Rnd 9 Brianza Race Reports

[Lecram]

Qualify: Happy with front row. I was easily able to match and/or beat Gorka's first sector of his 33.4 but after he set the 32.9 lap (very quick btw), I knew 'battle' for pole was over. Hedlund did a good job too so 3rd spot it was. Hiss boo to the Eves ;D

Race one I had a nice fight with the pack after Gorka did his 360. I had a hard time getting to my pit spot because an accident had happened at pit entry and I had to wait some time for Everon to pull up to his spot, clearing the way to mine. Gorka flew by when I came out of the pit, next lap DjC came out and blocked me a little before entering the first banking so we had a very nice scrap for second place. I was hoping our draft could get us closer to Gorka but it didn't work out. At least I won the battle for second

Race 2, again a good start, took p1 entering curva grande and Gorka and I drove away but the next lap he already pitted. I was thinking about doing the same next time by and I should have in hindsight but instead I drove on, keeping the lead at about 3 secs with DjC and Hedlund battling behind me. Then came my stop, I overshot a little, had to reverse a bit so pit crew started working but I still wasn't exactly lined up right. DjC pitted too while laying down a smokebomb for Hedlund who decided to keep his car in the middle of the pitlane while entering and so Hedlund hit me. Bad rear damage when I drove away, pitcrew didn't feel like fixing it at that point (some were still flying through the air, I was told later) so either a whole lap with bad damage or retirement, I chose the latter. Maybe I could have continued but I didn't wanna risk other peoples race.

So I was happy to start at second row for race 3, normally I get put at the back end of the grid for race 3, no matter how my second race finished (which is fine with me btw.) but this time around it was a welcome surprise. I pitted early to avoid pit mess but this time my stop was real slow, 50 seconds. The rest of the race was quite boring tbh, Hedlund at one point came out in front of me, him leading the race with 2 secs and I tried to close the gap using first sector and it worked each lap but his Eve drove away at the straights, quicker than what I could gain in corners so no chance to catch up. With DjC 2 secs behind it was a case of finishing in second place again.

So Gorka ate about 35 points of my championship lead, Spa up ahead could mean another 35 points or more so I hope to be back on top at Putnam ;D

Cheers,