Formula Renault - Snetterton RACE Predictions

Paul Rayner · 25 Jul 2002, 16:37 (Ref:342565)

This weekend the Formula Renault UK Championship is at Snetterton for the first double-header race meeting of the year. Which means that the prediction competition is slightly different.

There are two races - so you can choose a different top five for each, or the same one for both.

There are also two pole position times - each driver's fastest time in the single 30-minute qualifying session decides their starting position for race 1, and second fastest decides starting position for race 2 - so you can predict two pole times.

The tie-break for this week is how many will be within a second in qualifying for race 1.

The top five in testing were:
1) Jamie Green 1:05.706
2) Lewis Hamilton +0.294
3) Ryan Sharp +0.329
4) Patrick Long +0.354
5) Stefan Soderberg +0.511

Usual scoring applies, (2 for the right driver in the right place, 1 for the wrong place in the top five, plus a bonus point for getting the pole time right to the nearest tenth), there's just twice as many points to be scored!

pb btcc · 25 Jul 2002, 19:45 (Ref:342752)

1.Watts
2.Green
3.Hamilton
4.Long
5.sharp

pole time: 1.05.000

top 18 within a second

GM Man · 25 Jul 2002, 22:32 (Ref:342902)

1. Watts
2. Green
3. Sharp
4. Bell
5. Hamilton

Pole: 1.05.950

Top 16 within a second.
Same top 5 for both races.

**bella** · 25 Jul 2002, 23:42 (Ref:342971)

1. sharp
2. watts
3. hamilton
4. long
5. bell

top 12 within a second, pole time 1.06.1

kbudden · 25 Jul 2002, 23:43 (Ref:342974)

Race 1

1. Green
2. Watts
3. Bell
4. Hamilton
5. Long

Race 2

1. Watts
2. Green
3. Hamilton
4. Lloyd
5. Rossiter

Pole 1.05.700

Top 15 within a second

Paul Rayner · 26 Jul 2002, 14:17 (Ref:343418)

Race 1:
1) Watts
2) Green
3) Hamilton
4) Davison
5) Sharp

Pole time: 1:06.103

Race 2:

1) Green
2) Hamilton
3) Sharp
4) Watts
5) Davison

Pole time: 1:06.210

13 within a second.

Remember, guys, there are TWO POLE TIMES that you can guess! (If you only predict one, I'll take the same answer for both).

If Croft had been a double-header, Hamilton would have taken pole for race 2, so I reckon he could take a pole at Snetterton.

Jonny Apex · 26 Jul 2002, 15:26 (Ref:343463)

Race 1
1. Green
2. Hamilton
3. Watts
4. Sharp
5. Lloyd

Pole time: 1m05.780s

Race 2
1. Green
2. Hamilton
3. Sharp
4. Lloyd
5. Watts

Pole time: 1m05.850s

I also reckon Green will set fastest laps in both to give himself a maximum 68 points for the weekend.

I reckon we could add a bonus point for whoever guesses correctly who comes out of the weekend lying second in the championship.

kbudden · 26 Jul 2002, 19:35 (Ref:343598)

Can't we make it a point for who's going to be leading the championship - that way we'd all get at least one point!

Mr Jinxx · 28 Jul 2002, 23:43 (Ref:344876)

It just gets boring doesn't it. Race 1 right at the end - Green and Garcia, the Fortec cars, squabble a little at the end of the race, which allows Alex Lloyd to catch up to the back of them, and pull off a move which was the talk of the paddock afterwards, driving around the outside of Green round the Bomb Hole and Corum. Then Green, who is running more wing, just drives right past him on the straight, in plenty of time before the corner. So much midrange grunt.

It's not slipstreaming. Ask a FRenault driver about slipstreaming. You get a tow and move out of the tow, which takes you forward a meter or so, then you stop moving forward any quicker than the other guy, but you're on the inside so you make the next corner. When Alex watched Green drive past him mid-straight, he held the inside line, but watched the yellow and white car just drive right by ... Alex said he was tempted to undo his seatbelts and get out cos he thought he'd stopped.

The interesting bit was watching the Fortec cars really not performing fabulously well round the corners compared to the Motaworld cars, whose chassis looked pretty well sorted on race day, but then the Fortec cars just drive away mid straight. Makes them difficult to beat.

I suppose I shouldn't really post whinges like this! But every now and then, even to someone like me who is interested, involved, but has no great knowledge of the business, it gets irritating to see these things.

But the weather was great, incidents aplenty, who's complaining!

I thought Alex drove really well in both races, despite the finishing positions (7th and 11th) looking ****. He had a smashed nose cone in the second race - which was why he was slow for a couple of laps after the first safety car until he mastered how to change technique for massive understeer. After that his lap times were competitive, and maybe he should look at this technique to add to his armoury for certain corners! His natural style is very late on the brakes, barrel in, early on the power, but he can lose out on mid corner speed. With a smashed nose cone, he had huge understeer - couldn't take Corum flat - so he had to change style to generate front end grip and sacrifice exit speed. Every cloud may have a teensy silver lining, who knows. He came back from 21st to 11th in the second race with a hatfull of great moves again.

Anyway, it's late, I'm still really hot and sticky, and you don't want to know all this rubbish, all this stream of consciousness nonsense. I should get a long cool beer and go to bed.

**bella** · 28 Jul 2002, 23:53 (Ref:344881)

on a slightly pathetic note, i got a picture of alex in the assembly area today (yesterday now, argh). nice cheekbones. and that visor is so cool...

anyway. the weather was horrific, i was suffering from a vile mixture of chronic hangover, dehydration, and sunstroke on sunday.

also have picture of alex locked up going into the esses on thursday. definitely a men from the boys bit round there.

Mr Jinxx · 29 Jul 2002, 00:07 (Ref:344887)

oh bella you poor baby

Why are you still up at this time then !! And why didn#t you say hello to me in the assembly area! And are you a photographer ( a real one I mean, not a wannabe one like me)?

Mr Jinxx · 29 Jul 2002, 00:09 (Ref:344889)

p.s. he's always locked up going into the esses - you can always overtake into there, inside or outside. Great bit of track. Where's my beer??

kbudden · 29 Jul 2002, 07:42 (Ref:345043)

Bella - you're not the only one to suffer from sunstroke yesterday - at one point my whole vision went blurry - thought it was Paul's stella at first!! - scary stuff - time to get a better hat methinks if this weather continues!

Good to see Alex making great progress through the field after the safety car yesterday and good to see some real action throughout the field, which makes a change to some recent FR races which have seemed to be in danger of becoming F3 processions.

Just to show I'm not partisan, well done also to Patrick Long - what a 21st birthday present - Jamie Green - at last breaking the curse of 2nd place - Luciano Garcia - his best result of the season so far - and James Rossiter who drove a storming 2nd race to finish in 6th place.

Paul Rayner · 29 Jul 2002, 09:27 (Ref:345110)

Well, the first double header meeting of the year ended with the following results:

Race 1:
1) Long
2) Hamilton
3) Watts
4) Davison
5) Garcia

Pole: 1:06.423

Race 2:
1) Green
2) Long
3) Davison
4) Watts
5) Turkington

Pole: 1:06.596

To say it was a double-header, the scores were surprisingly low. Nobody was right on the pole time, it seems that the heat on Saturday slowed the cars down more than any of us expected, and nobody guessed that there would be 20 within a second of pole in qualifying, although pb btcc was closest.

The scores are:

Paul Rayner 9
Jonny Apex 7
pb btcc 6
bella/kbudden 5
GM Man 4

Jonny Apex · 29 Jul 2002, 12:35 (Ref:345301)

Green up to second in the championship. And he didn't score in the first two races.

Davison also seems to have really mastered this formulae and is now consistently knocking on the door of the winners.

Knockhill is going to be one fun place to be in a fortnight. I for one cannot wait to see how some of this lot attack the place: Green, Hamilton, Davison and Lloyd at through Duffus and over the chicane are going to be just awesome.

Mr Jinxx · 29 Jul 2002, 13:57 (Ref:345374)

I'm going to miss Knockhill, as I'm on holiday, but Knockhill seems a bit like the Spanish circuit Guadix where the teams all tested last winter, and where Alex was ballistic - suits a banzai driving style. So I think Knockhill will suit Lloyd and Hamilton particularly (although he wasnt quick at Brands, surprisingly) and of course the Fortec cars, but that goes without saying !! Keep this site up to date for Knockhill please, and I'll keep logging in from Sicily.

**bella** · 29 Jul 2002, 14:00 (Ref:345377)

poser

Mr Jinxx · 29 Jul 2002, 14:06 (Ref:345383)

Ha!! Poser, moi? You haven't seen me slobbing about the pits then !! Tell you what, I'd rather be at Knockhill than on a cheapie holiday to some sun-baked Mafia-ridden hellhole which is sweltering in a heatwave. Swap?

**bella** · 29 Jul 2002, 14:24 (Ref:345397)

beats one of the armpits of europe, i suppose.... but there's no racing cars, is there? fast cars, but no racing...

kbudden · 29 Jul 2002, 19:28 (Ref:345647)

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr Jinxx
some sun-baked Mafia-ridden hellhole which is sweltering in a heatwave.

Wasn't that Snetterton this weekend!! - most of the security guards would have fitted in well in the Godfather!

I won't be at Knockhill either - I should be in Florida again.......(even bigger poser....;-) ) - shame it's on business....

But yes Mr Jinxx you're quite right - Knockhill is very like Guadix - just minus the sunshine and cheap booze! - so Alex should do well - my money would be on James Rossiter doing pretty well there as well.

Mr Jinxx · 29 Jul 2002, 19:54 (Ref:345674)

Florida is serious posing !! I thought you'd only just come back from Florida ! I comfort mysself with the thought that it's likely to be even stickier and more humid than it is in Manchester at the moment

**bella** · 29 Jul 2002, 20:13 (Ref:345693)

yeah, but in proper hot countries there's usually some sort of cool wind so you don't notice it....

Mr Jinxx · 29 Jul 2002, 20:21 (Ref:345700)

proper??? Anyone here live in a hot country? Is it a "proper" one? Like the Sahara for example? Got a cool breeze Ahab? No??? Then its not a proper country, just give me your camel and b*gger off sonny. :P

Mr Jinxx · 29 Jul 2002, 20:22 (Ref:345702)

I meant

Mr Jinxx · 29 Jul 2002, 20:23 (Ref:345706)

it wasn't a proper P, you see

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