16-05-2016, 07:25 AM
Qualy
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I had only practiced with race fuel lapping high 2:07s so I had no idea how fast the car could go in low fuel conditions.
In the first two attempts I did a high 2:06 with a bad first sector. Refueled the car for a single lap and I got a high 2.05 which surprised me. I was happy with that laptime so I got back race fuel and practiced race pace on the track.
Finally my time was good enough for pole position.
Race
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Starting on the dirty side I was worried to lose one or two places at the start. Lights went green pretty early, I guess it caught everybody a bit distracted so I was able to start quick and remain first at the first corner.
I was in a mid wing config and I didn't expect David to be in such a low wing configuration. Approaching the heavy braking for turn 7 I didn't defend the inside and he outbraked me there coming at a very high top speed I wasn't predicting.
I spent the next laps trying to find a way past him but it was imposible due to his top speed. The only thing I could do was to go for an early pitstop. So I did at the end of lap ten. A 24 sec pitstop when car started smoking when I was about to leave the pits (hot after many laps close to David and high temeratures on track) but it quicly cooled down as I went back on track.
I then pushed really hard for the next laps and when David took his pitstop I had taken a 6 seconds advantage.
Night was approaching and I started to do the math of the race length. I was expecting 26 to 27 laps, having fuel for 28. But as I was calculating it I realised we could even get to do 29 laps. That brought me into panic mode, I had no fuel for 29 laps.
It was already fully dark, having a 7 second advantage to David I decided to lift and coast at some corners trying to save some fuel.
It was getting really busy, night driving, approaching lapped cars and calculating whether we were about to do 28 or 29 laps and if myfuel was enough for it.
10 minutes to the end of the race, with David 4 seconds behind I could calculate that we weren't going to reach 29 laps by 10-15 seconds, so I was relieved and drove normally to get to the finish line, finally winning the race.
Season is over. It took me a few races to understand how this car worked but finally I've been very comfortable driving it fast. Now time to get in the BT20 and get a relaxing summer at the back of the grid.
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I had only practiced with race fuel lapping high 2:07s so I had no idea how fast the car could go in low fuel conditions.
In the first two attempts I did a high 2:06 with a bad first sector. Refueled the car for a single lap and I got a high 2.05 which surprised me. I was happy with that laptime so I got back race fuel and practiced race pace on the track.
Finally my time was good enough for pole position.
Race
------
Starting on the dirty side I was worried to lose one or two places at the start. Lights went green pretty early, I guess it caught everybody a bit distracted so I was able to start quick and remain first at the first corner.
I was in a mid wing config and I didn't expect David to be in such a low wing configuration. Approaching the heavy braking for turn 7 I didn't defend the inside and he outbraked me there coming at a very high top speed I wasn't predicting.
I spent the next laps trying to find a way past him but it was imposible due to his top speed. The only thing I could do was to go for an early pitstop. So I did at the end of lap ten. A 24 sec pitstop when car started smoking when I was about to leave the pits (hot after many laps close to David and high temeratures on track) but it quicly cooled down as I went back on track.
I then pushed really hard for the next laps and when David took his pitstop I had taken a 6 seconds advantage.
Night was approaching and I started to do the math of the race length. I was expecting 26 to 27 laps, having fuel for 28. But as I was calculating it I realised we could even get to do 29 laps. That brought me into panic mode, I had no fuel for 29 laps.
It was already fully dark, having a 7 second advantage to David I decided to lift and coast at some corners trying to save some fuel.
It was getting really busy, night driving, approaching lapped cars and calculating whether we were about to do 28 or 29 laps and if myfuel was enough for it.
10 minutes to the end of the race, with David 4 seconds behind I could calculate that we weren't going to reach 29 laps by 10-15 seconds, so I was relieved and drove normally to get to the finish line, finally winning the race.
Season is over. It took me a few races to understand how this car worked but finally I've been very comfortable driving it fast. Now time to get in the BT20 and get a relaxing summer at the back of the grid.
SR4L discord channel: https://discord.gg/h5RZTcEcbA