Layout Racing League - Round 7, Rony Sprint 8, Race Summary
The fast-paced roval crafted by layoutter Rony holds Round 7 for Layout Racing League! With the [TC] Gumball 2019 as well as holiday activities kicking off, it was opportunities galore for the drivers who turned up for the race before the mid-season Summer break! [6S] SIMOX claims another fantastic win to leap into the top of the standings!
Qualifying
With traction and braking being key to the fast lap, drivers set out to find the best line possible. It was [MRc] Michal who set the early pace before Teho Ngottini pipped him. Shortly after followed [6S] SIMOX, fresh from his victory the round before, who slowly chipped away the pole time right down into the sub-1 minute times - the only driver to do so!
AA|Kadir made a comeback to the lead, qualifying a respectable 3rd ahead of Michal who was unable to find time. Behind came AS|Swiftz, [LCS-R] Texas and a surprisingly quick GT4tube. AA|Rane made a return to the series, putting his XRT in a lowly 12th with little practice, just ahead of {PROJECT}, who failed to qualify under the 107% minimum time.
Race
10. JereLoco +5L Technical
11. AS|Swiftz +35L Did Not Start
12. [DMs] Drift Monkey +35L Did Not Start
13. {PROJECT} +35L Did Not Start
Fastest Lap : [6S] SIMOX - 1:00.96
Penalties :
JereLoco - DRIVE THROUGH PENALTY - Causing a Collision
Green flag for Round 7!
Side by side into Turn 1!
The flag dropped to the sound of tire squeal as the drivers put the power down off the grid, with Kadir getting an excellent launch to pass Ngottini into the braking zone, with several drivers coming close to contact as the field navigated the first turn. The leaders exited the turn 3 wide, with AA|Kadir getting the best traction to take the lead away from SIMOX as they headed into the Chicane.
Late braking goes wrong for newcomer JereLoco
As the front of the field departed, further to the back, an incident saw front-runner Ngottini get spun around by an out-of-control JereLoco after a misjudgement, with the latter receiving a Drive-Through Penalty for his actions.
JereLoco would later put himself out of the race after attempting to illegally, and impossibly, complete his compulsory pit during his penalty - getting stuck on his pit box due to an LFS glitch, suffering the same fate as SIMOX earlier in the season, forced to retire on Lap 5.
Meanwhile in all of this, GT4tube saw himself lose a spot to the fast-starting [LCS-R] Texas, as he got tangled up in the crash, with Texas now right up with the leading duo, with Kadir and SIMOX tussling it out before a small gap formed.
Kadir leads the field on Lap 3
With SIMOX seemingly unable to match the early pace of Kadir, he kept watch of his tires, weary of the high-demands of the circuit, with [MRc] Michal briefly getting past Texas down into the hairpin before the LCS-R driver retook third position.
Further down the field, GT4Tube held down 5th ahead of AA|Rane in 6th, who found himself elevated from 12th during the first lap calamity. At the back, victim of Lap 1 incident Ngottini took the chance to pit to clear his compulsory stop and to emerge in clear track, with his sights set for an ambitious podium. He followed this up with blistering early pace, threatening the mid-pack!
Weak defense sees a lead change
As the first stint of the race extended, it was obvious that the early pace of Kadir was shortlived, spending his tires too fast, falling back into the clutches of SIMOX who took the pass for the lead on Lap 7, around the outside of Turn 1 in swashbuckling fashion.
Mid-field battles during the pit stops
The race entered a lull period, with most drivers evidently choosing to pit later in the race, choosing to make time on track. Kadir was unable to keep his tires in check, falling back from SIMOX, as Texas slowly caught up. Behind, Michal, GT4Tube and Rane were all on their own piece of track as the field spread out.
Mid way through the race however, the mid-field suddenly spiced up, with Texas making a blunder into Turn 1, gifting 3rd to Michal, barely defending 4th from GT4tube into the final hairpin.
Comedy of errors see [LCS-R] Texas drop behind GT4tube in the mid field battle
A few laps passed before we saw more action, with Michal faintly defending his position from Texas, with the latter braking too late, creaming into the side of the MRc driver, sending both sideways and slowing down massively, with GT4Tube simply taking a wider line to sweep past Texas to elevate himself up to 4th, where he would hold to the end of the race for his best finishing position to date.
With only 3 laps to go, Michal was now clear of GT4tube by a margin, with Texas behind the Cruise racer, unable to close in. Behind them lay the charging Ngottini, who by now was within earshot of a podium once the drivers in front pitted.
Towards the rear, Rane and [WCL] T.Soini were in 7th and 8th, positions which they would hold to the end to finish what was a uneventful event for them. Behind, [F1] Speed'D! ran in 9th, running 2 laps down after a slow pit stop.
The pit stops saw battles near the end of the race
Lap 33 saw GT4Tube blink first, choosing to pit and emerge in a gap to attempt to fend off Ngottini. With this, it all but denied Texas an undercut, of which he should have taken much earlier if he stood a chance of leapfrogging GT4tube and possibly Michal; however, it was not to be, with Texas pitting the lap after along with Michal.
Texas pitted on the penultimate lap, and emerged behind Ngottini, which summed up a bad outing for the LCS-R racer. Ngottini on the other hand, put pressure on GT4Tube to the end, however, he had to settle for 5th, which in itself was a great comeback, considering he was facing the wrong way on Lap 1 in last place - proving once more the importance of a good strategy here in LRL!
In what was a display of prowess and great management, [6S] SIMOX takes yet another victory to vault himself up into the lead of the standings! Kadir finished in 2nd citing bad tires as the cause of his failure to mount a challenge, finishing over 12 seconds behind the winner and only a couple of seconds ahead of 3rd place man, [MRc] Michal.
Driver's Championship as of Round 7
With Pete now behind SIMOX by a hair and Trespasser now on the back foot heading into the the summer break, the racers will surely be reflecting on their season and plotting a strategy to win the next race! Who will be victorious on our return for the final 2 races of LRL Season 1?
Round 8 - Hong Kong E-Prix Circuit, XFG (31 August 2019)
Round 9 - Norisring, TBO (7 September 2019) SEASON FINALE
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Rules & Regulation Update For Season 1
Below stated are the updated or additional ruling by Stewarding officials
Index for Updated Ruling
1 Safety Car Procedure
1.1 Under Safety Car, the entire circuit will be under Yellow. No passing is to take place.
2 Pit Stop Procedures
2.1 During a pit stop, there should not be any driver changes. The driver whom qualifies the car must finish the race.
3 Penalties
3.1 A driver must not undertake any pit stop during serving of a issued Penalty in-race.