Race report
Q: Struggled with stringing together a good lap, ended up on a 1.23.39 which is about 0.15 off my PB. Felt I could have done better, but wasn't too disappointed. Gave me 10th, which turned into 9th when Anthony disconnected.
R: Got an OK start, just tried to be very careful and stick to my line through T1. Gained 4 positions when other drivers span out or had contact before Tim overtook me at the end of the first lap. Gained another position in L2T1 where Mark had gone off, so I was back in 5th and fairly optimistic about the race.
Tried to settle down and hoped to gain on Tim and Alex in front when I went wide in T8 in lap 3. This cost me a lot of time and Jim got up behind me. More importantly, the mistake cost me my concentration and I span off a couple of turns later. My struggling to get back on track lost me 9 positions - I was now in 14th and also low on motivation. Forced myself to struggle on.
A small tussle between Peter and Mark in T1 put me up into 12th by lap 4. Dmitry went off in T1L5 so I gained another position, and was starting to enjoy myself again since I had several drivers to battle with in my proximity. Started chasing Andy, and we had a great fight throughout lap 6, switching positions a couple of times. I then passed him into T1 on lap 7. I've just watched the replay and realised that I cut T1 when passing him, and so gained and advantage and should have let him pass. I'll be filing a report to RD with this now.
Mark closed in on me and tried to make a pass after the back straight in L8. I see now that I closed the door too aggressively, and the was some contact. I apologise and I hope you didn't get damage from this Mark, and I'm afraid this contact was what made you spin off right thereafter from loss of concentration. I'll be including this in my steward's report as well.
Then it was Dmitrys turn to chase me, and we had a good battle until he passed me in the last turn in lap 11. Nice move
In lap 15 I was 7th because of others misfortunes. Closed in on Valter, which quickly let me by, perhaps he wanted to drive his own race instead of fighting me.
Then I started chasing Jim for 5th, slowly closing in and catching him in lap 29. As he mentioned in his report he let me by fairly easily in the braking zone after the back straight.
From then on it was all just a matter of keeping the car on the road and managing my gap to Jim. Had good fun, and felt good about the race up until now, when I saw the incidents with Andy and Mark. :frown:
Grats to Chris for taking the win and securing the championship title! And grats to all finishers
See you in Germany!