Moderator's Report
Rouen is a great road based circuit that gives us good battles throught the field though it tends to favour the higher powered cars.
Tim drove an almost flawless race to take a Pole to Flag victory with a Fastest Race lap along the way.
That closes the gap at the top of the table but Pete's 2nd place means he keeps his lead, and Rog's underpowered Cooper brought home some points to keep him in with a shout.
I noticed that a few people took Stop n Go penalties here which is good, but some of them were unnecessary which is bad. However, they were nearly all taken incorrectly which is very bad.
There is a clear ruling on where a Stop n Go penalty should be taken so as not to impede other drivers who are using the pit lane at the same time, and that is in the stalls, no more than half a car width from the garages.
https://www.ukgpl.com/index.php/rules/penalties
However, as almost every Stop n Go here was taken incorrectly, and as the pit lane is open and others would not be impeded by a car taking an incorrect pit stop, I have decided to waive all possible penalties for incorrectly taken pit stops, despite warning that I would punish them following the incident at Mexico in Race 1 this season.
https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=7680#event2075
I will still punish those who did not take Stop n Go's when they should have done.
Ross is following Billy who was disappearing on the way down to the hairpin.
"Please note I have submitted my local replay to illustrate the warping. It doesn't appear as bad on the server replay. Whether that means it's my connection, not sure, but thought it best to report this so I can be advised on how to handle these situations in future."
Sadly warp is a factor when racing online in GPL and cannot always be avoided completely. It is particularly evident at the start of races when most cars are on track and close together.
If a car in front of you is warping you should keep a safe distance behind and if possible do not follow directly behind it but to one side, then if the server loses either one you and plots your position incorrectly, it will hopefully have you side by side whereas if you are directly behind the server will think that you have collided.
A good example of the server thinking a warping car was still racing at speed where it had actually slowed for a corner was Billy at Keimola earlier this season.
As this was lap 1 the warp was exaggerated and will tend to lessen as the field spreads so you need to be patient and hope those behind you will be equally patient.
Server replay time: 0h04m15s
Norbert rear ends Graham Poole into Sanson?
It is always the responsibility of the following driver to avoid a collision.
Graham takes a Stop n Go but did not need to.
As it was only Lap 2 neither driver was fully up to racing speed and had braked slightly earlier than normal.
Server replay time: 0h05m40s
Billy spins at the hairpin and rejoins the track as Ross approaches leaving him nowhere to go.
Billy knew Ross was approaching and thought that he would have enough time and space to rejoin before he arrived.
Server replay time: 0h07m00s
MHunt rear ends A Baldwin into Scierie.
Al seems to drift across track a little under braking and is perhaps watching his mirrors rather than watching his line and turn in point but MHunt is still well behind him at this point.
MHunt brakes later than Al and closes under braking but does not have a clear overtaking opportunity nor does he seem to make an overtake attempt.
He loses control and has his wheels locked up as he hits Al from behind.
MHunt takes a Stop n Go but does not need to.
Ross approaches the hairpin but sees no yellow flags to warn him that RogUK is sitting across the track, Ross could go to the right and pass in front of RogUK but it is always difficult to second guess whether a spinning driver will remain still.
Ross appears to aim where he hopes RogUK will move from but RogUK does not move and Ross hits him.
Ross is slowing down for the hairpin and seems to slow down further when he sees Rog but still hits him.
RogUK takes a Stop n Go following this impact but does not need to.
Server replay time: 0h23m20s
Nigel takes a Stop n Go for his earlier SHIFT R which should have been taken sooner (the next time he passed the pit lane).
Server replay time: 0h28m00s
Rog takes a SHIFT R at the hairpin after getting stuck on the polos but does not take a Stop n Go after it.
He claims that he suffered damage following his impact from Ross earlier and his SHIFT R is for that reason, but clearly he is stuck on the tyres and takes a SHIFT R to free himself.
He takes no Stop n Go.
RogUK again takes a SHIFT R at the hairpin after getting stuck on the tyres.
His Stop n Go is taken incorrectly but this is waived as are all others.
Server replay time: 0h36m00s
As Tim enters the straight he sees cars across it but he had seen no yellow flags on his approach.
He sees the incident and does slow down taking avoiding action but just clips Nigels Honda.
Both continue unaffected.
