AL2 From the Cockpit: Bahrain

Wow. That was one of the most enjoyable races I have driven in across all of my F1 gaming over the past few years. It had everything. Most importantly though, I finally managed to get on the board with points, and 25 of them to boot!

Once again I had to ask for the race to be delayed due to my cricketing commitments, I can only apologise to everyone else for any problems this caused.

Qualifying was pretty painful in all honesty. I was hoping to get in the top 3 on the prime tyres, however my prime lap left me down in 5th, a good half a second away from 4th. Because of this I decided to use the option tyre and was pretty pleased with my lap....until I realised that I had only moved up by 1 position and I was 0.7 secs away from B_SENNA's pole lap. At this point it was looking like a long race ahead.

The race start supported this. I had my customary poor launch, leading to me getting swamped into turn 1. I then had the proximity arrows telling me that someone was coming through the very narrow gap inside me (not a euphemism). This meant that I could not turn in without risking a collision. This in turn meant that I hit con_reece (or ConnorH1996, depending on who you believe), spinning his car. Because of this I felt it necessary to let him back through, which dropped me to 11th.

I was on the move immediately though, overtaking Will on lap 2, Con at the start of lap 3 (the start of an outstanding battle), Ben, practice, godhead and Senna (who spun) on lap 5, and Justanumber rather scruffily at the start of lap 7. The scruffiness of this overtake combined with some great driving from con left him right on my tail, where he remained for the next 12 laps as we battled it out. A couple of times it looked like he'd made the move stick, first on lap 11 into turn 4, where he went down the inside but I was able to find enough traction on the outside to fend him off, lap 17, where he finally got the inside line into turn 1 but outbraked himself, and again on lap 18, where he got the move done down the pit straight, but I managed to dive down the inside of him into turn 1. soon afterwards the battle came to en end though, when he spun.

By this point my options were ruined. I pitted for primes on lap 19 and came out between godhead and ben, battling for 5th. A tap under braking between teammates let ben through past us both, before I was able to get past the pair of them into turn 1 as they were too late on the brakes.

My next task was to try to catch S007PS and have round 2 of our battle from Malaysia. Catching him was fairly simple on new tyres, and he defended far less robustly than in Malaysia, allowing me to take 4th. The next of my targets was Senna, who was on ancient tyres. This made catching him easy, and I went through as he pitted to take 3rd. He disconnected soon after.

Next on the list was Barwell, who was running a lonely race in 2nd after driving away from S007PS.I was able to pass him, again into turn 1, on lap 37 to take 2nd. I was then able to build a small lead over him, before he pitted 2 laps earlier than me. The undercut wiped out my lead. We then has a small battle after the stops, in which he had chosen options and myself primes.

Eventually I was again able to build a small lead, and was settling for 2nd behind an untouchable madman who had frankly ridiculous pace, being 40 secs ahead. On lap 50, as madman announced his intention to quit a few laps from the end, I hit the hideous kerb on the exit of turn 7. It sent my car flying off the track and handed 2nd back to Barwell. I re-took the place a lap later though, as Barwell ran a touch wide in turn 4. After that the extra life of my tyres really came into effect and I was able to drive away and take my first W2WR victory (apart from the non-championship race in AL3 at Silverstone last year).

I was very happy with my tyre wear, however I still am not at all happy with my overall pace or my starts. Hopefully I can get on top o these issues soon! Also thanks to Barwell and Con for two great battles! Con I hope you're not still having visions of the rear-end of my car!

Awards:

DOTD: madman_281
Nico Hulkenberg Wide Sauber Award: RosstheIcon
Pastor Maldonado going missing in a Williams Award: Will-I-Am_3001
Dick of the day: The Kerb at the exit of turn 7