Formula FPL Australian GP Report:
Well what a venue to start off the season, the glorious Albert Park circuit in the heart of Melbourne. The Aussie fans are out in force supporting all the drivers for the new season. The girls have been wheeled out for the new season too, sponsored by Qantas:
Qualifying had some controversy, with some drivers complaining that the fuel they were given did not meet normal FFPL standards and theyw ere unable to set up properly for the start of the race weekend.
After all the distractions however, after Martin Brundle has had a 5 second chat with the Aussie Prime Minister and Eddie Jordan has shown off his latest horrific shirt, the cars are settled on the grid and the red lights come on one by one, and then... it's GO GO GO in Melbourne!
As the cars speed towards the first corner it appears that none of the front runners from qualifying get away particularly well, which bunches the field up and every car is in a battle for position into the first corner. TRSS makes a late braking move up the inside with Surprised dashing down the outside of the front two, and both go through past Beerfuelledman into the first corner, with TRSS taking an early lead, but only just.
Following them most of the cars make it through the first corner OK, except for a very unfortunate CanaryYellow whose car gets half way down the straight before a huge plume of blue smoke pours from the back of his car and he is forced to pull off into a run off at the end of the pit lane. His race is over before it has even begun! Not a good start for the defending champion, and the fans in yellow in the grandstand have their heads in their hands.
In the middle of the field Discogod has got away well, climbing from 11th up to 7th, as has Abumies who benefitted from some of his rivals being blinded by CanaryYellow's oil smoke and going from 23rd on the grid all the way up to 10th! Falling the other way is the front row holder Whatever, who got caught out in the first two corners by a succession of overtakes on either side and has already dropped down to 9th.
The cars settle into a more sedate in-line running style, but Surprised is staying within a second of TRSS ready for the DRS devices to be enabled on lap 2. Sure enough when they are turned on Surprised is all over the gearbox of TRSS, pushing him hard and testing the possibility of an overtake on several different corners. As they head down through the fast back section towards turn 13 Surprised looks to make his move and takes up position on the inside....
But TRSS moves across forcing Surprised nearly onto the grass. In the confusion they both miss the braking point for turn 13, both opting to play safe and keep their cars fairly straight while they scrub off speed. They both end up driving through the shallow gravel trap, being passed by several cars and ending up way down the field, Surprised in 18th and TRSS in 16th, with Richt separating them.
This brings Beerfuelledman back to the lead of the race, but it doesn't last long as Sohei Tigers passes him on the entrance to the final chicane, pulling off a daring move down the outside into the first part of the double corner to take the inside on the second and come out in the lead. There is slight contact between the two cars but no real damage, just a couple of small bits of carbon fibre knocked off onto the track.
In the meantime Sir john Grimes has pulled in for a 5th lap pit stop, switching from the hard tyres he started the race on onto soft tyres. An interesting strategy....
Further down the field a real battle is developing between Ironfist and Pink Elephantz, with Ironfist looking to overtake the driver who had taunted him as being a perpetual loser in a media interview after qualifying. Ironfist gets his revenge, passing Pink Elephantz cleanly in turn 10 and getting a much better run into the high speed section of the track.
As the first round of pit stops passes most of the drivers come in to replace their hard tyres from the start of the race with soft ones, however as the laps pass it is worth noting that Abumies, Digsby and Discogod seem to be being kinder to their tyres than most and are still maintaining good pace on their original tyres. As a result these three now lead the race, with Sohei Tigers and Beerfuelledman several seconds behind them. Behind them is Sir john Grimes, who seems to have benefitted from his early stop and Calvin1979.
At the back of the field is Pink Elephantz, who may now be regretting the comments he made after qualifying.
And even more so now! Going for an overtake on Brightwater he loses control of his car, spinning sideways and crashing heavily into him. When the two get out of their cars Brightwater is not happy and can be seen remonstrating with Pink Elephantz quite violently. The two take separate buggies back to the paddock.
And now we're losing cars left right and centre. First blahblah calmly drives into the pits and parks up in his garage. Team radio indicated that he had a gearbox issue and couldn't continue. Just one lap later Surprised is trying to limp his car back to the pits at 10mph, something is obviously wrong here. He doesn't make it and is forced to pull onto the grass and walk the rest of the way home.
Roga signals the start of he next pit stop phase, coming in 4 laps before the 2/3 distance. It's an amazing pit stop by his mechanics, changing all 4 tyres in just 2.3 seconds! no other driver follows him for 3 laps, it seems they are trying to retain as much freshness in their final sets of soft tyres for the end as possible. Discogod finally stops, how did he make those tyres last that long? Abumies too makes his first stop of the race at this point, going onto soft tyres.
As the field finds its places again after the pit stops it's Sir John Grimes in the lead, followed by Discogod and Roga, whose early 2nd stop seems to have worked in his favour. behind them are Digsby, Sohei Tigers and Abumies with pole-sitter beerfuelledman down in 7th.
Discogod is really pushing Sir John Grimes in the final laps, and with 6 laps to go he takes the lead! He feints to go up the inside into turn 14, but then veers to the outside, driving very bravely to take him and hold the inside line into 15. The crowd (or the section of it wearing Discogod's patented "Pimp my FPL Ride" merchandise) go wild!
And that's the way it finishes, Discogod claims the first chequered flag of the season after a storming drive!
Results and championship standings in full have been edited into the first few posts of this thread.
- It's to drive me to the podium 
