By Tygernoot:

"A bad race with satisfying results. That's how I would summarize this race.

Being an admin and always warning people to be careful in the first corner, and then causing problems yourself is pretty shameful. And that's exactly what happened.

In T1 I braked too late, locked up my tyres and there was nothing I could do to avoid hitting gunsezer and I almost made JuanFran spin. Luckily I didn't damage them, but myself I had a yellow front.

My cockup allowed Ric and Caner to pass, and I was stuck in 5th position behind the latter for a while. I was unable to pass and lost about 1 second per lap to the rest of the front runners. As I had to brake a bit for Caner who slided in T1, tictac was able to pass as well. But once he hit Caner off I was able to overtake him quite easily in a nice move. He was kind enough not to put up a huge fight.

Then I tried to make up some time, but instead I made another mistake. Locutus had already overtaken tictac and started attacking me. In lap 14 I had to take the inside line to defend my position and again (like at the start) I braked too late. I did some nice car control there and kept it under control but going wide meant Locutus went past.

My car was a bit damaged from the accident at the start and it took the team 15 seconds to repair the damage at the first stop. I really needed to repair it as the car was horrible through slow corners with very little grip. JuanFran was on a 3-stop strategy again, and if it wasn't for the mistakes I would have been ahead. Instead I followed him after his second stop, but he made a mistake as well and spun into the gravel trap. This allowed me to take 3rd and I kept this position throughout the rest of the race.

In the end not a beautiful race by me with too many mistakes and a very bad start. But I couldn't have done any better than 3rd anyway, with gunsezer and especially Locutus a lot quicker than me. Most importantly I finished ahead of JuanFran which is crucial to prevent him from extending his lead. LRT will be scoring some good points here, so I think we can be happy :)".

By Tygernoot:

By Marvin42:

"AMA race

Sitting in my car towards the back of the grid I notice to my horror that I can't see the start lights !!  I decide to simply wait until I see cars start to move and fortunately I manage to get away safely but Krzysztof and Roger171 get past me and Kamilo pulls alongside as we approach T1. Up ahead I see a massive shunt with a Ferrari heading skywards. I brake early and receive a slight tap from Kamilo as he brakes to avoid the crash. Kamilo passes me as we dodge through the mayhem but I get better drive out of T1 and pass him and Roger171 as we head for T2. Kamilo then puts me under pressure at T3 and tries for the inside at T4. He cannot make the move stick and I steadily pull away from him as I set off in pursuit of Ianstuart, Gingt and Arti. I cannot catch them and at the end of L1 I am receiving close attention from Josimario Carvalho. After a few corners, Josi has passed me and I have an uneventful couple of laps as I circulate in P11.

As I exit T1 on L5, I see Ianstuart recovering from a spin so I follow Ian closely and stay with him for a couple of laps. By L8 we have a four-car train with Arti, Flyer23, Ianstuart then me but I cannot get close enough to Ian to try a pass. By L10 they are pulling away from me and I continue in P11 until the start of L13 when I pass Flyer23 who is recovering from a spin at the exit of T1. WooooHoooo … P10 for Marv !! As I start L14 I move up to P9 because Ianstuart is making his pitstop. As I exit T1, West enters the track from  the pitlane and I follow him whilst Flyer23 follows me. Starting L15 I notice I am now in P8 since Gingt is in the pits. At the end of L15 it's pit-stop time for me and when I re-join the track I am in P11. I catch an occasional glimpse of Ianstuart in the distance but he is just too fast for me. I am pleased to note that I have moved up to P10 as L17 starts … Kamilo is pitting. A similar occurrence at the start of L18: I move into P9 as  Krzysztof makes his stop. I steadily reel off the laps with no-one in view ahead and no-one in my mirrors until the start of the last lap when I notice Soyer in the pits. This means I am now in P8 and this continues until the end of the race … yippee !!

  P8 is a very satisfying result, particularly after the Monaco fiasco where I wrecked my car on the Armco near the swimming pool on L23."

By A_C_Muller:

"This Panda was quite optimistic for Qual in the top 17, though this was not the end result.
The start of the race was clean though I had to back out of it as I was totaly surrounded by fellow team mates.
I managed to squeeze in between the two cars infront of me, but fearing that all three of us would end up with broken cars...
I opted to fall back and possibly take advantage of someone going wide with cold brakes - this was not the case.
The race went on lap after lap with a good fight with a fellow Panda especialy in the last three turns.
A fellow Panda passed me from behind when I accelerated out from a turn a little too slowly.
My only hope was to makeup for it in the pits and with luck it worked out to my favour.
I clawed my way 1/3 up from where I had started, perhaps I should be happy with this result...
We now move onto Silverstone, which I must say is not one of the immediate favourites for this Panda."

By Tygernoot:

By Arti:

By KostasCB1:

"I make a good start but pretty soon I have to let Pinto pass, to avoid crashing.
Crashing could not be avoided. 3 laps in, my tires are cold and I slide at the last corner losing my wing.
I immediately enter the pits, where I get fuel added for the second stint as well. The tank is now full and my car is very slow.
On lap 22 I hit a stray rear wing that someone left on the track and I get a tire puncture. Again into the pits, where again they fill up my tank for 56 laps straight. However on lap 58, my rear tires give way and I have to pit once again to change them. This is the lap where Pinto finally totaled his car and i was left alone for the rest of the race. 20 laps all by myself in a slow car.. I thought I would just drive 20 slow laps and finish, but no.. I was 1 lap short of fuel. So I pit again in lap 77 to get fuel for the final lap. Boring race in heat 2, but too many funny and nice looking crashes, especially by Okan Kukner who did the best race and the most spectacular highlight of my video! "

By Tygernoot:

"My Monaco track record isn't great. Most of the times my qualifying  went well, but the race results were terrible with my best ever finish a mediocre 6th position in last year's F1 race with a lot of mistakes. I was aiming at doing better this year, but starting 10th on the grid  the outlooks weren't great. I kept my position at the start and was driving behind Danny3L and  Locutus. They were fighting a lot and I kept a safe distance. That was mostly due to me being unable to keep up with their pace, but I was able to follow. I gained a position when gunsezer spun, but after a  few laps he came up behind me. After a little mistake I decided to let him past as he was a lot quicker and I didn't want to risk a possible crash by keeping him behind me. Locutus on the other hand, who was still fighting Danny, had different thoughts and continued to close  the door on gunsezer. It was exciting to watch, again from a safe distance although at times we were driving very close behind each other. Lap 18 gunsezer finally passed Locutus, but they switched positions  again a few laps later. In lap 24 gunsezer gave Locutus a little push in front of Casino. He waited for Locutus (who managed not to damage his car in the spin) and I tried to take advantage by overtaking them  both. But in the small streets of Monaco this isn't that easy and I wasn't able to overtake anyone as I was blocked by a waiting gunsezer and a spinning Locutus :) Lap 26 I went into the pits. It's surprisingly difficult to compute and adjust your fuel strategy while concentrating on racing in Monaco.  I lost some time as I went a bit slower through the corners, and lost about 10 seconds in the pits as I had obtained some small damage in my first stint that needed some repairs. The rest of the race wasn't very exciting as I was racing alone most of the time. Lap 39 Okan came up behind me and I was lapped already. That was quite a painful moment as I was pushing really hard and we  were only half way through the race. At my second stop I again had some damage but decided not to repair it as it only cost me time the first stop and I didn't feel any significant change. Due to all the crashes of the other drivers I finished in 4th position. It's my best finish in Monaco so far, but I'm a little bit  disappointed I couldn't do better. I only made two small mistakes  gently touching the walls and I pushed very hard the entire race. Perhaps I need to start practising a bit more (also physically as I 
was quite exhausted after the race ;)). Still, I'm in 4th position in  the championship and LRT is in the lead, so can't complain too much :)
Looking forward to Istanbul which is a track I like very much."

By Avni_Tumay:

By Flyer23:

By Snakey_UK:

"After very tight qually i could only manage p7 on the grid.
lap1 i had a reasonable start and got through safely in p5 but on the entry of turn3 i was pushed from the rear by a going wide zwer23 which then caused ianstuart unovoidedly to also tap me at the rear and put me into sand and grass run off area causing me to to drop to p11 straight away :(.
Slightly annoyed i continued on my way as i was coming upto turn 9 e luiz ran wide and i moved to p10 then going into the final chicane gingt and zwer23 had a coming to gether and i manged to squeeze through in one peice in p9 while flyer23 tried to take advantage of situation but failed to do so as he and gingt also had a comign together at the chicane.
Lap2 flyer overtakes gingt and quickly persues me a few tenths behind at this point i realise i have slight damage on my right rear quarter and the rearend grip feels really funny and i start to move my brake bias forward to compensate for the instability,going down to turn 10 flyer23 trys to sneak down the inside but was too late on the brakes and over shoots the exit no contact though as i saw him coming :).
lap3 with flyer still in hot pursuit im still in p9 coming going into turn 5 braking zone flyer has a look on the inside but seems to real;ise its a no go and narrowly avoids contact but ends up dragging his car on the inside kerb and gingt overtakes him,giving me a little breathing space and i continue on my way.
lap5 still in p9 and catchign zwer23 up he runs wide on turn 3 pushing him to the grass and i take p8.
lap6 running into turn5 braking area zwer23 brakes and late and hit me in the rear spinning me round and onto the grass and sand :( dropping me back to p11 ****! i now have rear wing damage so i move brake bias forward again as car feels ok but in braking zone is very nervous.
i continue back on my way albiet slower than usual but appear to catching the guys in front of me again.
lap 11 zwer23 runs wide at turn 5 allowing to goto p10 again
lap12 ianstuart pits moving me upto p9
lap 15 west pits and i move to p8 right behind a battling gingt and js
lap 17 marius pits and move to p7 i run wide at turn3 asking for more grip than i actually had but lose no place,marcuss andgingt pits at the end of the lap and i move to p5
lap18 everyone else infront of me pits and goto p1 ,briefly.
lap 20 i take my pitstop but am delayed 20 seconds for damage repairs and emerge at p7 and get my head down.
lap 28 gingt makes a mistake on the entry to turn 7 and i take p6
lap 29 west rues his pit engineers and he has to pit for fuel i move to p5 with rinker only 4.5 seconds behind with only 4 laps to go i dont have enough pace or time to fight for his position even though im a few tenths quicker i decide to not risk it and settle for p5 seeing as a few previous races i have dnf`ed by taking risks.
A very interesting race anyway for me and finished in one peice despite mine and other drivers errors and congrats to the new boy marius for a good win.
Goodluck at monaco guys!"

By Tygernoot:

By SSingh:

"Absolute action packed race, how on earth do I summarise it up! Qualified outside the top ten, but was very confident going into the race, and challenging for a top 5 finish. However, there's a thing called being too aggressive on the opening lap - theres also another thing called being too cautious on the opening lap which I was, so I do take some responsability to recieving contact at the start.This upset the cars handling for the first stint and I was living in understeer city - popularion = ME!. Was pushing hard still, moving through the field, when it seems like zoneur and tictac had some sort of coming together - all I know was there was A LOT of debris in the middle of the difficult left hander, so we were all driving through there at pedestrian speed.
Caught up to to a three way battle with Fausto,Locutus, and ricardoferreira. Had a few looks at taking ricardo, but couldn't find a way past. In those early stages, I felt I had the pace to get by them, but couldn't find an opening. Decided to alter my strategy to put me into clean air, though playing around with the fuel numbers while in the braking areas was a stupid thing to do, and in a way ruined my race - I went off track big time twice on my inlap while trying to adjust my fuel levels for the stop, which destroyed my chance of challenging for a podium and put me off the gearboxes of the leaders. As I also had alltered my strategy, my pitcrew weren't ready everytime I entered the pits, which caused a delay of several seconds on each of my stops (I should have mapped a button for request pit I know!)
Got some clear air, but my pace was inconsistant as I had overfuelled. Was quite leery and ended up with Tyger hot on my tail for the duration of this stint. Had the pace to keep him at bay, though wasn't putting in the laptimes and was driving quite tense cos I knew I had ruined my first stint. After my second pitstop, I was day dreaming and forgot to take off the pitlimiter, which allowed sennador and Tyger to sweep past me, till I woke up and went straight on the attack. Forced my way past Tyger on the final corner, but made mistakes trying to catch sennador, which meant I had my mirrors full of Dutch courage! I done my best to keep him behind, including some questionable moves I admit :P But he eventually got past me, which was a good thing as I drove much better then and coasted up to the rear of him again for some side-by side action. I knew I was stopping later than him so didn't risk too much. Ended up powersliding off the track to give him a few second gap, which was followed by my having a 360 spin in frustration shortly afterwords.
Came out from my final stop just behind my team mate sennador and close to Tyger (really regretting those 4 seconds I lost in the pits every time with the pit crew not being ready) Put pressure on sennador for a few laps and eventually he spun in the final corner - the clever cat put it into reverse gear at the LAST possible moment, so we marginaly missed taking eachother out!!! Couldn't make up a place and couldn't lose a place so just went into a daydream for last few laps, before I spun in the last corner, and sennador drove right past me again!!!! Was a titantic fight from then, and I pushed him really hard, forcing the both of us to unlap ourselves from JuanFran in the process to ensure the race didn't end that one lap early. Was in touching distance into the last lap, but got a little distracted with someone talking and ended making a mess and finishing with p9. Insane race, enjoyed it thoroughly, though very disappointed in myself for the lack of concentration I showed, was doing 32 flat when fighting for position, then when there was no battle was daydreaming into 34s. Got a lot to improve on for Round 5 in Spain, but a lot to be happy with, our teams first podium of the season, and all 3 of us finished in the top 10 earning valueable points for our campaign."

By Tygernoot:

"I had a great start moving up from 10th on the grid to 7th position after T1. Ricardo was behind me and a bit quicker so I let him past after a few laps. Lap 6 disaster struck as after a huge crash between zoneur and tictac01 there was debris everywhere on the track. I slowed down but still hit two parts which caused a flat tyre. I struggled back to the pits and was 25 seconds behind the rest.
I drove as fast as I could to make up for lost time and gained about 1 or 2 seconds a lap on the driver in front. As I had some more fuel on board than the rest I could go a few laps longer. I came into the pits for my first (planned) stop lap 24.
I managed to pass S Singh who was on a 3-stop strategy when he came out of the pits a few laps later. I was ahead in the braking zone for T1 but he threw his car down the inside and nearly rammed me off by braking way too late for the corner. If I hadn't waited steering in we both would have been out of the race. Then I was following Avni for several laps and he spun at one point. I thought I needed to go off track to avoid him, but he quickly put his car in reverse to get out of the way for me. So I steered back onto the track but lost some time as I had slowed down which allowed Sennador to get ahead. After the following straight S Singh tried to pass me in a pretty risky move where we collided a bit and he came out ahead. After that I was stuck behind him for many laps as I was unable to pass him due to his lower wing settings and so I lost valuable time to Sennador who was making a break for it :). At one point S Singh made a mistake after the back straight and went off track. I wanted to pass him rather easily using the inside corner but had to brake and back off as he blocked me by putting his car right in front of me while going at a much lower speed. It was a dangerous move and I was waving my car angrily on the following straight. I really wasn't happy about it as I should have been ahead but now I was still losing time. In the end I was able to get ahead by going around the outside in T1 and we continued to have some battles. Every straight S Singh could catch up with his lower wing, so I had to swerve a bit to avoid him using my slipstream all the time.
Lap 41 I made my final stop. In these final stages of the race Walter was ahead of me and I was determined to overtake him. I was only 2 seconds behind but after a small mistake accelerating out of a corner and nearly hitting the wall I needed to gain 5 seconds in about 12 laps. I pushed as hard as I could and came closer and closer. In the meantime I was lapped by JuanFran, but after some laps I saw him slowing down again. I unlapped myself on the straight, but in T2 JuanFran with dead brakes braked way too late. He came flying through the inside at high speed. In the replay he even went through me and it was a miracle we didn't crash and didn't even have any damage. In the end I managed to pass Walter as he made a mistake in T2 in one of the final laps. He spun right in front of me and almost on the racing line. I just managed to squeeze myself through the inside of the
corner as there was nowhere else to go.

Quite an eventful race with many close calls and an unfortunate flat tyre which ruined my chances of scoring better points. 6th position was really the best I could do considering the circumstances. The car felt great though (thanks to Danny for the setup) and allowed me to push hard all race. The start of the 2009 season isn't going as great as I'd hoped: DNF in Aussi, engine blow in China and a flat tyre in Bahrain. But I enjoy the racing a lot, so I'm definitely looking forward to Spain :)"

By A_C_Muller:

"This Panda was optimistic regarding another fifth place finish in the Land of the Panda!
I braked a little too early for turn one, fearing I'd hit a car or cars from behind.
Early on in the race I nudged someone lightly from behind, so to that person I say...Sorry!
One time I got pinched between two cars and my car popped straight up in the air.
This happened to me in practice, I lost plenty of time & distance and it got me angry.
My race was going to schedule, pitted on my planned lap...but I took off the rev limiter a hair too soon.
AHH! A drive through penalty! I think it was at the end of the first turn where I spun sideways once.
I had a bunch of good battles with many different drivers.
I saw other drivers and fellow Pandas spinning out infront of me while passing the odd damaged car.
Perhaps I should be happy with a 9th place finish, coming from a 14th place qual of 20 racers?
This Panda now looks forward to a track with fewer long left-right tight turns!"

By Avni Tumay:

By Avni_Tumay:

By Okan Kükner:

By Marvin42:

As a newcomer to F1, I was very pleased to qualify in P6 and was quite nervous as I sat on the grid watching the red lights come on. RACE START and I use launch control in order to avoid an embarrassing spin off the line. SUCCESS . I find myself in P4 going into T1 but this is short-lived when JS passes me along the start/finish straight as we commence L2. I settle down into a steady rhythm and on L3 I pass an unfortunate kamilo62 who is touring back to the pits. This puts me in P5 and when NMansell has a spin on L4 I am suddenly in P4. I like this F1 business. Half-way around L5 I run wide and NMansell re-passes me as I head back towards the track. A few seconds later Rinker also passes me and so in the space of two corners I have gone from P4 to P6. I manage to stay with Rinker until  L7 when I apply too much throttle on a corner exit and spin into a wall. I lose the front wing and have suspension damage. Now I'm less keen on F1. I slowly crawl back to the pits for repairs and I am lapped as I sit waiting. Eventually the repairs are complete and I get moving again but I am now in P10. Even worse … the suspension damage has resulted in my steering wheel being at approx. 20 degrees from horizontal just to keep going straight ahead. I decide that it's worth trying to continue and fortunately the car doesn't feel too bad; it's just a shame that there's still so many laps until the end of the race. I circulate at about 5s per lap slower than my previous pace and am not surprised when I get blue flagged to let Nmansell and Rinker past on L9. I try to get my head down and be consistent … my laptimes stabilise at around 1:32 and nothing much happens until L17 when I pass JS who is slowly heading back to the pits. The next time I see another car is on L19 when I get a blue flag for Snakey_UK. He zips past me on the start/finish straight and Flyer23 also goes by later in the same lap. I settle into a steady rhythm again and notice that I am in P6. I decide that this must be due to retirements since I certainly had not passed anyone for position. On L23 I pass NMansell as he heads back onto the track and then on L24 I pass Snakey as he circulates slowly. My car starts to feel like it is losing grip on L25 but I decide to carry on since there must only be a couple of laps remaining. This is a mistake … I get a puncture on the front left during L26 which means another pit-stop. Again I am lapped as I sit waiting and I re-join the track just behind Snakey. I try to keep up with him but he quickly pulls away. At the end of my 27^th lap I am surprised to find the race over and even more surprised to be in P7. Yes, I do like this F1 business after all. Congrats to all finishers; I enjoyed this experience and look forward to Malaysia.

By Rinker:

By Bip5454:

Qualifying- Didn't put much effort in as I knew I would be starting mid-pack regardless. For the race this put me in heat two which was nice because I was at the front and it gave me a clear track. The start was clean and it was pretty much an uneventful race from there. Anvi had a 10 second gap on me until the second pit when I got caught speeding. I thought it was a stop go so I came in and stopped but it ended up being a drive through so I came back in again! I ended up losing over 40 seconds. Hopefully a road course next week will get more people to finish as there was not much on track action on my side. PS also looking to join a team in the next few races, I need a little help with my setup work, but also can contribute to one as well.

By A_C_Muller: