6. SLR FemPest
7. SLR Panther
8. Coupe a Benz
9. OwenHowell36
10. SLR b33n
11. Original96
12. SLR Scopezz
13. SLR Hicklin
14. SSR Halo
15. l DarkXenon l
16. SLR Nealix
17. dRaSt1k bLazE (DNF)
18. SLR Teddy (DNF)
19. SLR iCallum (DNF)
20. MRC R Leah (DSQ)
MRC R Leah: DSQ from Bahrain
Outcome: Qualifying ban for his next race + 5LP
Reason: Not leaving the session after receiving multiple requests to do so due to connection issues. As this is the second time he has done so, the stewards have awarded him with a harsher penalty than when he did this for the first time. Reminder to all drivers that if you receive a party invite from ‘SLRCoComms’ mid race then this is due to your connection being unraceable and you must get out of everyone’s way and immediately retire in the pits.
SLR Nealix vs SLR Hicklin: no further action
SLR Nealix is battling with Rockamad at the time and his car drifts to the left, he hits the sidepod of SLR Hicklin and spins into the wall. Hicklin is not at fault for his spin at all.
rockamad73 - Slowing down excessively under SC
No Further Action. Rockamad does not back up any of the pack going into the pitlane entry. He slows down after the final corner to avoid double stacking, but the only driver affected was MRC Leah who had already been asked to leave the lobby by SLR co-comms/race director. Therefore no applicable drivers were held up in the incident and thus no action is taken.
As an additional note, in elite and division 2 the stewards expectations for drivers slowing down to avoid a double stack are as follows:
you can slow down as much as you like to create a gap to your teammate on the racetrack itself (although others may overtake you when instructed to do so by the game if you’re driving too slowly) but as the pit lane entry is under green flag racing conditions then you must not drive excessively slowly whilst attempting to block other drivers in this zone. (We define this to mean driving significantly slower than racing speeds whilst other drivers are within a second of you). Of course this is subject to the official league rules changing.
Zachisbeast25 vs SLR Teddy: no further action
The stewards feel this is just hard racing. A gap is there and SLR teddy is on much fresher tyres so can brake much later and overtake Zach using this gap. Whilst this is an aggressive move and contact is made, we do not feel it is aggressive enough to be considered a divebomb, hence this goes down as a racing incident.
After a poor start to qualifying in Australia it was SLR J3st3r in the Renault that found some great pace to take pole position in Bahrain with Lofty4794 in the Haas showing once again he was another to watch as he took P2 on the grid. The Mercedes pair of Honeybadger56X and SLR Colden took the second row in P3 and P4 as they were once again showing to be quick again as they were last week. Last season`s race winner SLR Hyperz could only manage P5 on the grid despite showing good pace once again. As the lights went out and the race started all the front runners got away clean, but it was SLR Hyperz who crashed out at T7 ending his race on lap 1 from P5 as he retired from the race. A safety car was then called on lap 3 as both Racing Point drivers of Aflyinglemon318 and SLR Spr1tley crashed on the exit of T7 with SLR Spr1tley ending his race and having to retire. The early safety car then seen several early pitstops from some of the front runners to move away from the soft tyres onto harder compounds. This gave the race lead to l21l Maxwell in the Mclaren with SLR St2oh in the AlfaTauri in P2 and GrumpyOrange976 in the Williams in P3. A VSC then came on lap 7 as SLR St2oh had a smash at T9 and lost his front wing. This moved SLR Dodgy up into P3 with Lofty4794 up to P4 after the early pitstop. After some great pace after his first pitstop under the safety car Lofty4794 then took the lead of the race on lap 11 as he closed the gap on l21l Maxwell who then pitted for the hard compound tyre. Onto lap 16 and both Mercedes drivers of honeybadger56X and SLR Colden had made their way back up to P2 and P3 as they were both showing great pace. Race leader Lofty4794 then pitted at the end of lap 16 moving the Mercedes drivers into P1 and P2 as Lofty4794 re-joined the race in P6.
SLR Dodgy then made his pitstop on lap 17 onto the medium tyres which promoted SLR Dolph1n into P3 as SLR Dodgy came back in P9. Lap 18 then saw drama as Aflyinglemon318 and l21l Maxwell were involved in an incident in sector 3 as SLR Dodgy, Scott85laney and SLR Gareth all did well to avoid the 2 cars. Lap 22 then saw Lofty4794 make a move past SLR Dolph1n into P3 as he was now chasing down the Mercedes pairing in P1 and P2 with 7 laps remaining. SLR Dolph1n who was having a very good race in P4 then took a spin on lap 23 which meant he had to pit for a wing change and lost positions coming back in P9 promoting SLR J3st3r into P4 and SLR Dodgy into P5. Down in P10 and SLR St2oh seemed to have his car repelling magnet in full flow as lap after lap every car trying to overtake him was ending up in a spin as he maintained his points position. Lap 26 and race leader Honeybadger56X looked to be nursing the 21-lap old hard tyres as his pace was slowing as l21l Maxwell un-lapped himself and began to pull away from the race leader. Meanwhile Lofty4794 had overtaken SLR Colden into P3 and was closing the gap on the lead Mercedes. There was still drama to come as we neared the end of the race as leader Honeybadger56X in the Mercedes had taken his hard tyres just that little too far as he got a rear puncture and had to pit on lap 27. This gifted Lofty4794 the lead of the race and meant that SLR Colden had to be careful with 2 laps remaining in P2. Lofty4794 then brought his Haas home in P1 to take the win. SLR Colden managed to hold onto P2 and nurse his car home with badly worn tyres with SLR J3st3r taking P3. SLR Dodgy came home in P4, SLR Gareth was P5, Honeybadger56X who lead most of the race came home in P6, GrumpyOrange976 took P7, C0wen was P8, SLR Dolp1n P9 and Scott85laney took the final point in P10.
Qualifying
Pole Lap: 01.25.695
1. SLR J3st3r
2. Lofty4794
3. HoneyBadger56x
4. SLR COLDEN
5. SLR Hyperz
6. SLR Dolphin
7. SLR St2oH
8. I21I Maxwell
9. SLR Stevooo
10. DaredPaul1986
11. SLR Dodgy
12. Scott85Laney
13. SLR Charlie
14. C0w3n
15. Aflyinglemon318
16. GrumpyOrange
17. SLR Gareth
18. Baggeifan 1995
19. SLR Russell
20. SLR SPR1GTHLY
Race
Fastest Lap: 01.27.489 HoneyBadger56x
1. Lofty4794
2. SLR COLDEN
3. SLE J3st3r
4. SLR Dodgy
5. SLR Gareth
6. HoneyBadger56x
7. GrumpyOrange
8. C0w3n
9. SLR Dolphin
10. Scott85Laney
11. SLR Charlie
12. I21I Maxwell
13. Aflyinglemon318 +10 sec
14. SLR St2oH
15. SLR Stevooo
16. SLR Russell
17. Baggiefan 1995
18. DaredPaul1986 (DNF)
19. SLR SPR1TLEY (DNF)
20. SLR Hyperz (DNF)
Aflyinglemon Lap 19
OUTCOME: +10s 2LP
REASON: Reset to track
Коментарі