Belgian GP (Sunday, february 19th, 2012) – Race Report, by Sexy Brigadeiro 
Well, before actually writing about the race itself, some important things must be said.
Today we exceptionally had some crazy server/track bugs and issues. We just don’t know what exactly caused that.
For those who don’t know, we’ve been experiencing some annoying lags on Roadster’s server since Singapore (especially when we move from one session to another, like from the quali to race, for example, or when we tried to restart a race), but in Singapore, we had only 14 drivers for the race and the server seemed to work fine then.
Today was the 1st time (since these lags started to happen) that we had more than 17 drivers online at the same time – in Austria we had 23 and the server worked fine – so we REALLY don’t know what caused all of those issues and all we know is that with more than 17 drivers online, some drivers were getting randomly kicked from time to time. Most of them were able to rejoin and some were not (like Bober and Denis, who kept being kicked at the same second they went back online).
In my case, I got kicked about 5 or 6 times and it was everytime I finished a lap and pressed ‘esc’ to come back to the pits – I got a ‘Runtime error’ (something related to the graphics) and my rFactor crashed to desktop. So, I decided to move the whole rFDynHud folder and got back to the game without my huds (even knowing it would be hard to race without them) and that seemed to work for me – I wasn’t kicked again after doing that – and my graphics were already (since I joined the league in September, 2011) in ‘high’ or ‘medium’ – NONE of them were at ‘maximum’.
Anyway... Still we just don’t know WHAT caused those issues – if it was the server, the track or the graphics level on the driver’s rFactor - and, just for the sake of it, we WON’T use this Spa version again, because it MAY have been something related to that specific version of the track, since we didn’t have those issues in our last races...
It was a shame that 3 drivers who were previously online couldn’t race, but this league’s rules (which ALL of you guys should’ve read already) are clear: we would only cancel the race if half (or more) of the grid was kicked and/or if we could prove it was something wrong with the server, making the race impossible to happen. Since it wasn’t the case, we just decided to keep going with the race.
With that being said... About the race itself...
After all of that mess and headache, everyone was already pretty impatient and we all knew it wasn’t going to be a ‘funny’ race anyway... Still we all wanted to race and the race started with Championship Positions, since most of the drivers couldn’t even qualify, because they kept being kicked and couldn’t stay on the game (my case).
Stig got the pole, since he is the 2nd on Championship and Otti was not online, followed by Arek and Sven. The three of them made a good start. Stig was able to keep the 1st place while Arek and Sven were fighting for 2nd place, but ADI who started in 4th got his Force India between them after the 1st corner Arek was 2nd, followed closely by ADI and Sven.
To the guys being these 4 drivers, things got a little messy at the 1st corner... Alex Hill had a pretty good start and overtook the 2 RBRs. Sexy Brigadeiro was afraid of getting hit on the back by a Lotus and braked a little later and although he tried his best not to hit the cars in front, he slightely bumped Tom McKay, who ended up bumping Grisu, who ended up going wide on the 1st corner, but was able to win the 5th place after fighting with Alex Hill (who was in front of him) at Eau Rouge. And right after that famous ‘chicane’, Giorgos hit Tom McKay, who hit his teammate, Luft_inpektor, who hit ax89 and everyone went to eat some grass – what a mess!... The funniest thing is that Giorgos was able to keep going and the 2 RBRs lost a lot of places – and Luft was one of the strongest candidates to win this race... BläckFöx was also almost hit, but got lucky enough to escape and earned a few positions with that! Goa was actually pretty out of luck... He was at Arnoldinhu’s draft and when he was alongside with him for the overtake, he hit Denis_Belarus and lost his front wing!... BTW, Denis had also just lost his front wing because he hit Tom who was trying to recover from Giorgos strike, so both Goa and Denis just couldn’t avoid their crashes... And behind all of that mess there were Joe McLaggen and Antonio Hreljanovic... Antonio braked a little bit too late and tried to avoid a crash, but... ended up hitting Joe, who, once again, had his whole race fucked up at the first moments/laps of it – damn, mate, Mexico is in a sea of bad luck lately!... at least their best rFactor driver!...
Still on the 1st lap, Stig kept the 1st place and while ADI was following him closely, he ‘gently’ stepped the kerb/grass at the exit of Pouhon and that was enough for him to lose control of his car and while trying to gain control back he lost his position to Sven and Arek, falling from 2nd to 4th place – Sven had just overtook Arek, also on Pouhon, on the outside, due to Arek’s mistake, but still it was a beautiful maneuver by The Boss!
All I know is that after all of that messy 1st lap, the 1st 5 positions were: Stig, Sven, Arek, Grisu and ADI.
At the 2nd lap Antonio Hreljanovic was in 14th place when he just lost connection... You’re also in a sea of bad luck there in Croatia, mate! But you’re always losing your connection anyway! Talk to mom and dad and see if you can get a better one!
And at the 4th lap, while on 11th position, Joe McLaggen lost control of his McLaren at Eau Rouge and kissed the wall a little bit too hard... Jah, as I was saying... how lucky is he, huh?!...
And then the weirdest thing happen... I’ve just watched the replay and I honestly don’t know what to think about it... Yep, I just didn’t understand it at all: Denis_Belarus braked and waited for about 10 seconds... and then he just literally threw his car on Stig’s (who was LEADING the race), while he was about to be lapped... I was like WTF?!?!?!
Stig lost his front wing and had to go to the pits, also losing the lead, obviously, and he came back only in 10th place...
Denis, I REALLY hope you have a pretty damn good explanation for that... Otherwise that could’ve been you kissing the league goodbye... It’s on the FIA hands now...
With that crazy shit Sven got the lead, followed closely by Arek and Alex Hill. Lots of other drivers were fighting for positions behind them and just going up and down all of the time, earning positions by other drivers mistakes, just to lose them again a few corners/laps later by their own mistakes (my case) – LOL! It was SO easy to make mistakes on this version of the track! And, as always, the faster you tried to go, the easier it was for you to make mistakes... ADI knows that pretty well... and I know it too! I spent my ENTIRE race right behind Tom McKay and was a little faster than him, but everytime I was close enough to get his draft and try to overtake, I ended up making some crazy or even just silly mistake, due to how differently (and hardly) the car behaves on someone’s draft... BTW, I could’ve been in front of him and even fighting for the 5th or 4th place if it wasn’t by a mistake I did when I stepped the grass a little bit at the exit of Les Combes and spun... and then got hit by Giorgos, the bowling striker! Ok, ok, it wasn’t his fault and he couldn’t avoid it – and he also lost his front wing when he hit me – but I also couldn’t do anything, since I didn’t have control of my car while I was spinning...
Anyway... pretty crazy race until the pit stops – on this track almost everyone were able to use softs+softs and make only 1 stop (unless you needed a new wing, which a LOT of drivers did...) and after everyone put new tires, the race positions were practically the same until the end, except for a few fights here and there and the positions earned by the other guys who abandoned.
In the front, Arek came back pretty damn fast and was able to fight and finally win Sven’s position (the lead) and then he just opened and opened and maybe we catch up with him on Monza... LOL! Sven also kept the 2nd place until the end and ADI was also finally able to overtake Alex Hill and this was the podium: Arek, Sven and ADI – congrats Arkadiusz Kulak (jah, that’s Arek’s real name) and with that victory, his 2nd one on the championship so far, he was also able to earn Stig’s 2nd place at the Driver’s Championship (and Otti, even without racing, was lucky enough to stay as the season leader - Dildo Power)!!!
BTW, with that victory, Arek also moved his HTR 1 position up, overtaking Stig’s and Ax’s Mercedes, who fell to 5th place (Ferrari and Force India also moved 1 step up each, going from 4th to 3rd & from 5th to 4th, respectively) – so, Arek made 2 overtakes (drivers’ and constructors’ championship) with only 1 ‘maneuver’: his victory – oh, what a move by Mr. Kulak!!!
NEXT RACE: TWO WEEKS FROM NOW - Italian GP, at the classic Monza circuit – March 4th, 2012 – 3pm UK time (hopefuly, no more crazy server/track issues)!!!
...
BELGIUM DRIVERS’ POINTS (PROVISORY – 1st 48 hours):
1 – Arek (HRT) – 25 points
2 – Sven (Ferrari) – 18 points
3 – ADI (Force India) – 15 points
4 – Alex Hill (Williams) – 12 points
5 – Grisu (McLaren) – 10 points
6 – Tom McKay (RBR) – 8 points
7 – SexyBrigadeiro (Force India) – 6 points
8 – Stig (Mercedes) – 4 points
9 – Luft_inspektor (RBR) – 2 points
10 – Jure Pazin (Williams) – 1 point
BELGIUM CONSTRUCTORS’ POINTS (PROVISORY – 1st 48 hours):
1 – HRT – 25 points
2 – Force India – 21 points
3 – Ferrari – 18 points
4 – Williams – 13 points
5 – McLaren – 10 points
6 – RBR – 10 points
7 – Mercedes – 4 points
DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP - After Belgium (PROVISORY – 1st 48 hours):
1 - Otti - 169 points
2 - Arek - 154 points +1
3 - Stig - 152 points -1
4 - Sven - 139 points
5 - ADI - 103 points
6 - Grisu - 80 points
7 - Tom - 76 points
8 - Alex - 67 points +2
9 - Bober - 64 points -1
10 - Luft - 64 points -1
11 - Sexy - 61 points
12 - Joe - 55 points
13 - Soutie - 50 points
14 - Michal - 36 points
15 - pxr5 - 29 points
16 - Black - 25 points
17 - Giorgos - 22 points
18 - Denis - 22 points
19 - Jure - 17 points
20 - Dead - 13 points
21 - ax89 - 7 points
22 - Arnie - 6 points
23 - Sonny - 2 points
24 - Rapide - 1 point
25 - Goa - 0 points
26 - Antonio - 0 points
27 - Dario - 0 points
CONSTRUCTORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP - After Belgium (PROVISORY – 1st 48 hours):
1 - Sauber - 205 points
2 - HRT - 176 points +1
3 - Ferrari - 168 points +1
4 - Force India - 164 points +1
5 - Mercedes - 159 points -3
6 - RBR - 140 points
7 - McLaren - 135 points
8 - STR - 86 points
9 - Williams - 84 points
10 - Virgin - 50 points
11 - Lotus - 31 points
12 - Renault - 15 points
Well, before actually writing about the race itself, some important things must be said.
Today we exceptionally had some crazy server/track bugs and issues. We just don’t know what exactly caused that.
For those who don’t know, we’ve been experiencing some annoying lags on Roadster’s server since Singapore (especially when we move from one session to another, like from the quali to race, for example, or when we tried to restart a race), but in Singapore, we had only 14 drivers for the race and the server seemed to work fine then.
Today was the 1st time (since these lags started to happen) that we had more than 17 drivers online at the same time – in Austria we had 23 and the server worked fine – so we REALLY don’t know what caused all of those issues and all we know is that with more than 17 drivers online, some drivers were getting randomly kicked from time to time. Most of them were able to rejoin and some were not (like Bober and Denis, who kept being kicked at the same second they went back online).
In my case, I got kicked about 5 or 6 times and it was everytime I finished a lap and pressed ‘esc’ to come back to the pits – I got a ‘Runtime error’ (something related to the graphics) and my rFactor crashed to desktop. So, I decided to move the whole rFDynHud folder and got back to the game without my huds (even knowing it would be hard to race without them) and that seemed to work for me – I wasn’t kicked again after doing that – and my graphics were already (since I joined the league in September, 2011) in ‘high’ or ‘medium’ – NONE of them were at ‘maximum’.
Anyway... Still we just don’t know WHAT caused those issues – if it was the server, the track or the graphics level on the driver’s rFactor - and, just for the sake of it, we WON’T use this Spa version again, because it MAY have been something related to that specific version of the track, since we didn’t have those issues in our last races...
It was a shame that 3 drivers who were previously online couldn’t race, but this league’s rules (which ALL of you guys should’ve read already) are clear: we would only cancel the race if half (or more) of the grid was kicked and/or if we could prove it was something wrong with the server, making the race impossible to happen. Since it wasn’t the case, we just decided to keep going with the race.
With that being said... About the race itself...
After all of that mess and headache, everyone was already pretty impatient and we all knew it wasn’t going to be a ‘funny’ race anyway... Still we all wanted to race and the race started with Championship Positions, since most of the drivers couldn’t even qualify, because they kept being kicked and couldn’t stay on the game (my case).
Stig got the pole, since he is the 2nd on Championship and Otti was not online, followed by Arek and Sven. The three of them made a good start. Stig was able to keep the 1st place while Arek and Sven were fighting for 2nd place, but ADI who started in 4th got his Force India between them after the 1st corner Arek was 2nd, followed closely by ADI and Sven.
To the guys being these 4 drivers, things got a little messy at the 1st corner... Alex Hill had a pretty good start and overtook the 2 RBRs. Sexy Brigadeiro was afraid of getting hit on the back by a Lotus and braked a little later and although he tried his best not to hit the cars in front, he slightely bumped Tom McKay, who ended up bumping Grisu, who ended up going wide on the 1st corner, but was able to win the 5th place after fighting with Alex Hill (who was in front of him) at Eau Rouge. And right after that famous ‘chicane’, Giorgos hit Tom McKay, who hit his teammate, Luft_inpektor, who hit ax89 and everyone went to eat some grass – what a mess!... The funniest thing is that Giorgos was able to keep going and the 2 RBRs lost a lot of places – and Luft was one of the strongest candidates to win this race... BläckFöx was also almost hit, but got lucky enough to escape and earned a few positions with that! Goa was actually pretty out of luck... He was at Arnoldinhu’s draft and when he was alongside with him for the overtake, he hit Denis_Belarus and lost his front wing!... BTW, Denis had also just lost his front wing because he hit Tom who was trying to recover from Giorgos strike, so both Goa and Denis just couldn’t avoid their crashes... And behind all of that mess there were Joe McLaggen and Antonio Hreljanovic... Antonio braked a little bit too late and tried to avoid a crash, but... ended up hitting Joe, who, once again, had his whole race fucked up at the first moments/laps of it – damn, mate, Mexico is in a sea of bad luck lately!... at least their best rFactor driver!...
Still on the 1st lap, Stig kept the 1st place and while ADI was following him closely, he ‘gently’ stepped the kerb/grass at the exit of Pouhon and that was enough for him to lose control of his car and while trying to gain control back he lost his position to Sven and Arek, falling from 2nd to 4th place – Sven had just overtook Arek, also on Pouhon, on the outside, due to Arek’s mistake, but still it was a beautiful maneuver by The Boss!
All I know is that after all of that messy 1st lap, the 1st 5 positions were: Stig, Sven, Arek, Grisu and ADI.
At the 2nd lap Antonio Hreljanovic was in 14th place when he just lost connection... You’re also in a sea of bad luck there in Croatia, mate! But you’re always losing your connection anyway! Talk to mom and dad and see if you can get a better one!
And at the 4th lap, while on 11th position, Joe McLaggen lost control of his McLaren at Eau Rouge and kissed the wall a little bit too hard... Jah, as I was saying... how lucky is he, huh?!...
And then the weirdest thing happen... I’ve just watched the replay and I honestly don’t know what to think about it... Yep, I just didn’t understand it at all: Denis_Belarus braked and waited for about 10 seconds... and then he just literally threw his car on Stig’s (who was LEADING the race), while he was about to be lapped... I was like WTF?!?!?!
Stig lost his front wing and had to go to the pits, also losing the lead, obviously, and he came back only in 10th place...Denis, I REALLY hope you have a pretty damn good explanation for that... Otherwise that could’ve been you kissing the league goodbye... It’s on the FIA hands now...
With that crazy shit Sven got the lead, followed closely by Arek and Alex Hill. Lots of other drivers were fighting for positions behind them and just going up and down all of the time, earning positions by other drivers mistakes, just to lose them again a few corners/laps later by their own mistakes (my case) – LOL! It was SO easy to make mistakes on this version of the track! And, as always, the faster you tried to go, the easier it was for you to make mistakes... ADI knows that pretty well... and I know it too! I spent my ENTIRE race right behind Tom McKay and was a little faster than him, but everytime I was close enough to get his draft and try to overtake, I ended up making some crazy or even just silly mistake, due to how differently (and hardly) the car behaves on someone’s draft... BTW, I could’ve been in front of him and even fighting for the 5th or 4th place if it wasn’t by a mistake I did when I stepped the grass a little bit at the exit of Les Combes and spun... and then got hit by Giorgos, the bowling striker! Ok, ok, it wasn’t his fault and he couldn’t avoid it – and he also lost his front wing when he hit me – but I also couldn’t do anything, since I didn’t have control of my car while I was spinning...
Anyway... pretty crazy race until the pit stops – on this track almost everyone were able to use softs+softs and make only 1 stop (unless you needed a new wing, which a LOT of drivers did...) and after everyone put new tires, the race positions were practically the same until the end, except for a few fights here and there and the positions earned by the other guys who abandoned.
In the front, Arek came back pretty damn fast and was able to fight and finally win Sven’s position (the lead) and then he just opened and opened and maybe we catch up with him on Monza... LOL! Sven also kept the 2nd place until the end and ADI was also finally able to overtake Alex Hill and this was the podium: Arek, Sven and ADI – congrats Arkadiusz Kulak (jah, that’s Arek’s real name) and with that victory, his 2nd one on the championship so far, he was also able to earn Stig’s 2nd place at the Driver’s Championship (and Otti, even without racing, was lucky enough to stay as the season leader - Dildo Power)!!!
BTW, with that victory, Arek also moved his HTR 1 position up, overtaking Stig’s and Ax’s Mercedes, who fell to 5th place (Ferrari and Force India also moved 1 step up each, going from 4th to 3rd & from 5th to 4th, respectively) – so, Arek made 2 overtakes (drivers’ and constructors’ championship) with only 1 ‘maneuver’: his victory – oh, what a move by Mr. Kulak!!!
NEXT RACE: TWO WEEKS FROM NOW - Italian GP, at the classic Monza circuit – March 4th, 2012 – 3pm UK time (hopefuly, no more crazy server/track issues)!!!
...
BELGIUM DRIVERS’ POINTS (PROVISORY – 1st 48 hours):
1 – Arek (HRT) – 25 points
2 – Sven (Ferrari) – 18 points
3 – ADI (Force India) – 15 points
4 – Alex Hill (Williams) – 12 points
5 – Grisu (McLaren) – 10 points
6 – Tom McKay (RBR) – 8 points
7 – SexyBrigadeiro (Force India) – 6 points
8 – Stig (Mercedes) – 4 points
9 – Luft_inspektor (RBR) – 2 points
10 – Jure Pazin (Williams) – 1 point
BELGIUM CONSTRUCTORS’ POINTS (PROVISORY – 1st 48 hours):
1 – HRT – 25 points
2 – Force India – 21 points
3 – Ferrari – 18 points
4 – Williams – 13 points
5 – McLaren – 10 points
6 – RBR – 10 points
7 – Mercedes – 4 points
DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP - After Belgium (PROVISORY – 1st 48 hours):
1 - Otti - 169 points
2 - Arek - 154 points +1
3 - Stig - 152 points -1
4 - Sven - 139 points
5 - ADI - 103 points
6 - Grisu - 80 points
7 - Tom - 76 points
8 - Alex - 67 points +2
9 - Bober - 64 points -1
10 - Luft - 64 points -1
11 - Sexy - 61 points
12 - Joe - 55 points
13 - Soutie - 50 points
14 - Michal - 36 points
15 - pxr5 - 29 points
16 - Black - 25 points
17 - Giorgos - 22 points
18 - Denis - 22 points
19 - Jure - 17 points
20 - Dead - 13 points
21 - ax89 - 7 points
22 - Arnie - 6 points
23 - Sonny - 2 points
24 - Rapide - 1 point
25 - Goa - 0 points
26 - Antonio - 0 points
27 - Dario - 0 points
CONSTRUCTORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP - After Belgium (PROVISORY – 1st 48 hours):
1 - Sauber - 205 points
2 - HRT - 176 points +1
3 - Ferrari - 168 points +1
4 - Force India - 164 points +1
5 - Mercedes - 159 points -3
6 - RBR - 140 points
7 - McLaren - 135 points
8 - STR - 86 points
9 - Williams - 84 points
10 - Virgin - 50 points
11 - Lotus - 31 points
12 - Renault - 15 points
Last edited by Sexy Brigadeiro on 20th February 2012, 6:24 pm; edited 3 times in total
