Sadness In Singapore

Unfortunately after the new update to the F1 2021 game by Codemasters, we suffered many major and minor desyncs this weekend, so we are sad to say that no points will be awarded for the LSI F1 and LSI F1.5 EU Championships, however, points will be awarded to the LSI F1.5 NA/SA drivers as they had no issues!

Despite this we did have some great racing across LSI, with Zingy, BNJMN, Vibezz and FourscoreBike51 taking victories in the streets!

After an epic qualifying, where IgorPro took their first front row in 52 races, the race was underway as Zingy took the lead, and MisterALTF4 capitalised on IgorPro’s rough start. MisterALTF4 was not slowed down by their medium tyres compared to Zingy’s soft tyre compound, as they caught up and put the pressure on, making moves to make sure that Zingy knew he meant business. Not too long after the action, there was a major desync bug that disturbed many drivers, so on lap 6, it was time for a full restart.

IgorPro had a second chance to convert their front row start into something amazing, and they did just that. Holding onto P2 and running away with it as Zingy and Igor too first and second early on, with MisterALTF4 struggling off the line as Darksolt made their way past. An early Safety Car was deployed on lap 1, as MaxMaarten crashed out due to the desync issues, shortly followed by PJMdermalcher for the same reason. This allowed many drivers to change up their strategy early on in the race, including the race leader who pitted for mediums. Despite these issues, the drivers carried on.

The Safety Car came in as the drivers started lap 4 out of 31, where Darksolt led the way. There was some amazing racing which was as tight as a cyclists jersey. As DRS was enabled, MisterALTF4 made a move for the lead as they attempted to make their strategy work and outrun their rival, Zingy. A few laps later, Sixroi’s ERS was stuck on, which saw them retire from the race at the final corner of lap 12, bringing out the second Safety Car of the evening.

The drivers made their pit stops, and MisterALTF4 made their first stop of the race, putting themselves on the hard tyre compound, compared to Zingy’s second medium tyre stint. Zingy took back P1 from MisterALTF4 as their tyres just weren’t good enough, and this allowed MissingYew to make the move to P2.

Further back, BNJMN attempted to make it three wide at turn 10, which caused issues for themselves, Flux and Cisko. Shortly after on the same lap, BNJMN was involved in another incident with the championship leader as they outbroke themselves with a damaged front wing, which saw another DNF, as BNJMN was out of the race. However, despite this somewhat major incident, the Safety Car was not deployed.

Later in the race, the two champions, IgorPro and MisterALTF4 dueled it out as IgorPro showed that his pace was superior on the medium tyre. IgorPro then used this pace to catch up to MissingYew, where they had one of the closes battles ever, as we saw the two go side by side throughout the lap as we saw IgorPro lose the car as they went wide, putting them into a Tokyo drift, and somehow saving it! Just two laps later, the pair chose different braking points into the hairpin at turn 13, causing IgorPro to lightly tap the back of MissingYew, which was sadly enough to cause damage for the Aston Martin driver. To the delight of MisterALTF4, this allowed them to make the move for P3, as IgorPro could only hope that he could on to his position for the rest of the race. At the same time as the overtake, MissingYew entered the pit lane which promoted MisterALTF4 to second place, therefore meaning they had only clean air between them and first place.

As the closing stages of the race approached, IgorPro lose positions to ChroneZ and MissingYew, giving ChroneZ their first ever podium finish in LSI F1, and with IgorPro’s time penalty being applied at the end of the race, it meant that their team made Cisko was able to take P5. MisterALTF4 also made a great effort to close down the gap to Zingy on their different strategy, but it wasn’t enough. Zingy took their first win in a while, and they thoroughly deserved this one, it’s just a shame it wasn’t for points!

In F1.5, all the drivers had pretty crazy races, as BNJMN took another win to extend their championship lead, and making it 2 out of 2 as they win at both street circuits this season in F1.5 EU Tier 1. In F1.5 NA/SA, the grid was small, but it did see a new race winner this season, as Vibezz was victorious, taking redemption from last season. Fizzybubblech also deserves a mention as they took their first ever pole position in LSI history. Finally, FourscoreBike51 took an unexpected victory after struggling with the car. It looked like Rullatorn would take an easy win, but after making a mistake, FourscoreBike51’s strategy put them on the top step once again, maintaining their 100% win rate this season.

Action In Austria

Now we head over to the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian GP, and it’s going to be a cracker! With it’s three consecutive DRS straights and only 10 corners, the will have no where to hide and will need to find the perfect balance between straight line speed and stability. Round 8 will really test the drivers as there will be plenty of overtaking opportunities and strategy will be a key! Will Zingy take another win and score some points, or can IgorPro get redemption and prove to us all that he is a true champion?

We want to say a huge thank you to all the drivers this weekend for dealing with the issues this weekend, and we can only hope that it gets better! The Austrian GP is going to be absolutely insane, so be sure to watch the action on our Twitch channel!