Race Summary: Not bad, not bad at all.
Qualy: (first session 3rd) - second session 2nd:wtf:: With the midpack troubles I had earlier in the week, I felt it was crucial and a necessity that I try get a good starting spot, so after focusing and putting a lot of effort in to my dry 1 lap pace it paid dividends tonight, after the first qualy session I felt like I had won pole. I knew
@dFlashAshb and
@GuytheGuy17 would be in a league of there own in qualy, so my aim was to try and get on the second row, and to end up qualifying 3rd was a massive result for me but then the big freeze happened.
Once I found out that it was going to be a 1 lap shootout for qualy, I immediately feared the worst and on my lap it wasn't the best as I missed a couple apexes, yet when I crossed the line I ended up in 2nd out qualifying Ash by a tenth - I literally couldn't believe it, but well done to Guy for pole.
Race: 3rd - With the start all I wanted was a good clean getaway and I got that thankfully, I was still in 2nd after the start and trying to keep up with Guy but I had Ash very close behind, I knew those 2 probably had a decent pace advantage over me and I was hoping to try and keep Ash behind for a bit but I missed my braking point slightly at the start of the 2nd lap and ran wide, this allowed Ash to move up to 2nd.
After getting back on the track I had
@DON SILVA not to far behind, yet after turn 4 he disappeared when he had an incident with the car behind, with a few seconds now to the new 4th place driver I was able to relax a bit and just run my own pace, over the next couple laps I saw in the distance Ash pulling away from me and catching Guy and I believe on lap 5 Ash probably did the same thing as me on lap 2 by running wide at turn 1 as after turn 2 my gap to him was halved.
At the end of lap 5 though I had to make my stop as I knew if my teammate Guy didn't stop that lap he would highly likely come in on the next. (which is exactly what happened) As I was leaving the pits after my stop I thought I might be able to just stay ahead of a big pack of cars but a scrappy poor pit exit meant I came out and joined in the middle, but one the cars who just passed me ran wide at turn 4 then later that lap after following close to
@Defiant195 I got a good exit from the last corner and with the help of drs I passed him before turn 1.
That next car ahead was
@chris130256 and I caught up to him in a couple of laps, however what followed after catching him was 8 laps of frustration, even with slipstream, drs and being within a few tenths of him I couldn't pass him, I could only guess he was use rich mix and running low wings as we were both at the same speed at the end of the straights.
After a few laps of this happening I realised I would need to try and get a move done in sector 2 but things went wrong not to long after, as on lap 12 after getting a good exit from turns 4 & 5 I was right up his gearbox. I felt turn 6 wasn't a proper overtaking chance so I wanted to stay as close as possible but unfortunately for me he broke about 5m earlier then I did normally at turn 6 and I bumped him in the rear, (my own fault) this damaged one side of my front wing to orange and all of a sudden it looked like my race was going to be severely compromised.
So just like that the roles were reversed, I was now relying on trying to use Chris for drs to keep up with his pace, at the time I knew I couldn't afford to pit as it wasn't 1 stop territory for me so I just did the best I could, a few laps passed and on lap 16 me and Chris were now behind
@pete day and after exiting turn 5 I sadly saw Pete lag into Chris and it destroyed Chris's front wing and wheel and literally a 1/4 of a second after that happened Pete lagged back forward.
But because of Chris's crash the VSC was deployed and even though it was slightly to early for my liking I knew I had to take this chance to fix my wing and reduce the amount of time I would have originally lost. I came out in 9th a few seconds behind
@mpc-v1, it took me a couple laps to catch him and I passed him with drs on the main straight at the end of lap 18.
The next few laps I had clean air and was just trying to drive a sensible pace and on lap 21 I gained 2 places because of people pitting, I now had
@Philip_66 a few seconds ahead of me in 5th and slowly but surely I brought the gap down, I got just within drs range by the end of lap 25 but very similar to Chris he had very good top speed and I just couldn't get close enough, but finally after getting a very good exit after the final corner on lap 27 I was able to have a go down the inside at turn 1, Philip fought very hard I was alongside but he just tried to squeeze me a little at turn 1 and we made slight contact though thankfully no harm was done and I got a better exit from the corner and took the position.
Next car was Pete who was several seconds ahead and I have to admit I was a bit concerned what if I caught him and lag occurred though it didn't happen as he pitted on lap 29 I was relieved to be honest, with Pete stopping I was up to 4th now and 7 seconds down the road was
@Joost with only 7 laps left I thought it would be very tough to catch him let alone pass him, but with looking at my tyre wear I knew I had done a good enough job of conserving them so for final laps I could push to the end, also I remembered he last stopped about lap 14 so his tyre wear might become an issue
The next few laps I did gain a second a lap on him, but on lap 33
@Elite_sultan who was lapped exited the pits just behind me, I could see he was on softs and knew he would be faster then me but I didn't really want to let him by as I was only 3 seconds behind Joost, though I realised once he had drs on me at the main straight it would be pointless fighting him so I gave him the racing line for turn 1 and followed him behind him, I just hoped he wouldn't obey the blue flag rule now.
He managed to pull away from me on lap 34 and caught Joost by the end of the lap he then passed him and while Sultan pulled away from Joost, on lap 35 I basically caught him by the last corner and could see he was struggling a bit with traction, I now had drs and realised I would probably have only one chance to pass him. So I decided I'd wait for the second drs zone and try and get a better exit out of turns 2 & 3 then him and it worked, I was right on his gearbox and as we headed to turn 4 I moved to the inside and nailed the braking zone to pass him.
Joost tried to stay close to me in sector 2 but his tyres must have been shot as I pulled a small gap quickly, I ended up bringing the car home to finish 3rd and was delighted with the result and fight back I made.
Looking back at the race, I felt earlier in the day that all things being equal 3rd would have been the maximum I could do, yet when I looked at the race results and see Ash only 12 seconds up the road, without damaging my wing and having to change it I definitely would have been a lot closer to him, I don't think I would have beat him if I didn't have my trouble but I probably don't finish more then a few seconds behind. As for Guy he was a worthy winner he had just to much pace for us. (well for me anyway)
But anyway big congrats to the new race winner Guy, and well done to Ash on a very good podium drive as well. Nicely done to those who scored points and very unlucky to those who were involved in incidents hope your luck improves for Abu Dhabi.
Though the biggest surprise of the night for me was Neil not racing, once I realised he weren't racing tonight it made a massive open goal for me, it wasn't the way I wanted to reduce his championship lead and take it to the final race, but it is what it is.
I don't have a clue right now how crucial that last lap pass on Joost tonight could be for me, but at least I now know I have given myself a slight chance at the championship.:woot::woot: