Hristo was not beside me. After the last corner preceding the S/F line, I've turned my head (with TrackIR) and I haven't seen him at my left side also if I heard his engine near (and in fact the replay shows clearly that there was space between us). Since he was beside me several times during the previous laps and after he kicked me out at Acque Minerali, I thought it was not the case to let him take the inside so I just followed the race line thinking that since he has the full control of the situation because he saw me while I didn't see him, he would have managed to stay at a safer distance. Instead if you watch out the replay, he neither braked nor lifted his foot. I'm in front of him so I think to have the right. I can decide where to go and when (if I'm not overlapped and...I was not) and I can do this once (if this happens more than once on the same piece of track, we could think to a blocking attempt but...it was not so). At Acque Minerali there are not so much points where to pass during braking and lesser during acceleration and indeed I think there is only one, that was why I remained so surprised of the strange overtaking attempt from Hristo in a place with inverse slope that bring you to the outside if you make a mistake (and he have lost control of his car there). If I should have made an overtake attempt there, I would have tried at the outside line having enough room, or I could have waited for a mistake, certainly not with a car that is on the race line where only one can pass.
The story with Hristo...about his gentle little pushes on my back, is now old and the discussion are old the same way but...they still are not over. At Brands (PSC season 21) I've got a "very ambitious overtake" (2 places lost) because while I was BESIDE Natan Vix, he closed the turn coming to the inside where I still was.
The question is...Is Hristo a different driver than me ? Has he differents rights ? If it is not so, then the modders were already quite lenient with him !
What I gather from this is you are clueless about racing etiquette and maneuvers, Sergio. I don't have to be completely beside you for you to leave me space. You can't just open the line and then suddenly decide to take it back, after we run on two different lines for the whole previous straight and I'm in your blind spot. The simple fact that I'm not visible in your mirrors goes to show that I'm somewhere on your side and you were very well aware of that fact. If you haven't been, you would have gone back to the ideal line through the final flat out right-hand corner that leads onto the s/f straight. Instead you turned to the right, to give me room, then you turned into the ideal line at the s/f line, unnecessarily, because you could have kept going straight, just like I did when you were beside me 1-2 laps ago. Just because you were slightly ahead does not give you any right to turn anywhere you want, especially when the cars are at such close proximity.
And what am I supposed to do in such a situation where I barely see you on my right side, we're both going flat out, I have the ideal line which also happens to be the inside line for the next corner? Are you saying I should just suddenly decide to lift up randomly, without reason? Why should I expect you to suddenly chop in front of me instead of going straight, which you could do effortlessly? It is obviously your decision to just chop in front which leads to the accident, not my actions. And you also tend to do that a lot when you're being attacked, not just in this situation. I have to take evasive action to avoid hitting you, just because you decide to change line in the last possible moment, even though you have me right next to you, making an attack in the open space you left prior to that. It doesn't work like this, particularly online, with these cars which carry a lot of momentum and have little grip, and with GPL's warp contact reactions. To me that's just dirty driving, taking advantage of the situation to force the other driver to hit you and then blame the other driver later on. If you want to keep driving like this, then enjoy, but I'm not taking part in such low standard racing.
And please don't even bother to discuss my driving of the past, as you need to learn a lot first before you do that, because it's always such judgement on your (and other people) behalf which leads to such completely avoidable incidents, where you think you can do anything when you are slightly in front, that you can just change lines and block and chop the other driver's path. No, you cannot and it will always end up in a collision when you do, because once a driver behind commits to a line to get alongside you, you have no right to swerve anymore. This led to many contacts over the past few seasons with you, with Nathan, with Ronnie, with JR, with Nicky and with some other people. Show me one such situation where the roles were reversed and I moved like that to cause a collision. Also show me one such instant where drivers like Evil, like Art, like Tim, like Joe, like many other, would do what you usually do. You won't find any, because they don't do that. I've raced with them wheel to wheel, very closely, lap after lap, sometimes for a full race distance, without an issue. How is that I can race perfectly fine with all of them, but not you? Think on that before you jump to conclusions and accuse me of things that are a consequence of your own actions.
Not to be devils advocate (well maybe I am) but could that not then go to the opposite extreme whereby someone just has to plonk their car to the side (out of your mirrors) and you are thereby impelled to concede / take an outside and slower less favorable line? It's a difficult one and I guess 'amount of overlap' was the obvious way to decide when the rules were written. There might be a better way...
Not if it's a flat out piece of road and you can keep the outside line anyway, and especially when you've followed the other driver from the previous corner all the way and have had the chance to judge the difference in speed, the change in position, the sound of his car and so on. Especially when you first decide to give room, to keep a certain line, then take a huge risk by suddenly deciding enough is enough and move into the path of the other car, without being forced to, without even defending a position by doing so. This is what happened here.
As for it happening at a corner which closes in, with a braking zone, it is again a very risky thing to first open the door then close it. Why? Because if you want to block the inside line, just position yourself there to begin with, before the braking zone. Once you start braking and someone launches on your inside, even if you're still in front at turn in point, you are taking a big risk by turning into the ideal line by relying blindly on the other driver not having any overlap with you. You should all know well how it's impossible to do anything once you are braking on the limit, once you commit to a line. Once a driver in front turns in on you, there is nothing you can do but watch the collision unfold. That's why you have even in modern F1 the defensive driving rule where if a driver wants to defend, they have to position themselves in advance, not change direction in the last moment. And with the cars we drive, it's even more imperative that we do it that way, because we can't change speed or direction as quickly as modern F1 cars.
When I'm being attacked, if I want to defend properly, I will position myself on the inside prior to a corner and just keep that line. That way it's all predictable for the other driver, then can try go on the outside. If I instead keep the outside line and I see someone attack on the inside, I will never turn in into the ideal line unless I'm 100% sure I'm in front. Otherwise I'll just yield. To me that's respectful driving and it prevents unnecessary incidents. You have to be able to accept when you're being passed and when you lose a position. Some people in this league are unable to do that and become desperate in the manner they defend, which is why they always end up seemingly victims of incidents, but those are incidents which they create by their own desperate defensive driving, putting drivers behind in positions where it's impossible to avoid contact.
