Moderator's Report
After his maiden win at the Nurburgring a fortnight earlier, it\'s back-to-back wins for John Hammonds, this time around the twisting ribbon of tarmac that is Mosport. After battling with John in the first half of the race, Dave Ranier proved his usual consistent-self to claim a fine 2nd place, despite an unfortunate incident lapping fellow racers mid-race. Andy Livingston rounded off the podium, adding to his trophy cabinet this season.
After an easy moderator\'s job for the last couple of races, this time there were three reported incidents. Time to dust off the moderator\'s cap and assess below...
Server replay time: 0h05m32s
After a better exit out of Clayton corner, Fran is closing in on Bill and dives down the inside on the approach to Quebec corner. Fran manages to get alongside Bill at his turn-point to the corner, but there isn\'t enough space for the two of them and the contact forces Bill off the circuit, causing him to lose several positions while Fran continues unaffected.
Mosport is a very tricky place to overtake as the circuit is full of fast sweepers and only has one heavy braking zone into the Moss corners. While I\'ve mentioned Fran was alongside at his turn-in point; at Bill\'s turn-in point, Fran has yet to achieve 50% overlap. When Fran made his move there was just about a car\'s width, but the pass would have required Bill\'s cooperation to avoid contact.
This is another example of the \"perceived overlap\" dilemma in GPL. The following link provides good information about this: https://www.ukgpl.com/rec_dvr_beh/rec_driver_beh.htm
As a result, the primary blame for this contact has to rest with Fran. Although marginal, the pass was likely to result in contact, without more of an overlap on approach. In similar situations, I\'ve been guilty of this myself in past races. It happens to many of us.
Server replay time: 0h11m47s
Bill & Michael are battling for position as they approach the Moss hairpin. On arrival, they approach a stationary Bastian whose Cooper is facing sideways on the circuit. Both take avoiding action; Michael on the outside, Bill the inside. While recovering for the approach to the second hairpin, Bill, expecting Michael to get caught up in the incident, goes for the inside line. Just as he does that, Michael has recovered from the outside and aims for the same piece of track. As a result, Bill t-bones Michael taking them both off the circuit.
This wasn\'t an overtaking attempt. It was recovering from avoiding action and a misjudgment about how quickly it would take surrounding cars to recover. As Bill was behind Michael, if there is blame, it would be directly towards Bill. Having said this, I do feel penalising Bill is harsh given the circumstances. Both can continue with their races.
Server replay time: 0h19m10s
On the back-straight, Michael takes a cautious approach over the hill, into the Esses. Bastian, behind Michael, was taken by surprise at the differing closing speeds and dives down the inside to try to avoid contact. Unfortunately, the high kerbs pitched his car directly into Michael the two crash into each other.
When comparing to his other laps, Michael was roughly 15-20mph slower on this particular lap before he lifted off the throttle, as he had let a car past on the straight moments before. Bastian typically lifted later than Michael on the approach to the Esses on his laps and didn\'t adjust for the car ahead on this lap.
In Bastian\'s defense, there was a very large gap to Michael and the difference in speed was higher than anticipated. But, more caution could have been exercised and ultimately, it was Bastian who rear-ended Michael.