RaceDepartment Forum Racing Season 20

Alexander Macdonald · Nov 2, 2013

Looks like everyone's finished, except for Gary, naturally.

Aidan Keranen · Nov 3, 2013

MACDONALD SNAPS DROUGHT
ONLINE RACING COMPLETE DOUBLE PODIUM AS COMBACKS REIGN

1st. Alexander Macdonald

2nd. Ben Utzer

3rd. Omer Said

The Hungarian Grand Prix could well have been marketed as the Comeback Cup, as numerous drivers and teams showed that trend. Alexander Macdonald made another championship claim, taking out the race with precision in his Heineken-Honda. His win, remarkably, was the first since the opening Australian Grand Prix, although he did have a pole position in Germany. Behind him, Ben Utzer lead home his teammate Omer Said in a glorious double podium for Online Racing. The 35 points they won were the highest total of any team, dragging them to 9 points from Jordan. It also nearly tripled the total yield of the team from the past three races. Ben Herbert continued his very fine form in the Red Bull for 4th, he is the highest scorer in the past 3 rounds, such that he is very much in contention for a top 5 finish. He was followed by the next comeback king Fred Owen, who has had two strong placings in his past two finishes. Behind Thomas Hackel too drove well, another top 10 finish as he pushes for 10th in the standings, before the first of the favourites came in. Sig Man took 7th, teammate Diaconescu 9th in their McLarens, Old Wolf 8th while Rami Saidy never got the car in a good position, finishing 12th, while James Chant came home in 13th.
Diaconescu's lead was cut to 14, now leading Macdonald. Heineken too cut out 17 points of McLaren's lead, while OR stole 30 from Jordan.
With 181 points still on offer for the drivers, Gary Ludlum still has a mathematical shot at the title, while assuming that they win and pole every race, with Diaconescu in second place, James Chant can win the title from 6th place on countback.
In the contructors there is still 321 points on offer, McLaren have only taken 326 all season. Red Bull only have a maximum of 181 possible, therefore they are out of the running, but theoretically the top 4 teams all have a chance still. McLaren and Heineken look set to be the favourites for the title, but OR and Jordan need big hauls to first catch then pass for the title.

At a glance

Alexander Macdonald wins for the first time since Australia
Florin keeps lead, while Sig loses a position
Online Racing take 3 times as many points than last three races
Honda still run away in engine battle, Renault still close to Ferrari
Herbert is current form man, most consistent in last three races

Results
1st. A. Macdonald (Heineken-Honda)
2nd. B. Utzer (Online Racing-Ferrari)
3rd. O. Said (Online Racing-Ferrari)
4th. B. Herbert (Red Bull Racing-Renault)
5th. F. Owen (Renault)
6th. T. Hackel (Honk-Ferrari)
7th. S. Man (McLaren-Honda)
8th. O. Wolf (Jordan-Honda)
9th. F. Diaconescu (McLaren-Honda)
10th. J. Laad (Renault)
11th. S. Jednak (Ferrari)
12th. R. Saidy (Jordan-Honda)
13th. J. Chant (Heineken-Honda)
14th. S. Poirer (Viper Racing-Dodge)
DNF G. Ludlum (Honk-Ferrari)

Standings

Aidan Keranen · Nov 3, 2013

OFFICIAL RDFIA PRESS CONFERENCE
@Alexander Macdonald A great race today, thoroughly deserved and now you are well and truly back in the game. Your thoughts on today?
@Benutzername Finally, some decent points it would seem?
@Omer Said You haven't gotten more points than Ben since Monaco. Any chance this'll end soon?
@Ben Herbert Do you see yourself as a dark horse (no Ferrari pun intended) to take this championship?

Ben Herbert · Nov 3, 2013

I think that I'm too far behind to challenge for the championship, it has been a great comeback season so far tho. Saying that with 7 races to go,anything could happen.

Alexander Macdonald · Nov 3, 2013

Its great to be back at the top after some frustrating races. I would definetly like to think I'm back in the title fight but apparently Gary has learned how to go super saiyan, so I'll probably just aim for second.

Omer Said · Nov 3, 2013

Aidan Keranen said:
@Omer Said You haven't gotten more points than Ben since Monaco. Any chance this'll end soon?

Well, i accept that Ben is more coherent with the car, but anything might still happen. This race, i was not even close to his pace to be honest. Also as i have no title chances, i have to support him as well. We will see...

Benutzername · Nov 3, 2013

Aidan Keranen said:
OFFICIAL RDFIA PRESS CONFERENCE
@Benutzername Finally, some decent points it would seem?

You know, we were the best team of the mid-season. Then i had my crash in germany, dropped far back. now i am fully recovered and could attack again. I dont know why Omer had a step back, too. But we showed that our team is still competitive. If I can keep my form and Omer finally becomes a bit more consistent, surely he is fast but from time to time he has some bad races, i had a short phase of that, too, we surely will overtake Jordan and if we push even harder after that, we might can catch up Heineken honda and mcLaren. but we also just saw how fast we can fall back.

Aidan Keranen · Nov 5, 2013

And so we're on the road again, this time we're going to stop over in New Delhi, and take on the tricky Buddh International Circuit. Some may remember the sausages from 2011, well don't worry. We're only ordering curry this time.... talking of which, I think I'd better start this race before the worst happens...

GOGOGOGO!!

Sprint Race

This road trip could, rather will, be crucial to any championship aspirations. I don't want to spook Florin, but the 33 points back to Ben Utzer in 5th is one of the smallest we've seen at this point in the season for quite a while, eclipsing the S17 mark by a mere 4 points. To go back to 7th is still close, while 9th is mathematically possible. 8 different winners so far, who will be able to go again, could it be a ninth different winner?

Good Luck racers!
7 races to go