AL2 From the cockpit: Germany

It was another absolute thriller in AL2 on Thursday as myself and con-reece renewed acquaintances after our duel in Bahrain, although this was more of a long strategic battle than the flat-out combat that took place back then.

Qualifying was massively disappointing for me personally, as I couldn't seem to string a fast lap together on the medium tyres, and missed out on a run on options as I crossed the line a second after the session finished. This left me down in 4th, 0.5 secs away from pole sitter con on the same tyre compound. Benappleby and Barwell74 were each a fraction away from pole in 2nd and 3rd and it was looking like a long race for me. New Ferrari driver Lil_Mista_92 was behind me in 5th while S007PS will have been disappointed to be down in 6th. clearly he was paying too much attention to the 'pit babes'.

Speaking of getting distracted, a similar thing must have affected Benat the start, as he ploughed into the back of con_reece into turn 1, dropping them down the pack. This allowed Barwell to lead from myself and Mista. After just failing to pull off a stunner into turn 11, I was able to bully my way past Barwell into turn 1on lap 4, although there was contact which allowed mista through into 2nd as well. Barwell then had his second piece of bad luck in a lap when he was nudged into the gravel by mista in the Schumacher-S in an incident that I suspect the stewards may want to have a look at. Mista was then involved in a second incident, which was missed by John's race video) as he ran into the back of my car at the veedol chicane, spinning me. As he slowed down to let me back past, S007PS took the lead, but either ran wide through the Coca-Cola curve or sportingly decided to let be back past (answers on a postcard please) and I was able to re-take the lead to end a rather eventful lap. I then started to build a lead.

Meanwhile Con was slicing his way through the field and was soon up to second, a few seconds behind me and beginning to close.

Tyre wear was a huge issue in this race. The predicted strategy for me was a 2-stop, pitting on lap 22. I actually came in on lap 13 as I was struggling with front tyre temperature and crazy wear and con and S007PS followed on the next lap. After the stops, I was able to pull away until I lead by nearly 10 seconds, then something amazing happened. Con must have suddenly realised that he'd left the handbrake on, or found a shortcut, because he found 1.5 secs per lap in the middle of the second stint, something I simply could not match, and wiped out my lead in the space of about 6 laps. On lap 29 wwe swapped positions twice before he made his second stop with the timing screens suggesting that he was just about inside my rectum, a location status many aspire to, but few achieve.

A lap later I took a set options (thinking, wrongly, that he would be on primes) only to see him blast past on his new primes, having ridden the undercut to a substantial lead. I chipped away at this and pitted a lap earlier, using the undercut to re-take the lead comfortably. Then came a dilemma. We were 16 laps from the end on prime tyres which would struggle to go the distance, and as in Canada, to pit or not to pit was the question!

My decision was made on lap 48, when Con passed me for the lead, and I decided to attempt to do what I did to Ben in Canada and pitted for new options on lap 49. Unfortunately, Con saw this and decided to pit on the next lap. For the first time in the race (as Con was on fairly new tyres) the undercut did not give me what I needed to overtake and the status quo was maintained, although the gap was smaller.

The gap stayed small though, and on lap 51 I forced my way through when I braked way too late into the veedol chicane, and Con's avoiding move allowed me through in a manner that pushed boundaries severely. Still the battle raged though, and con kept attacking hard, while I used every trick in the book to defend. Some subtle, some decidedly less than subtle.

At the start of lap 55 it appeared he had had enough and pulled off an absolute snorter around the outside of turn 1 and left me no option but to allow him space. This appeared to be the end of it....

...BUT, on lap 59 we were confronted with the squabbling mista and justanumber, who held us both up (there was contact between myself and mista) but appeared to hold Con up much more. I was unable to convert this opportunity though, and while my desperate attempts to close the gap left me out of fuel in the last corner and opened the gap a touch, Con was able to sprint to a hard-earned victory and to avenge his lost battle with me in Bahrain, while Barwell fought back well to round off the podium. After a promising start S007PS ended up 48 secs behind the winner, which will disappoint him.

But what does this mean for the championship race? Well since the table is yet to be updated (10/01), let's have a look at how the top of the Drivers' standings look at the halfway point...

1. benappleby       101 > 111  +0                                                      
2. con_reece           81 > 106  +1
3. barwell               84 >   99  -1
4. RosstheIcon        68 >   86  +1        
5. Will-I-Am            81 >   81  -1
6. S007PS               65 >   77  +0

Looking at the gap after S007PS, it appears that the title fight is down to these 6.  May the best man win.

Stats of the day:

-I have maintained my record of having finished in the top 2 in every W2WR race I have finished.
- The gap between the top two in qualifying was just 0.009s. This shows just how close the racing is in AL2 this season.

Awards:

DOTD: con_reece (or ConnorH1996, depending on who you believe)
Michael Andretti inauspicious debut of the day: Lil_Mista-92
Narain Karthikeyan difficult backmarkers of the day: daveh213 and Lil_Mista-92
ITV Sport Award for missing the biggest incident of the race: tallboy_rocks
Eddie Irvine Award for having an eye for the ladies: S007PS

Great write up mate but the McLaren we lapped was justanumber666

sorted, cheers! Damn I was under the impression that they were fighting for position, and that that's why they were hard to get past :S

Essential reading yet again Ross, although I think 'ploughed into' is a touch severe (apologies con, I just couldn't get it stopped in time). Con did great to get back through the pack, and if I was a betting man would be my tip for the title, with maybe a cheeky each way bet on Ross and Barwell.

...says the guy who's lead for half a season! Just stick to your tactic of 'turn up and stay connected', Ben!

Another top read Ross & I did let u back into your position (whilst also trying to defend against an advancing Mclaren!!) after the Ferrari pretty much caused a pile up , sorry about the nudge nothing I could really do ...

Awesome read ross keep it up mate love reading these. Your mod whiteside111.

Thanks for the kind words guys, just to follow up on a few of the incidents:

I have looked at S007PS's video of the race, more specifically the incident with Lil_Mista, and it looks as if he just missed his braking point and had nowhere to go, which is easy to do at the start of a 100% race. Also thanks to both of you for letting me back past and don't worry about the nudge, it's hard to avoid a car parked across a chicane!