Monthly Archives: February 2012

Heaven & Hell Tour Suzuka Preview & Odds – EGBet

February 28, 2012 in Bookmakers, Discussion, Media

So welcome to the first EGBet post 0f 2012.

I, Alan Otto, will be your very own correspondent for the 2012 season regarding the upcoming odds for your Tuesday night F1 fix; analysing form, progress, and supplying all the odds you will need to accompany your weekly feast of speed and sublime skill.

This Tuesday sees the introduction of two new teams and four new drivers; so welcome to ElGloverino & Sam_F1LFC, forming the Force India lineup for 2012. Atomic MSC and bookeater make up the Marussia Virgin partnership this season; looking to build on the foundations provided by the departed Griff0x and Agrocr0c from last season. All new drivers will be welcome additions to the grid this evening, in what is in all likelihood going to be a strong turnout.

Questionmarks still hang over the future of Mercedes no.2 Rageboy, with his continued absence meaning the possibility that Ranger has to go it alone, at least temporarily, has damaged the German manufacturers’ odds in the 2012 Constructor Championship; more on that to be covered in a different update however.

As for the odds tonight; we will begin with with the ‘Ottotrader EGBet Top Tip’:

JonB0dz to finish 3rd or higher – 5/1

With outstanding recent practice pace, JonB0dz provides a wonderful opportunity to make some money; the Lotus driver has been consistently topping leaderboards and is tipped by many to fulfill that promise in this evenings race. There are good odds also on Ranger to achieve the same feat; at 4/1 though we at EGBet feel Jonb0dz represents the better value on this occasion.

For those looking for other good tips, decent odds are also offered on:

  • vyseofhr to be involved in a race-ending accident – 15/1
  • KingofSpain to win on return to EGF1 – 12/1
  • Sam_F1LFC to win – 8/1
  • Loopthry to qualify ahead of Superdelphinus – 12/1
  • All 4 new drivers to finish in top 10 – 11/1
  • All cars to finish – 24/1

Superdelphinus and corstick are once again clear favourites for the victory; although it is worth noting that upturns in form from the aforementioned Ranger and Jonb0dz have lengthened their odds slightly, and there is the ever-present threat from McLaren drivers vyseofhr and shamblemonkee. Agrocr0c and ScoobiSi are outside bets to trouble the top of the charts at the end of the race. Full odds below:

  • corstick – 3/1 FAV
  • Superdelphinus 7/2
  • Shamblemonkee – 4/1
  • vyseofhr – 6/1
  • Ranger – 6/1
  • Jonb0dz – 13/2
  • Sam_F1LFC – 8/1
  • Agrocr0c – 9/1
  • ScoobiSi – 9/1
  • KingOfSpain – 12/1
  • Loopthry – 15/1
  • bookeater -15/1
  • ElGloverino – 16/1
  • Atomic MSC – 19/1
  • Bopadeboppa – 25/1
  • Rageboy – 30/1

It’s sure to be an interesting race; the prospect of a full field has only added to the buzz surrounding the event. As mentioned above, KingOfSpain at 12s represents good value, although perhaps a little too much of a risk for us - nevertheless he will be out to impress on his return to the EGF1 fold. As always at Suzuka, qualifying is massively important and whoever gets to that first corner in the lead will have a great chance.

EGBet will be taking speciality odds if requested, be sure to not miss the opportunity to place your bet with us.

EGBet – Your place for bets on a race.

- Alan Otto, EGBet (Suzuka, Japan)

 

Share

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments »

EG Seasons Build-up – Ranger: “High Expectations”

February 23, 2012 in Driver Interviews, Media, News

Ranger EG could make strong case for the most improved driver of 2011; a shaky start to the season slowly but surely matured into a very strong finish and an extremely creditable 5TH in the Championship, including a late-season win at the inaugural Indian Grand Prix in November. The Mercedes’ recruit has followed this up with consistent drives in the Race of Champions and Heaven and Hell series’ of races, managing to also finish 5th in the RoC overall and currently riding high in the standings after the Brazilian Heaven and Hell Tour Grand Prix.

With his move to a bigger team with a rich heritage; Ranger, replacing shamblemonkee at the Silverstone-based German outfit, now has to push for victories consistently. He has shown that he can challenge the best on the right circuit, but that all important synergy between driver, circuit and car needs to be found regularly. EGRacers’ Dan Amphros was once again the man on the scene, having to fight off hordes of jostling reporters, managing to speak to Ranger in the Paddock shortly after his excellent fourth place at Interlagos.

“The main guys to beat to ensure a high finishing position are shamblemonkee, vyseofhr, Agrocr0c and new boy JONB0dz,” he muses. “I feel I’m improving with every race and with some decent results in the close season H&H Tour I’m looking to take that momentum into the Championship and push the front runners. A welcome return for KingOfSpain will add extra spice. Although he has been out recently I don’t think it will be long before he back up to race pace.”

He certainly is pushing; a markedly improved qualifying to finishing position conversion rate provides further evidence that Ranger is a man on the move. “corstick will have a tougher fight on his hands this year, he will have to watch his back. I think all the ingredients are there to be fighting for regular podiums and hopefully pull off a few race wins. We have a good package this year but we need to make performances count.”

“The main guys to beat to ensure a high finishing position are shamblemonkee, vyseofhr, Agrocr0c and new boy JONB0dz,”

He is optimistic with good reason. “I think we have a nice car with strong modifications; although there are high expectations from the team I’ve place even higher expectations on my own shoulders, I’m relishing the challenge ahead. I want to defend my maiden win at India, but my favourite tracks Spa and Suzuka are very competitive races.”

At this point, Ranger is greeted by his team-mate Rageboy, who has sat out the last few races; the pair clearly get on well, and Rageboy congratulates his team-mate on his fourth place with a hearty pat on the back. “Rageboy has missed the past few races, so he’s probably not gotten as much testing in as he’d have liked; perhaps that puts at risk us being able to challenge for top positions (in the Constructor’s Championship). Nevertheless, he’s always competitive and we’ve had some great battles. If he hits the ground running, Mercedes will be in for a great season.” His teammate nods silently in agreement, barely paying attention.

Rageboy is then distracted by some attractive-looking young women and gestures for Ranger to join him. Ranger looks back at the microphone and states, firmly “I’ve been very happy with my performance, I am looking forward to 2012.” He makes a mocking ‘corstick-style’ finger gesture, and walks off with a woman clamped to either arm.

 

- Dan Amphros, 23.02.2012 (Interlagos, Brazil)

Share

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments »

Recruiting F1 Drivers….

February 22, 2012 in News

Looking for clean, exciting racing in Codemasters F1 2011 on Xbox 360?

We currently have a number of seats available for our upcoming World Championship, if you’d like to join in then you need to be available most weeks on a Tuesday night from roughly 8-9pm GMT.

We run 50% distance races in equal performance cars with all simulations options set to on.

How To Join In

Further Info
We’re a mature league  that has been racing since the release of F1 2010 forming out of a common desire for clean racing on Eurogamer.net. We are serious about our racing but want to have fun doing so.  If you have any questions please feel free to contact any of our racers through the twitter hashtag #egracers or join the group above to chat on the Eurogamer.net forums.

Share

Tags: , , , , ,
No Comments »

Heaven & Hell Tour: Brazil

February 22, 2012 in Race Report

No Surprises
Despite an enthralling 3-way fight for the win the H&H Brazilian Grand Prix delivered a result that will surprise no-one.  Red Bull’s corstick coming home 1st followed by superdelphinus and shamblemonkee.  The podium has now featured the same three drivers in exactly the same finishing positions for 3 races in a row.  Despite that the race was anything but predictable.

Morning practice was written off after just one lap as the sodden conditions made any running treacherous and soon after Rangers Mercedes suffered a throttle failure the session was red flagged.

McLaren’s shamblemonkee also suffered; after missing out on previous practice sessions the Woking team were planning on using final practice to get race data, now they go into the race with only vyse having done any preparation.

 

To everyone’s relief the clouds over Sao Paolo cleared for the afternoon and qualifying was run under blue skies.

corstick was the first man to lay down a representative time planting the Red Bull firmly in the 1:09s. As the clock ticked down the on track action ramped up and when the dust settled the majority of the grid were inside 5-tenths of a second of the pole time and you’d be hard pressed to slip a gnats whiskers between 3rd to 6th who were all separated by just hundredths of a second.  Superdelphnius proved that he will be one to watch in the upcoming EG WDC this year by firmly stamping the Williams on pole position.

Merry Go Round
The atmosphere was wild as the grid formed up for what pundits predicted would be a scintillating race and this promise as delivered on right after those five red lights went out; corstick got it all hooked up and had the Red Bull down the inside of a surprised looking superdelphinus. So surprised in fact that it seemed as though he didn’t realise or want to beleive that the Red Bull was already alongside him going in to the Senna Esses – light contact followed and McLaren’s shamblemonkee pounced to take 2nd.

Behind Ranger kept a standing guard on the action ahead for Mercedes while Ferrari, Sauber and the other Mclaren and Williams all just about made it through intact.

At the front a regular cycle of defence and overtaking began with drivers roundly criticising the placing of the DRS zone saying it made defence impossible down the start/finish straight.

Disaster struck for the sister Williams early in the race as a worrying electrical problem saw his car temporarily lose all power and cast him into a wall.  Fortunately he was able ot nurse the car to the pits and set about clawing back the lost time on a series of long runs.

Back at the front there were so many changes for the lead that had Murray Walker been commentating he probably would have been right once about the racing order. So rampant was this outbreak of passing it even occured in the pit lane with Mclarens pit crew earning some extra large cookies for their blink and you’d miss it pit stop for shamblemonkee on lap 8.  This meant they leap frogged Williams Superdelphinus in the pits. at this point Mercedes were just about hanging on to the leading trio.

The Mclaren didn’t look completely settled on it’s first set of Primes and soon had the Williams and Red Bull right on his exhausts looking for a way past what was becoming a very wide McLaren.  eventually DRS played its part and saw the podium positions settled in championship order after corstick made the bold move of forsaking his final stop and doing an incredible number of laps on Prime tyres that were pretty much falling apart over the finish line.

 

After the race the podium drivers were understandably excitables, superdelphinus described it as “brilliantly intense”, corstick “amazingly clean…wheel to wheel [racing]” and despite coming home after leading the race at times shamblemonkee proclaimed it “ one of the best drives i’ve had”.

Ranger finished a solid 4th for Mercedes.  S

Slightly down the order it was another day to ponder what might have been for Ferrari whose normally electric Agrocroc seemed to be suffering from some local lurgy. ScoobieSi brought the sister Ferrari home just behind his teammate

Loop brought limped his Williams home for a valuable points haul.

McLaren however sufered a serious blow to their constructors title bid when vyseofhr’s car mysteriously decided it was hnungry and munched it’s engine into little bits on the very last lap.

Final Result
1. corstick
2.superdelphinus
3.shamblemonkeee
4.Ranger EG
5.AgroCroc
6.ScoobieSi
7.LoopThry
8.vyseofhr

 

Share

Tags: , , , , , ,
No Comments »

EG Seasons Build-up – corstick: “I have enough to secure title!”

February 21, 2012 in Discussion, Driver Interviews, Media, News

EG F1 Reigning Champion talks to EGRacers.co.uk

When you think of corstick, you think ‘Champion’. Amassing a quite incredible total of 376 points during 2011, winning 12 races during the season along the way, for a second year in succession he dominated the World Driver’s Championship and almost single-handedly won the Constructor’s title for Christian Horner’s Red Bull Racing team.

EGRacers’ Dan Amphros caught up with the notoriously ice-cool driver to gauge his feelings about the forthcoming season; the Champion was suitably relaxed. “As long as I maintain my consistency, I think I will have enough to secure a third title,” he says confidently. His body language, reclined luxuriously on the rooftop terrace of his Geneva home, portrays a driver totally at ease with the expectation placed on his shoulders. He sips lugubriously from a margarita, only speaking when given a direct question.

“Consistency, and keeping a cool head in tricky situations, are the secrets to my success,” he reveals, when asked. “superdelphinus has really stepped up in the recent Heaven and Hell tour. shamblemonkee has the talent, but the McLarens look to have had trouble in testing, so we’ll see.”

The pack behind clearly have their work cut out. There are an unprecedented number of race winners in the field this year, with that number standing at eight, but it remains to be seen whether any drivers have the mettle and speed to challenge corstick on anything like a regular basis. When asked whether he has set any personal targets for the season, the Red Bull driver answers nonchalantly “Just to have good battles.”

Highlights from corstick’s championship winning race at Suzuka

One talking point over the close season has been the return of corstick’s new team-mate, KingOfSpain, after nearly 6 months away from the track. “I’m sure the Red Bull will help him fulfill the potential he was starting to show before that unfortunate injury layoff,” he muses. KingOfSpain had secured a number of high points finishes shortly before his accident, including his first ever race win. “Plus I hear there may be some nice cockpit upgrades on the way soon.”

 “The track I am most looking forward to has to be Monaco. Such an intense challenge”

It’s clear that corstick believes he has the talent, and he evidently still has the determination to make it a hat-trick of championship wins. This is shown when asked about the tracks he wants to perform well on: “The track I am most looking forward to has to be Monaco. Such an intense challenge,” he states with some conviction. “but my real aim is to finally get a win at my nemesis track, Silverstone.”

With that, corstick dives off into his World Driver’s Championship trophy-shaped swimming pool and it’s pretty clear that the interview is over; it is a suitably curt and abrupt ending. Christian Horner must take massive credit for nurturing a driver of such incredible speed and smoothness, and it’s testament to the driver that he continues to win in the midst of a field of ever-increasing quality. The gap will surely come down between corstick and the other drivers this year, with the aforementioned shamblemonkee and superdelphinus most likely according to the bookmakers to mount a sustained challenge.

It is clear however, that ice-cool corstick remains the driver to beat.

 

- Dan Amphros (Geneva)

Share

Tags: , , , , , ,
No Comments »

Monaco: Heaven OR Hell?

February 1, 2012 in Discussion

So we’re headed to Monaco next, a jewel in the crown of F1. the glitziest, most glamorous race of the season and a place to be seen if you’re anyone who’s anyone.

However for the drivers Monaco is both a place to fear and relish. It presents such a unique track in Formula 1. no other track on the modern calendar is as unforgiving with a single mistake likely to result in a race ending crash as a minimum.  In fact as 2011 showed even in it’s current guise and with the incredible level of protection offered by current F1 cars it is a track that is is something to be respected at the very least;

The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

Even when you’re getting it very, very right Monaco is a circuit that gets every one of your senses screaming at you in a mixture of excitement and danger.

The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

When the Heaven & Hell tour arrives in Monte Carlo on the 7th of February who will be cursing this track from Hell and who will be thinking they are in Heaven having conquered Formula 1′s toughest challenge?

Share

No Comments »

H&H6: Nurburgring

February 1, 2012 in Race Report

The EGF1 carnival arrived in Germany for round six of the Heaven & Hell Tour on the 31st of January.  This also took the Tour past the halfway point.  The battle so far has been fierce with title favourites corstick and superdelphinus engaged in a finely balanced contest at the head of the championship.  with the top two steps of the podium being locked out by just two drivers for the majority of the Tour the fight for that final step is just as, if not more furious in the midfield.

After the last round ‘down under’ corstick lead superdelphinus by 10 points.  Both went into this race as joint favourites, which of them can master Formula 1′s cousin to the Green Hell? Continue reading to find out…

 

QUALIFYING

Taking place in glorious sunshine qualifying kept it’s usual form of starting slowly and ending with spectacular showdown.  In the end not much more than a gnats fart seperated pole position from 2nd place but it was the Williams of Superdelphinus that to the coveted slot trailed by just 0.096 of a second by corstick in the Red Bull.


superdelphinus snatches pole, just!

 

RACE

The race started in relatively clear weather but a 50% chance of rain had the strategists nervous, rightly so as rain became a reality around lap 17 with a light drizzle quickly turning into persistent rain.  This turned the race into a story of two halves.

Before the rain Red Bull and Williams re-joined their titanic struggle at the front both drivers giving everything to emerge victorious.  In their wake   a no less titanic battle was raging between new McLaren team-mates shambles and vyse, Lotus’ Jonbodz and Ferrari’s tenacious Agrocroc.  This battle raged until the first set of stops on lap 5 and started to reveal the emerging strategies at play.  Lotus going for a number of short stints on Options and McLaren splitting strategies with vyse going for 3 stops and shambles 2.


McLaren had an eventful race

This appeared to be working until halfway through the race when shambles emerged in-front of his team-mate and jonbodz and agrocroc.  Struggling on cold Prime tyres shambles was put on the defensive, developing a snake of cars eager to pass him in the process.  A few laps later disaster struck for McLaren as their drivers connected at T1, and later as vyse suffered a punctured front tyre at the start of a lap.


race winner corstick

Rain started to fall just past the halfway point of the race giving those who had just pitted or were due to pit in the next lap or so a real headache; those who were able to extend their runs reaped the rewards of stopping once less.  Those who didn’t were forced to sacrifice time to stay in the race.


superdelphinus had to make an extra stop when the rain arrived

In the end it was corstick and red bull that had the best combination of luck and skill with superdelphinus delivering 2nd for Williams after a race that ended up being tougher than it should have due to the timing of the rain.  Shamblemonkee dragged his McLaren home in 3rd after an adventurous and eventful race.

As the Tour packs up to head off for round 7 in Monaco the standings are as follows;

Total Driver
129 corstick
114 superdelphinus
77 shamblemonkee
60 agrocroc
53 rangerEG
46 vyseofhr
26 rageboy
18 loopthry
12 dufftown
15 scoobiesi
14 jonbodz
4 griffox
4 micksuper
3 boppadebopa

Total Constructor
141 Red Bull
132 Williams
112 McLaren
79 Mercedes
75 Ferrari
17 Lotus
4 HRT

 

Share

No Comments »