08-10-2018, 05:07 PM
Felt great to be back! Really fun race because of the size of the grid, different strategies and different cars. Initially, I was hoping that I could still be top 5 or something, but turned out I had not lost any pace. In the quali I cut off a half second from my previously personal best.. I have no idea how I managed to do that but probably because I've been running longer stints mostly. This time I took fuel for 7-8 laps and I did 5 push laps in a row. Seemed like the tires were just getting faster and faster.
The race was interesting because of the uncertainty with the different strategies. My start was good so I was not threatened in the first corners. So I pulled away instantly and quickly realised that the cars behind wouldn't pit. I pushed as hard as I could but without stressing the rear tires and knew I needed a big gap because pitstop is ~24 seconds. I think I had ~26 seconds when I dived into the pits. Only J-P and Gorka passed me and they were just a few seconds up the road. So at this point I was quite certain I would manage to get the win as long as I stayed calm. So I catched them quickly but took me one lap to get past Gorka. Then it was much harder to get past J-P because he got slipstreams on the start/finish straight from lapped cars every time
But eventually I managed to take the lead and from there on I made no mistakes. Had loads of lapped cars all the time but no problems at all. Good work with the blue flag guys! I was really sweaty after the race... It wasn't exactly easy to get the lead back after my pitstop.
Thanks for hosting. It was really fun. Everything worked flawlessly for me. Feel sorry for my old teamie Edwin tho...
Better luck next time!
The race was interesting because of the uncertainty with the different strategies. My start was good so I was not threatened in the first corners. So I pulled away instantly and quickly realised that the cars behind wouldn't pit. I pushed as hard as I could but without stressing the rear tires and knew I needed a big gap because pitstop is ~24 seconds. I think I had ~26 seconds when I dived into the pits. Only J-P and Gorka passed me and they were just a few seconds up the road. So at this point I was quite certain I would manage to get the win as long as I stayed calm. So I catched them quickly but took me one lap to get past Gorka. Then it was much harder to get past J-P because he got slipstreams on the start/finish straight from lapped cars every time
But eventually I managed to take the lead and from there on I made no mistakes. Had loads of lapped cars all the time but no problems at all. Good work with the blue flag guys! I was really sweaty after the race... It wasn't exactly easy to get the lead back after my pitstop.Thanks for hosting. It was really fun. Everything worked flawlessly for me. Feel sorry for my old teamie Edwin tho...
Better luck next time!