AL2 From the Cockpit: Australia

The return of AL2 for season 3 has seen a few key changes, such as champion ConnorH1996 leaving for a seat in AL1, the return of practice2012 and the debuts of hudunikibolokov and paulric82. There are also many team changes, to the point that I can't be bothered to go through them all.

The first qualifying session of a new year is always interesting, and this one was no different with debutant paulric82 coming out on top. I suffered a poor session, setting an average lap on prime tyres before the unmanned McLaren of S007PS managed to block me on my option lap, which left me in 3rd place and the filling in a McLaren sandwich.

Qualifying was made irrelevant at the start however, as a collision between Paul and Barwell left the latter leading and the former in 3rd place behind Will-I-Am_3001. A poor start for me put me back in the pack off the line, before a charging CHM1945 hit the back of first justanumber666, then myself, causing both of us to collide with S007PS putting all of us down the order. A move of frustration on S007PS then left me facing the wrong way down in 13th halfway round lap 1.

After this the race was an issue of damage limitation for me, as a combination of disconnections from hudunikibolokov and paulric and a few overtakes saw me slowly move through the field. Meanwhile up front, short_leg in the Williams was behind a fierce battle between Will and barwell for the lead, and took that lead when they stopped. Going longer than anyone in the first stint certainly set him up well for the race, as he made a pitstop less than most to take a surprise victory.

Elsewhere barwell was having issues with backmarkers, and a controversial pair of incidents between him and goodhead01 put him out of contention for victory and allowed me to take 3rd. It was then left to a chance between myself and Will for 2nd place, which Will just about won by the length of a grasshoppers willy. The stewards were so shocked by Will's decision not to be poor, however, that they slapped him with a 10-second corner cutting penalty, dropping him behind me into 3rd. A similar penalty for short_leg meant that the winning margin between him and me was just 2 seconds at the flag.

Awards:

DOTD: short_leg
Kamui Kobaycrashi start of the day: CHM1945
Charles Pic Blocking Backmarker of the day: goodhead01
busiest man of the day: tallboy_rocks