Track
23 laps, 3.47 miles (5.58km), 10 lap stints.
Low fuel burn, very high tyre wear.
Tyres
- Super Softs 8-10 (Excess of 4)
- Softs 12-14 (Excess of 16)
- Wet weather 13 to 15.
Critical
- Top Speed
- Medium Speed Corners
- High Speed Corners
Weather
Practice
Oddly for England, there was no sign of rain.
Race
Laps 1 to 3 were clear and 12°, with rain starting from lap 4. The rain increased to saturate the track but began to break around lap 13. The track was dry by lap 17 / lap 18, and there was no further rain.
Weight Stripping And Config
Gomes
- Front Wing: Spec, 150 (80% Reliability)
- Engine*: Good, +60 to 233 (80%)
- Brakes: Good, +90 to 267 (70%)
- Suspension*: Stock, 140 (88%)
- Gearbox: Great, +90 to 298 (70%)
- Rear Wing*: Spec, 150 (80%)
- Effective: 1,238
- Practice was done on softs only.
- Tyres 21.6psi, Camber -2.4°
- Wings 16.0/26.5 (Excellent)
- Suspension 94% (Excellent)
- Gear Ratio 81% (Great)
- 98% Total
- Finished 11th in practice.
- 10% bonus for Softs, 10% bonus for Race Trim.
- We took the 10% bonus for race trim but the risk taker since the weather showed rain, and there would therefore be a need for more pit stops.
Thomas
- Front Wing: Spec, 150 (80% Reliability)
- Engine*: Good, +60 to 234 (80%)
- Brakes: Good, +90 to 285 (70%)
- Suspension*: Good, +60 to 223 (73%)
- Gearbox: Great, +90 to 303 (70%)
- Rear Wing*: Spec, 150 (80%)
- Effective: 1,345
- Practice was done on softs only.
- Tyres 21.6psi, Camber -2.4°
- Wings 15.5/25.5 (Excellent)
- Suspension 88% (Excellent)
- Gear Ratio 69% (Excellent)
- 99% Total
- Finished 12th in practice.
- 10% bonus for Softs, 10% bonus for Race Trim.
- Both of those were taken.
Pit Plan
Formulated “on the fly” given the chane of weather due at lap 4.
Gomes
4: 50% SS and 0.62 laps. Fast strategy. Given fresh Wets and 9 laps of fuel. Engine at 70% but gearbox at only 65%. Obbedio made a mistake on the front jack costing 1.884 seconds.
13: 38% and 0.57 laps. Fast strategy. Given Inters and 6 laps of fuel to do 5 with an expected further pit on lap 18. (A diminishing amount of water on track was expected for that entire time.) Engine 49%, gearbox 51%, brakes 52%, suspension 55%, wings 61%.
17: 67% Inters and 2.33 laps. Fast strategy. He was given a fresh set of Super Softs and 7 laps of fuel to do 6 laps. Engine and gearbox were at 40%, brakes and suspension at 48%, wings around 55%. There was still a very small amount of water on the track but arguably he should have been left out for one more to burn the fuel.
Thomas
5 : 23% SS and 0.49 laps. Given fresh Wets and and 9 laps of fuel. Engine at 70%, gearbox at 69%, brakes at 67%. The others were in the mid to high 70’s.
14: 29% and 0.35 laps. Given 10 laps of fuel to do 9 laps and a fresh set of Softs. There would still be water on the track for a few laps but after that it was going to become sunny and warmer. Engine at 50%, gearbox 54%, brakes 48%, suspension 53%, front wings 68% and rear wings 51%.
Race Report
Target: 10th or above, 400K. (Nippon)
Given that rain was forecast to start from lap 4, Gomes was sent out on Super Softs with 5 laps of fuel to pound it from the outset.
Sara was sent out with 6 laps of fuel and Super Softs. Since smoothness doesn’t matter the intention was to stretch out the time on her first set of tyres.
Both drivers were launched in Attack / High.
Sara was on row 5 (10th) and Gomes was on row 6 (12th). All but a couple of the teams launched on Super Softs, the others on Softs.
Lap 2: Thomas had shot up to 3rd, Gomes to 7th. The cars were pretty evenly split between Overtake and Medium fuel burn with a mixture of driving modes.
Lap 4: Gomes pitted to change tyres. The track looked like it would be saturated by lap 7, so I decided to put him out on Wets despite the fact that 5 and 6 looked like laps best suited to Inters.
Lap 5: 6 cars (including Gomes) had pitted to change to Wets. Thomas called in at 35% tyres and a projected 0.49 laps of fuel. Both drivers were dropped back to Neutral / Medium.
Lap 6: 14 cars had changed to Wets and all of the others were in the pits.
Lap 7: Melo and Iannizzi both picked up drive through penalties. Thomas 1st (1:33.422; out lap) and Gomes 6th (1:26.244, flying). Others all over the place due to pitting for tyre changes.
Lap 9: Engelhart took the lead, doing times of 1:23.808 to Thomas’ (2nd) 1:24.429. Gomes was in 5th at 1:24.366, slightly faster than Marchetta in front and the 4 cars following.
Lap 11: Thomas had dropped to 3rd behind Sabado, and had low tyre temperatures. Gomes was holding 5th but had the same problem. Both were sent to Attack mode.
Lap 13: The rain started to reduce and the track dried marginally. Gomes was called in with 46% and a projected 0.48 laps of fuel.
Lap 14: Sara was called in with wets at 36% and projected fuel 0.29 laps. Gomes set to Push / Medium. About half of the cars were still on wets with the rest pitting for a mixture of Inters, Softs and Super Softs. Thomas was set to Neutral / Medium.
Lap 15: Gomes 1st place, Thomas 6th. Gomes was one of only 6 cars on Inters. The vast majority were on Softs by now. The track was drying out rapidly and would be dry by lap 18.
Lap 17: Gomes was called in at 77% Inters and 2.22 laps of fuel.
Lap 18: Sara (3rd) put to Push / High to warm her tyres and burn her fuel. Gomes (8th) on Neutral / High.
Lap 23: Thomas 3rd, Gomes 8th. Both drivers reporting mechanical issues.
Gomes’ engine 30%, gearbox 29%, brakes and suspension 38%, wings 51 and 42%.
Sara’s engine 33%, gearbox 41%, brakes 38%, suspension 28%, wings 55% and 32%.
Thomas finished 3rd with 28% and 0.58 laps, Gomes 8th with about 35% and 0.46 laps, though he was on overtake for a lot of the last lap.
The winner was Falko (Garuda), Sabado 2nd (Firebird MRT, +7.4 seconds), Thomas 3rd (+10), Stone Jr (Garuda, +11.8), Marchetta (Octane, +20.3), Santa Ana (Vexala, +22.2), Zarate (Kruger, +23.7) and Gomes (+24.2).
Marchetta was demoted 2 places for dodgy parts. That dropped him to 7th but did not change Gomes’ finish.
Rogers also had dodgy parts and dropped from 15th to 17th.
Melo received a drive through penalty.
Aftermath
This represented our first podium position.
Gomes went to 6th and Thomas to 11th in the driver’s championship.
The team retained 5th position.
Best Laps
- Gomes 1:16.895.
- Thomas: 1:16.397.
- Falko (Garuda): 1:15.271.
The Race Video