To me this was my best race ever. First ever podium finish on RD
The car just seems to suit me.
Q: 7
R: 2
The one hour qualification gave me a lot, and I mean a lot of crashes and spins. Barely could do 2 laps without them. I was afraid for the 25 laps of the race, but I managed not to spin at all.
First lap was almost clean, Fernando spun out on the final corner and took a few cars with him (also mainly due to lag). The mayhem barely hit me and I could continue in 4th position (after coming at the chicane in 7th
).
I do have to mention one thing, and it is very important so here are my awesome bold red letters:
WHEN YOU SEE A CRASH HAPPENING IN FRONT OF YOU, SLOW DOWN!!!!
A few drivers did brake and avoid the crash but as a result of some blind adrenaline junks, the alert braking drivers got slammed from behind which ruined their tyres and their race. The medium tyres that lasted only just long enough without spinning around the track.
After that I had some close battles, dropped to 5th, raised to 3rd, and also gained some places due to others making mistakes. For the first time in my life I was able to attack P1 but turn 1 did not give me enough space and I had to back off, after which Omer just drove away like I was nothing (1:05.*-1:06.* vs 1:06.8-1:08.*). Rami in the meanwhile wore off his (probably soft) tyres and lost a lot of time which created this huge gap to P3 and leaving me with a big enough gap to easily reach the finish in P2.
However in lap 19 I made a mistake at the chicane which allowed Gary to close in on me. I pulled away again and was safe when a spinning (and lagging) backmarker struck Gary (or at least slowed him down a lot). Easily drove to the finish afterwards.
I am so happy, first ever RD podium and hopefully more to come.
Must not forget to mention that I have never raced these machines online before (only practiced it a few times) and never ever drove on Donington before today. Really proud at this achievement
Guys thanks for the great and honest fights up front and my next target is to win a club race
EDIT: Also great to see how backmarkers can influence a race. Normally I am the backmarker and getting out of the way is my thing, but now they went out of my way just fine, kudos for that