The Return of My Column! AL2 From the Cockpit: Malaysia

Firstly, I must apologise for not writing columns for the back end of AL3 last season. This was due to a few reasons; the main ones being that I was getting very bitter about not taking part in the races and running out of funny things to say about races that I didn't take part in. It is only fair then that I extend my congratulations to Will-I-Am_3001for winning that championship.

I can only assume that the first race of the year was a dull affair as I was not in it, although controversial circumstances arose surrounding the retirement late in the race of Practice2012. I have heard that the FIA have ruled that he will not get points despite him retiring within the last 10% of the race distance. In my opinion this is rubbish. In real life if there were 10 cars left in the race and the last one was 30 seconds behind the others, why wouldn't he drive into the garage and get a point? The fact is that he didn't 'destroy his vehicle' or get in anyone's way (as far as I know) while retiring, therefore I see no reason for him to be punished. I think that if he wants to give up his chance of getting more points then that's up to him.

Anyway, moving to this weeks race...

I don't know what happened for most of qualifying. After getting back from cricket at 8:20, having held up the race (sorry!), I spent the first 8 minutes of the session in the shower. When I came back I thought I had time for 2 laps, one on each type of tyre. Unfortunately I made an error on my first lap, on primes, and didn't get round in time to start a lap on options. This left me 8th on the grid. I don't think though, that I had the pace for pole, although I may have got in the top 3.

A bit of rain made the start of the race very interesting. After my best start ever on W2WR I managed to actually maintain my position for once into turn 1! Then, after two drivers ahead collided and went off on the run up to turn 4, I was then battling Greenall for 5th throughout the first 2 sectors. Coming up to turn 9 I was alongside him, but got my braking point completely wrong and slammed into Will. This put him down a few places and left me in 10th, 15 seconds behind.

Luckily, my wet pace seemed decent early on, as I started to make up ground. I was able to pass D-Dastardly (awesome name btw) and was very much part of the midfield bunch as people had to make the choice between a new set of wets and holding off for the rain to stop. I managed to make my tyres last until lap 16, when I felt confident that the quickest way would be to go straight to inters. as it happens, I was a couple of laps early and lost about 1.5 seconds a lap on them for that time. However, most others seemed to leave their chance a few laps too late, meaning I gained time and was up in 4th after everyone changed to inters, fighting S007PS for 3rd.

This success made me think that a similar tactic would work when it stopped raining altogether, and I made a pitstop only about half a lap after the rain stopped. This was a catastrophically bad decision, and left me back in 7th. I was able to pass a couple more cars, though, including an overtake I am quite proud of on S007PS, where he left me a cars width plus about 8mm between him and the pit wall, which I took. This all left in in 5th and catching daveh and barwell rapidly.

By lap 40, both daveh and Barwell had pitted for new tyres, leaving my up in 3rd. This did mean though, that they were catching me very quickly as I pondered when the best time to pit would be, convinced that they had blinked too early. I made my move on lap 42 but came out behind a train of cars, some of whom hadn't yet pitted. I was able to clear a couple quite quickly, though, on new primes and was about to enter battle with Will, who made a great recovery to finish 4th, when I lost all connection to the internet. I was devastated as I felt a podium was on the cards, although B-Senna was way out of reach.

Overall I was very happy with my race after lap 1, and my pace isn't quite as awful as I feared. There is still much to find though, and I could still be smoother to help the tyres.

Race Awards:

DOTD: B-Senna
Innocent Victim of the day: Will-I-Am_3001
Narain Karthikeyan Award for Approaching turn 9 like a cucumber: RosstheIcon
Mansell and Senna Award for an unbelievably tight battle down the pit-straight: S007PS and RosstheIcon

Atleast you've won the Narain award lol good read Ross.

Cheers mate. I may of won the Championship, but you and Dean were the 2 to beat last season.

Another good read.

To be a man to beat I would've had to race! Cheers though!

Great post ross love it mate

Good read Ross & yes u did pull a 'Vettel' on me   glad u could trust my driving to attempt such a move! ...  it wasnt the largest of gaps LOL

Thought we both did well considering we battled for most of the race and never touched, despite the fact I've never driven against you before! In the future people will write about our battle as the benchmark for hard, fair racing and forget Mansell and Senna in '91! There was at least a 3 inch gap between those amateurs!