AL2 From the Cockpit: China II

by **RosstheIcon** Sat Jan 04, 2014 10:45 am

AL2 had a shortened Christmas break this year as the Chinese Grand Prix was rescheduled after the shambles earlier in the season, and from the start there were issues as several disconnections caused qualifying to be red-flagged towards the end of the session.

Controversially, a second full session was held, and another tight one it turned out to be. benappleby set the pace throughout the session after con_reece and Will-I-am_3001 elected to run primes and could only manage 4th, after the latter was fastest in the first session. I could only manages 2nd, 0.011s behind Ben's 1.36.099 after forgetting to brake into the hairpin.

At the start I managed to maintain position despite having far too few revs, and was able to take the lead when ben made an error. Will then also got past and a duel began for the lead, similar to the one that gripped that China practice race many months ago.

To begin with I was able to hold a gap over Will, although an argument with the bollard at the last corner cost me that gap, before the longer life of his prime tyres began to give him the advantage. It was at this point that I noticed him complaining about lag on my car, and I looked back to see that he was off. Since there was nothing that I could do, I decided to plough on regardless, and made my first stop from the lead on lap 10.

After that, literally nothing happened before on lap 15, my lag became a disconnection, causing my second retirement of the season. This has left me 5th in the championship and with work to do to get back in the hunt. I can only assume that the rest of the race was as boring as balls for all involved, as Will went on to victory in his first race for Red Bull.

Roll on Germany.

Stat of the Week:

benappleby leads the championship by 17 points, despite not having won a race this season.

Awards:

DOTD: Will-I-Am_3001
B_Senna Award for tremendous lag:RosstheIcon
Lewis Hamilton award for dropping back after being on pole in a Mercedes: benappleby
Unpaid Kimi Raikkonen Bad Mood of the Day: My internet