AL2 From the Cockpit: Canada

by **RosstheIcon** Sat Dec 14, 2013 12:11 am

First of all this week I must pay tribute to the drivers of AL2. I have taken part in 4 races this season and all of them have been absolute crackers, and the racing that I've been involved in has more often than not been cleaner than an OCD surgeons scalpel, yet still tough racing.

I must pick up first on a few stories from Monaco. There are several stewards enquiries ongoing into incidents that occurred, including two against winner barwell74. A penalty for him would have major implications, as it would mean that I would move up to 'winning' the race, and would therefore take the lead in the championship. Despite this though, I genuinely hope that the stewards look kindly on his incidents, as he really had to WIN that race. He drove a blinder.

Moving to this week, it was a depleted field that took to the track for the Canadian Grand Prix, but qualifying still promised a fascinating race, as a battle raged for pole position, which is key on this track.

Unlike last week, when it was raining despite us being promised a 0% chance of rain, this week there was a 100% chance of rain......yet qualifying remained dry. The forecast meant that an early fast lap could have been very important though, and I set the early pace on a 1:13.3. This was swiftly blown away by surprise package benappleby (normally there or there abouts, but rarely blistering), who posted a time of 1:12.8, with barwell close behind. On my second run I made an error, leaving me one chance to improve on what had become 4th place. I decided to ditch the radio for the first time this season, and this seemed to inspire me as I posted a 1:12.454, which was enough to take my 3rd W2WR pole as ben and barwell failed to improve and S007PS and new boy ayrtonhamilton followed close behind. Daveh213 brought up the rear, which was a sign of things to come for him, poor lad.

When the lights went out I finally managed to convert a pole into a lead after turn 1, after my previous 2 poles last year ended in disaster. Myself and ben were then able to drive away as the rest of the field seemed to be held up by ayrtonhamilton in the early stages, after he had a good start to take 3rd (nudging S007PS off in the process, but we'll overlook that, as he probably deserved it).

The first incident occurred when barwell ran into the back of a very slow ayrtonhamilton, who then lost his front wing somehow at the hairpin. This seemed to anger him, as he then failed to brake entering the pits and his ghosted presence went straight through barwell in what appeared to be a blatant ramming manoeuvre. Not a good way to endear yourself to your new league.

Meanwhile ben and I fought up front. He briefly got past me into turn 8 (the third chicane), but I was able to re-pass him using the DRS.

on lap 9 Will_I_Am crashed. Once again, steward tallboy missed the incident though, so I must again speculate. the only way I can see that this happened is that one of the beavers that Canada is famous for must have chewed down one of the maple trees that Canada is famous for. Said maple tree must have then fallen on Will's car, poor lad.

This brought out a safety car, under which the top 3 (myself, ban and barwel) all pitted for new primes. So began a race of 3 different strategies.

As far as overall pace went, myself and ben were very close. I seemed to have the edge on new tyres, but he would close back in as the stint went on. Barwell was close but not quite on the same pace as us, although stayed within arms reach for the entire race.

For the next stint the three of us battled it out, with S007PS joining in for a few laps after the safety car. After a while though, we became strung out, with a couple of seconds between each of us.

Then, strategy began to play out. Barwell pitted on lap 28. Meanwhile ben and I continued to fight as he closed the gap on new tyres. By the time we pitted (ben on lap 40, me on lap 42) the under cut he'd gained had given him the lead. Also, the 2-lap undercut that ben got over me gave him 2nd.....briefly. I used DRS later that lap to retake the position and set off in pursuit of barwell.

Barwell then made a surprise 3rd stop on lap 47, giving me the lead. This gave me a dilemma. Not knowing how quick barwell would be on newer tyres and knowing that ben was likely to mount a challenge at the end of the race, would it be more beneficial to me to pit for new options at the end of the race or continue on the tyres I was on? On lap 57, I bit the bullet and pitted, knowing that Montreal has a very short pit-lane. This dropped me to 3rd but it was immediately obvious that it was the correct decision as I was able to lap 1.5 seconds faster than before. It was quickly becoming obvious that i had done something similar to Lewis Hamilton on this track in 2012 as I passed barwell very quickly and used DRS on ben for the 3rd time in the race on lap 65. From then on it was a relatively simple run to the finish to take my 2nd victory of the season, setting the fastest lap on the way. This meant that this was the first time I had secured the pole,fastest-lap, win hat-trick in W2WR. Ben fended off a late surge from barwell to take a very good second to maintain his championship lead, with S007PS ending up a full minute off the lead.

Interesting Stat of the Day:

daveh213 managed to accumulate an unbelievable 110 seconds worth of penalties over the course of the race without disqualification.

Awards:

DOTD: benappleby
Ross Brawn strategic thinking of the day: RosstheIcon
Lewis Hamilton award for many penalties: daveh213
James Hunt award for encountering a beaver: Will-I-Am_3001
Pastor Maldonado ramming award: ayrtonhamilton