"How is the rain?" Fatih asked as he looked towards the garage exit while putting on his balaclava, followed by his helt.
"The track condition is the sa as the end of Race 2," Jas answered while looking at the tablet in his hand that was being live-updated with information from spotters positioned around the track. Due to the limited information teams normally get, those who wanted more for their specific plans would usually send either a teammate or pay soone to act as a spotter in important sections of the track.
But it was the first ti this many were deployed by Team Arden, putting them in all places that either had a blind entry, a stream of water crossing the track, or where the corner exit was blind, to provide them with as much live information as fast as possible so that their drivers could react.
"Thanks," Fatih said once he was done strapping his helt, raising his hand to dap Jas.
"See you on the monitors," Jas said as he dapped him back.
"See you in my ears," Fatih responded before getting into his car as the chanics imdiately started strapping him in with the seatbelts as tight as possible.
"See you on top of the podium," Lisa said once she was done strapping him in, tapping the top of his helt and getting away from the car.
{Radio check!} Jas’s voice was heard in his earphones.
{Loud and clear,} he answered, establishing that comms were working as intended.
{Thirty seconds.}
Fatih’s focus then returned to Lisa, who was standing outside of his garage with her hand raised, indicating that he was not yet cleared to go out. That was all he focused on until her palm turned from a stop motion to a thumbs-up, which he imdiately responded to by driving out of the garage and into the pit lane, taking his place in the long line of cars. Ten seconds later, the pit exit was finally opened, and drivers started streaming out onto the track in sequence to first sort themselves out, get on the grid, and wait for the start of the formation lap.
........
"The final round of the British F4 is now one formation lap away from getting started. Without further ado, the drivers start their formation lap to do a final system check and warm up their tires and brakes, which is important for the start of any race but even more so now that there is active rain and the track is under complete wet conditions," Justin started his comntary, feeling emotional as this was going to be his last ti comntating on this championship for this season.
.........
Fatih, being last on the grid, had to wait until all the cars in front of him drove off before he could move. He stretched that wait to the limit, staying still for as long as he could without attracting a penalty, and only then did he start moving, with quite an empty gap in front of him.
Although he was moving, his left foot was still on the brakes, holding it at about 15% brake pressure to both warm the brakes to their optimal operating temperature and to use the radiated heat from them to warm up the tires. In wet conditions, the way to generate heat in the tires during the formation lap is very limited.
Although he could weave left and right, which he did, the aggressiveness with which he could do it without spinning was very limited, leaving only radiated heat as the second-best option. This continued for the entirety of the formation lap, as removing the load on the brakes would imdiately allow water in and cool them down again.
Thanks to him pacing himself, by the ti he entered the start-finish straight, everyone else was already in their positions with their rear lights flashing rapidly, waiting for him.
......
"Fatih Yıldırım gives a few burnouts to clear the water from his tires and allow for maximum contact as he finally enters his grid position more than thirty seconds after Johnathan Hoggard in pole position did, giving him a warm-tire advantage over the rest. But that is offset by him being thirteenth and last on the grid. AND WE HAVE THE GREEN FLAG WAVED AS THE DICAL CAR GETS INTO POSITION! IT HAS CO DOWN TO THE FINAL RACE, AND FOR THE LAST TI THIS SEASON, IT’S LIGHTS ON AND LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY WE GO...!"
.........
Fatih’s eyes were fully focused on the start-finish lights, to the point that he felt everything else get swept away by his brain. Even the raindrops covering his visor seed to disappear as he revved and kept the revs in the optimal range.
The mont the lights went out, he instantly reacted by releasing the clutch and giving just enough power to get away but not cause wheelspin, sothing he had practiced in the simulation repeatedly. This gave him the perfect launch. The two cars in front of him reacted later and also had their tires go into a wheelspin, allowing him to easily go between them, gaining two positions.
As he shifted into upper gears on the start-finish straight, gaining speed and montum, he imdiately swerved to the right to avoid a car that moved from the right to the middle of the track, overtaking him while also giving him the inside line as the corner approached. Confident in his brakes, he kept his foot on the throttle longer and out-braked another car before he started turning into turn one, which was a blind entry due to the corner entrance elevation being higher than the exit.
He went wide into turn one, having gained four positions, and still carrying more montum and confidence, he chased the car in front of him. Just as he moved out of the racing line to make a move, he had to lift his throttle and get back behind the driver in P8 as a safety car had been issued due to a car that Fatih had out-braked going off track and getting stuck in the gravel at the exit of turn one.
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