AL3 :- From the Cockpit - Round 8 - Britain

Before I start, Just want to say, if you haven't, read Ross' Christmas Special, it's fantastic.

Anyway, Silverstone beckoned for the weekend and after horrific connection issues, the one-shot quali began. Now in theory, I would of had 6 straight pole positions but for the one-shot, like at Bahrain, I wanted to be on the prime tyres, and I started at the back of the field next to Richy, which at the time I thought he tried the same thing. Turns out though that, once again, his controller was broken and it didn't take long for him to retire. Honestly, I have 3 controllers and having a spare does come in handy...

So the quali was over and the new kid in town, Clatty123, qualified on Pole 0.7 ahead of my team-mate who lined up 2nd. 3rd was Kla6su and 4th was Jaywhywhy. Myself & Richy formed Row 3.

5 lights went out away, and the 6 cars got away cleanly as they headed towards village. I got a decent start and shot pass Richy into Turn 1 and passed Kla6su as well. Going down the Wellington Straight and Marc nearly had a coming together with Clatty which could of ended the race for 1 of them. Going around Woodcote and Jay managed to run wide onto the gravel trap which could of ended my own race as had I not reacted, my wing would of smashed into tiny pieces. This then promoted me into 3rd and behind Marc, my team-mate. Running wide, he was out of shape for Maggots, Beckets and Chapel and on the Hanger Straight, I got a better driver and pulled along side. Knowing that the Mercedes team had given me the #9 plate, it was showing who was the boss of the team. Marc slammed the brake on and let me pass...I have no idea what is going on here but crashing in Monaco to make me win, the team promoting me up and him letting me pass, makes me suspicious. Ross Brawn quoted after the race saying, "We want the best for our team".."We need to maximise points over our rivals and we'll do anything to do this.."

SO, now with my team-mate in my mirrors, I needed to hunt down Clatty. Due to the team putting -1 fuel in the car at the start (must of got the wrong car..*cough*) I really needed to 'cruise' and managed my fuel by going in lean. For some reason, I was actually gaining onCclatty when I was on the slower tyre and the slowest fuel mix. Maybe it was the lack of experience with 100% fuel, or the tyres could be going towards the cliff. Now, I will be honest, but in the highlights, you can see that I was staying behind him for a couple of laps to try and force him into the mistake. But the kid is good and fair play to him as I don't think he made 1 mistake through the entire race (neither did I, just saying) and I did pass him on the Hanger straight with the aid of DRS. Meanwhile, Richy had retired and was 'stewarding' for the people in the chat box. Now forgive me if I was doing an appalling job for AL2, but for what I could see, that wasn't really stewarding and after the race, I wasn't exactly pleased to say the least. Oh well, there's no going back and I know where my position is and I will not be changing anything. So, I'll leave it at that .

Back to the race now and it's only lap 10 when the options start to degrade and fall towards the cliff. All of the guys pitted at around lap 12-13 where as I carried on till lap 18. This did cost me a lot of time and now that he had his tempo, Clatty clawed the gap back to around 18 seconds. I wasn't too fussed though as this was going to be the winning strategy. Exiting the pits and the gap was around 5 or 6 seconds. As I was on Lean for most of the 1st stint, I had 5 laps of extra fuel to play with in the final option stint. In the next few laps, the battle continued for round 2. By this time, the sun shone at Silverstone as we hit the halfway stage. I battled Clatty until he pitted. I found it odd as Marc was on options and he managed to do more laps than Clatty did on the primes. This just proved that the Mercedes tyre wear is great and Ross has done a great job with the team...#1 Driver...

That was most of the action from my side of the screen. Lap 38 I pitted for the options and went to the end. Used up my 5 laps of fuel and produced the fastest lap of a 1:32.1 which smashed the previous by 1.5 seconds
Towards the end of the race and It was starting to rain. For the final lap it could of been the time to switch over but the number of laps had run out. After winning 3 in a row including the Monaco Grand Prix, I added the British Grand Prix to that collection by taking the chequered flag by around 20 or so seconds. Winning your home GP felt kinda sweet and it was probably my best drive of the season. Clatty came home in 2nd which was a fantastic job considering it was his first 100% race and had he not of done the extra pitstop, he could of challenged me, but he could of fallen off he cliff in that sense. For his 2nd podium of the season, Marc came home in 3rd. A good drive and a well deserved 3rd place. I think Ross Brawn will be delighted with the result... In 4th place was Kal6su who after the race quoted "I had the pace to get 3rd but mistakes cost me, Oh well, at least I finished and got some points on the board".. I think he did Estonia proud 5th place was Jaywhywhy who had quite a quiet race but bagged Mclaren 10 vital points in the bid for the Constructors Championship.

This now puts me at the 'top of the tree' so to speak with a 20 point lead going into the Xmas Break. I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. Hope you get what you want and i'll see you for AL3 in 2014

Chaz

Awards -
DOTD - Clatty123 - Great drive and a well deserved 2nd place

Not bad for a Number 2 driver - Aletdownofstate - Despite Ross Brawn constantly being in his ear, a great podium.. - In all seriousness, good job m8.. bout time an all

Liar of the day - RichytheRacer - Amazing technique.. haha.. Only joking mate, Hope you get those bloody controllers

Column of the week - Rosstheicon - Splendid Christmas Special

Manager of the week - Ross Brawn - He knows what he's doing

Thanks for reading folks, Merry Christmas

Thanks for the award, it means a lot to me. Or does it?

It's a special award

Good read as usual chaz keep it up mate