19-11-2018, 08:16 AM
Somehow I got the feel and rhythm of this track and it paid off in qualifying getting pole position. However, as the lights went out, my mind blanked and I lost confidence. Gorka took the lead and I followed for a bit. Eventually I managed to brake super late into the hairpin and overtook on the inside using every last ounce of grip.
I can't remember the exact turn of events for the middle of the race, but I did have some racing with Jose C which was clean and fun. I opened a gap in the lead to about 9 seconds and it was pretty constant, then pitted. Jose and Sergio didn't pit which dropped me to third. Time to attack!
On fresh tyres it took a few laps to get past Sergio and then it was about chasing down Jose. Lots of lapped cars which were very good with blue flags - not much time lost, thank you. I was gaining about a second a two per lap and looked to be able to catch Jose before the end - a real target to aim for!
Sure enough he appeared on the horizon and two laps from the end I was on his tail. I could see him squirming a bit as his tyres must have been poor so there has to be an opportunity. All credit to Jose, I didn't see the passing opportunity and it came down to the last corner of the last lap when I tried desperately to get an aggressive line but ended up trying too hard and spun - totally my fault. Thankfully the gap to third was big enough an I could claim second place.
The experience of this race was very informative regarding setups. I often get a fast setup that is very difficult to control as the tyres wear. That is what happened in Brazil and was happening here too until I scrapped my effort and tried my Kyalami setup. It turned out to be just as fast but much more docile, and then I took off a click of rear wing to balance the tyre wear on long runs and it felt great. The main lesson learnt was to do practice with high fuel and 4x tyre wear to see how the car evolves as the tyres degrade. It's not enough to just have a fast qualifying setup. However, I still don't really know what it was about the setups that made them behave as they did.
Best race I've had in a very long time, even though I couldn't clinch the victory. Bravo SR4L!
I can't remember the exact turn of events for the middle of the race, but I did have some racing with Jose C which was clean and fun. I opened a gap in the lead to about 9 seconds and it was pretty constant, then pitted. Jose and Sergio didn't pit which dropped me to third. Time to attack!
On fresh tyres it took a few laps to get past Sergio and then it was about chasing down Jose. Lots of lapped cars which were very good with blue flags - not much time lost, thank you. I was gaining about a second a two per lap and looked to be able to catch Jose before the end - a real target to aim for!
Sure enough he appeared on the horizon and two laps from the end I was on his tail. I could see him squirming a bit as his tyres must have been poor so there has to be an opportunity. All credit to Jose, I didn't see the passing opportunity and it came down to the last corner of the last lap when I tried desperately to get an aggressive line but ended up trying too hard and spun - totally my fault. Thankfully the gap to third was big enough an I could claim second place.
The experience of this race was very informative regarding setups. I often get a fast setup that is very difficult to control as the tyres wear. That is what happened in Brazil and was happening here too until I scrapped my effort and tried my Kyalami setup. It turned out to be just as fast but much more docile, and then I took off a click of rear wing to balance the tyre wear on long runs and it felt great. The main lesson learnt was to do practice with high fuel and 4x tyre wear to see how the car evolves as the tyres degrade. It's not enough to just have a fast qualifying setup. However, I still don't really know what it was about the setups that made them behave as they did.
Best race I've had in a very long time, even though I couldn't clinch the victory. Bravo SR4L!