30-11-2014, 11:59 PM
Things weren't bad to me despite result in race 1. It seems that taking races as individual fun races makes me feel more relaxed and make fewer mistakes.
As I've had very little practice for this race I decided to take qualifying as part of the practice session doing laps after laps in race conditions. My fastest laptime was good enough for a 5th place and checking the laptimes of the other drivers I thought that could be a good place to have an uneventful race in no man's land.
Race 1
I got surprised how race started, 4th on the grid after all trouble with the CTD issue I started very nice with very little spin wheel and getting to second place at turn 1.
I wanted a quite race and I found myself with both DjC and David Coyne right behind me.
During the first lap I was a bit nervous but a couple of laps later I saw I could build a little gap to them enough to concentrate on the driving and not on the mirrors. Meanwhile Rikard was going farther away but was the expected. I decided to pit at the end of lap 9 (I wasn't sure about fuel lasting so I entered pits by then). A couple of laps later I checked positions and I saw I was still in second place while David Coyne was pushing hard 3 seconds behind.
Laps went by and I was feeling quite confident until in the lefthander after the chicane I found David Hart recovering from an accident. I just couldn't avoid him and crashed hard against him damaging both front suspensions. Car was very difficult to drive so 3 turns later I crashed even harder and had to retire.
Race 2
My 9th position after the race 1 incident brought me on the front row alongside Nikos. I did a good start and I saw in my mirrors Nikos was still stopped so I got clean to turn 1. I started pushing hard as I feared sooner or later DjC and David Coyne would show up in second place. When that happened I had already built a 12sec gap. My left front tire started to overheat and suffer as I realised I was locking it quite a lot due to the hard pushing. I had to drive a little slower to avoid trouble.
Pitstop came uneventful and the remaining 9 laps were endless trying to keep concentrated on the driving.
During the last two laps my left foot was starting to hurt. Too many gear changes here (22 per lap) and therefore too much left foot/clutch work (let's hope it won't be a problem in the 2 hours race of Le Mans). Fortunately lap 19 was completed and I made it to the end in first position.
Damn, that felt good.
As I've had very little practice for this race I decided to take qualifying as part of the practice session doing laps after laps in race conditions. My fastest laptime was good enough for a 5th place and checking the laptimes of the other drivers I thought that could be a good place to have an uneventful race in no man's land.
Race 1
I got surprised how race started, 4th on the grid after all trouble with the CTD issue I started very nice with very little spin wheel and getting to second place at turn 1.
I wanted a quite race and I found myself with both DjC and David Coyne right behind me.
During the first lap I was a bit nervous but a couple of laps later I saw I could build a little gap to them enough to concentrate on the driving and not on the mirrors. Meanwhile Rikard was going farther away but was the expected. I decided to pit at the end of lap 9 (I wasn't sure about fuel lasting so I entered pits by then). A couple of laps later I checked positions and I saw I was still in second place while David Coyne was pushing hard 3 seconds behind.
Laps went by and I was feeling quite confident until in the lefthander after the chicane I found David Hart recovering from an accident. I just couldn't avoid him and crashed hard against him damaging both front suspensions. Car was very difficult to drive so 3 turns later I crashed even harder and had to retire.
Race 2
My 9th position after the race 1 incident brought me on the front row alongside Nikos. I did a good start and I saw in my mirrors Nikos was still stopped so I got clean to turn 1. I started pushing hard as I feared sooner or later DjC and David Coyne would show up in second place. When that happened I had already built a 12sec gap. My left front tire started to overheat and suffer as I realised I was locking it quite a lot due to the hard pushing. I had to drive a little slower to avoid trouble.
Pitstop came uneventful and the remaining 9 laps were endless trying to keep concentrated on the driving.
During the last two laps my left foot was starting to hurt. Too many gear changes here (22 per lap) and therefore too much left foot/clutch work (let's hope it won't be a problem in the 2 hours race of Le Mans). Fortunately lap 19 was completed and I made it to the end in first position.
Damn, that felt good.
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