Round 18: Australia - Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit (17Aug17 @ 9pm EDT)

[AaronWebb85]

Pre-Race Interview:
1) Normally this is the first race of the season, how does it feel racing it here near the end?
2) Kevin Magnussen started his career at McLaren strong at Albert Park.  How do you rate this driver now after a few seasons?
3) F1 2017 season will be starting in a few weeks and organizing has began.  What is one aspect that you think PRL can do better in?
Constructive criticism please and no arguements!

Race Recap
This week in Albert Park we saw something we see most weeks, a tire strategy race. Our two championship contenders both decided to qualify on the harder, soft tires, keeping a one stop in play. Melvin Guererro (melg222) once again showed his outstanding qualification pace, by still putting in a pole winning time. Amazingly, only 1 thousandth of a second behind was Nick Delp (nickthequick) on super soft tires, with Edwin Jackon (MysticJoker323) in third on his soft tires. Rounding out the top 3 was Pearce Jackson (El_Majacko) and Ric Migneault (Lance Stroll) both on super soft tires.
At the start of the race, Nick got a good getaway on his softer tires and got alongside Melvin into turn 1. Melvin was able to hold him off having the inside line on the exit of the chicane and due to Nick fighting for the position on the outside, Edwin was able to take advantage of a better exit and pass for second.
Our championship contenders pulled a slight gap on Nick through the first lap, but Edwin was not letting Melvin get away at all, pressuring him the whole time. As they started the second lap, Melvin was maybe watching his mirrors to closely as he ran deep into turn 1, getting into the grass allowing not only Edwin past, but also Nick.
Things would stay that way up front until lap four. With Edwin starting to get a gap, Melvin was able to make the move on Nick regaining 2nd position, with Ric following past Nick into 3rd position. Nick would get that position back a couple laps later though, just before both him and Ric would pull into the pits for soft tires, going for a 2 stop strategy. With them in the pits, Connor Stanek (McSendit) who also started on the soft tires and was trying for the 1 stop moved into 3rd position.
Lap 12 we saw both Edwin and Melvin dive in for their only stop of the day, taking on medium tires. Nick was able to just gain the lead as both cars emerged from the pits, but Edwin wasted no time, getting the position back before the lap was over. Melvin would overtake Nick the following lap setting up a two car battle to the finish with both Nick and Ric, just behind needing to stop once more.
Lap 16 we saw Ric make a move on the outside at turn 3 for third position as the front 2 car continued to drive away in a class of their own. Ric and Nick would exchange the position several more times before the end of the race.
As the lap wound down though we saw the drivers that were able to make the 1 stop strategy work win the day. Edwin was able to build a 3 second gap to Melvin . Connor would take the final step of the podium with a 14 second gap to 4th. Nick held off Ric in what was an exciting battle to watch all race with them finishing 4th and 5th.
With the win, Edwin moves his points lead in the drivers standings to 19. Giving him some comfort heading into the final round at Monaco. As we know anything can happen with the barriers so close, but even with a win from Melvin, Edwin only needs to finish 6th or better to claim his record 3rd championship.
Top 10 Finishing Order:
1st - Edwin Garcia (MysticJoker323) - 6th win of the season and 36th of his PRL Career!
2nd - Melvin Guererro (melg222)  - 11th podium of the season 
3rd - Connor Stanek (McSendit) - 2nd podium in only 4 starts
4th - Nick Delp (nickthequick) - 15th points finish of season
5th - Ric Migneault (Lance Stroll) - 2nd points finish and career best finish
6th - Pearce Jackson (El_Majacko) - 15th points finish of season
7th - Kyle Spencer (KDawgHonda777) - 4th points finish and best career finish
8th - Kevin Garcia (PsyQo_Suii) - 1st points finish and career best finish
9th - Dylan Zimmerman (dszman) - 10 points finish of season
10th - Dayton Cooper (Coopersonic) - 5th points finish of season
Fastest Lap - Aaron Webb (AaronWebb85)
 
Here is the Broadcast of the race from with commentary from GameofJobes and Hootius!
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/167839276
 
Tune in for the final race of the season at 9pm next Thursday night! See who will be crowned champion of season 8!

 

[nickthequick]

pre-race interview is up!!!

 

[Ghostface]

1) Normally this is the first race of the season, how does it feel racing it here near the end? It's weird, I'd rather it be at the beginning to get it over with. It's not one of my favorites.
2) Kevin Magnussen started his career at McLaren strong at Albert Park.  How do you rate this driver now after a few seasons? Meh
3) F1 2017 season will be starting in a few weeks and organizing has began.  What is one aspect that you think PRL can do better in? If possible, we need a penalty system for over-aggressive drivers. That would probably require everyone record their races for review.

 

[El_Majacko]

1) Normally this is the first race of the season, how does it feel racing it here near the end?
It's very weird. Brings us back to the Adelaide finale days.
2) Kevin Magnussen started his career at McLaren strong at Albert Park. How do you rate this driver now after a few seasons?
I used to rate him quite highly, but recently he's been second rate compared to Grosjean, so I'd say he's bottom tier.
3) F1 2017 season will be starting in a few weeks and organizing has began. What is one aspect that you think PRL can do better in?
No comment.

 

[AaronWebb85]

1) Normally this is the first race of the season, how does it feel racing it here near the end?
Still just strange. I do enjoy the track, though I am not always the fastest here, and prone to mistakes. Just looking to finish off this season, as my mind is already so fixed on the new game.

2) Kevin Magnussen started his career at McLaren strong at Albert Park.  How do you rate this driver now after a few seasons?
I think he is in the lower half for sure. Grosjean is quite the driver and I think that does make Mags look a little worse. 

3) F1 2017 season will be starting in a few weeks and organizing has began.  What is one aspect that you think PRL can do better in?
I'm interested to see what people say here. 
For me personally I am excited about starting fresh on 2017 by switching to the wheel and *gulp* going without assists. I am sure I will be very slow at first, but hoping to learn quickly as from what we are hearing, no assists will be faster in the new game!

 

[El_Majacko]

Q: 4th
Was surprised to be so close to pole having not turned a single lap at the track in 4 months.

R: 6th
A word to describe my race would be 'underwhelming'.

As I mentioned, I didn't do any practice at all and it showed. It sucks that university had to come first. I had an assignment due an hour into the race so I obviously had to submit it before qualifying. I was up all night doing it, so with sleepy eyes I attempted to put in a competitive drive.

I ran side by side with a young Canadian upstart, but lost out and dropped back to 6th when McSendit came through. I wanted to pit on lap 7, but my new team-mate entered the pits a lap down right in front of me. That all but ruined my chances of moving above 6th and in fact put me at risk against the two cars behind. By the end of the race I had to catch and overtake kdawg. Once ahead though, he wanted the position back and my tyres weren't in the best place so I had to go defensive on the last lap. I held 6th for 8 points which may be crucial in the constructors championship, which may be the only consolation for the travesty of a season I've had.

I'm out of the driver's championship battle now, but have no regrets as most of the points lost can be attributed to other driver's errors or connectivity issues. If the title was decided on who wanted it most, it would clearly be mine, as I never rage quit, unlike the rest of the top 4. If either mebbe or Alonso loses by the points they lost by rage quitting I hope they learn their lessons (Alonso in Japan, mebbe in Canada and China?). Never give up.

 

[HSVDT_15]

Q: 11th

No practice at all and losing the drive for this game with 2017 next week

R: DNF

Had an alright start before contact with Ditch at the start of sector 3 put me into the wall with a lost wing. Pitted and made my way back to 12th before contact with cooper broke my wing again. I made it to my next scheduled stop but was too fast and got a PLP. Served that and found myself lapped by the top 5. An error in sector 3 put me in the wall with damage everywhere and I found the fence flicking back around, ending my day.

Didn't really help that I've been feeling ill for the last 14 hours or so, but I gave it my best shot. See you guys next week to send off this game! Congrats to the winners.

 

[porq_chopz]

Q:18
R:17
This is hands down my worst track. I can not seem to get it figured out for the life of me and it showed for this race.

[youtube]kwXdQCR8yJE[/youtube]

 

[Lance Stroll]

Qualify: P5
I did not know for sure if I was racing Melbourne before 7 pm Thursday night but I did practice earlier this week with Mebbe and I was about a second and a half slower then him so I was not expecting much from this race. Qualifying in P5 was a great surprise and I was more then happy starting in the third row of the grid.
Race P5
I had so much fun battling all race long with NickDahy. Knowing that I won't get pushed out of the track in every turn make it so much fun battling with you guys. I really appreciate the clean driving in this league. 
On the first stint I did not want to pit on the same lap as Nick but by the line he took on turn 15, I was sure that he was going for another lap so even if my tire were good for another lap I decided to pit on lap 6 but he took a long turn and king of cut turn 16 to get into the pit lane so he stays in front of me for beginning the second stint. (A 3 seconds pit stop from my pit crew who is suppose to be the fastest pit crew was not very impressive...) I pushed a bit too much on the second stint and I had a puncture on the front left in turn 13 so I lost several seconds when limping my way home to the pit lane. I still manage to get in front of Nick after his pit stop but I was on soft when he was on Super soft so it did not took very long before he got in the back on my Williams. I just let him through and even without battling, I finished the race with 80% tire wear. I am very happy of my unexpected result. Thank you Nick for your clean driving.
Congratulation to ForzaAlonso, Mebbe01 and McSendit.

 

[nickthequick]

Had a great battle with Lance so thank you for the fun and the clean racing.  I had a couple battles with Forza and Mystic but really they were running a separate race of their own as I screwed up the tire selection this week.  I think everyone had stepped there clean racing up a notch as the last few weeks have been awesome!
[youtube]QgSCozDU0co[/youtube]

 

[Ghostface]

^^ You had battles with Forza AND Mystic? He really was in a league of his own then. LOL

 

[nickthequick]

^^ You had battles with Forza AND Mystic? He really was in a league of his own then. LOL

HAHAH WHOOPS MEBBE

 

[El_Majacko]

[youtube]szEWm7QzEBY[/youtube]

 

[AaronWebb85]

Race Recap added to first post.

 

[nickthequick]

Pretty cool that the championship will not be officially decided until the last race, and it is Monaco so anything can happen!