23-12-2013, 08:33 AM
A bit of sweet and sour taste after yesterday races.
Qualy
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In all my offline test my fastest time had been a 1.51.9. At practice before qualy I couldn't find the pace and I was doing a 1:52.5, but suddenly at qualy there was a massive change in grip and I quickly went for a 1.51.5 which felt good enough to me and for third place (clean side of track) ahead of David (who I feel to be my biggest opponement in the championship after Robert's bad luck).
Race1
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Did a good start and went for a safe driving trying to look for the tires in the first laps. After a few Rikard and Marcel were about +2 seconds ahead and David 1 second behind. By then I started pulling away From David so I was confident for at least a 3rd position finish and aware of what could happen at pitstops.
At lap 8 David and Rikard went for their pitstops. A lap later Marcel and I went for ours. As grip during the first laps of the tires is quite good I was afraid David could overtake me in his outlap. Luckily my pitstop was 47sec and I was able to get out of pits just ahead of him.
Gap to David increase up to 4 seconds while Marcel was aroud 6 seconds ahead. Two laps to the end, on a moment of traffic I saw a car stopped in the middle of the track, another car on the right and a big puff of smoke. I was able to avoid them but on the manouvre I ended on the grass.
At that very moment I was too worried David could reach me and checking for the cars aroud I saw Marcel was one of the cars involved. As I was through the grass Marcel passed me back and David just came to my tail. My tires were a bit worn after pushing too hard to build the gap to David so I suffered quite a bit for the final lap to finally make it for a 3rd position podium finish.
Race2
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Here comes the sour flavour.
Getting ready for the start at the back of the grid I was thinking: "well, be carefull at the start, race is long and there's plenty of time to gain positions".
Race started, Mel ahead, David on the right. Did a good start behind Mel avoiding risks.
Then I saw a way too confident David trying to get through the middle of Mel and another car. "That can only end in disaster I thought", and so it happened. Cars' tires made contact and started an erratic dance through the track. My only posible way to avoid them was through the left, but that's just where they headed and I took the worst damage of the three. Both cars pushed me hard to the barriers causing me severe damage.
Very difficulty I managed to get to the pits and wait for 180sec for my car to be repaired. At this point my race was a lonely drive for 15 laps to finish in 10th pace.
Pretty angry about losing that many point to the guys ahead in what I felt as a completely unneccesary move.
PS: thanks for the cheering :
horn while I was at the pits
Qualy
-------
In all my offline test my fastest time had been a 1.51.9. At practice before qualy I couldn't find the pace and I was doing a 1:52.5, but suddenly at qualy there was a massive change in grip and I quickly went for a 1.51.5 which felt good enough to me and for third place (clean side of track) ahead of David (who I feel to be my biggest opponement in the championship after Robert's bad luck).
Race1
-------
Did a good start and went for a safe driving trying to look for the tires in the first laps. After a few Rikard and Marcel were about +2 seconds ahead and David 1 second behind. By then I started pulling away From David so I was confident for at least a 3rd position finish and aware of what could happen at pitstops.
At lap 8 David and Rikard went for their pitstops. A lap later Marcel and I went for ours. As grip during the first laps of the tires is quite good I was afraid David could overtake me in his outlap. Luckily my pitstop was 47sec and I was able to get out of pits just ahead of him.
Gap to David increase up to 4 seconds while Marcel was aroud 6 seconds ahead. Two laps to the end, on a moment of traffic I saw a car stopped in the middle of the track, another car on the right and a big puff of smoke. I was able to avoid them but on the manouvre I ended on the grass.
At that very moment I was too worried David could reach me and checking for the cars aroud I saw Marcel was one of the cars involved. As I was through the grass Marcel passed me back and David just came to my tail. My tires were a bit worn after pushing too hard to build the gap to David so I suffered quite a bit for the final lap to finally make it for a 3rd position podium finish.
Race2
-------
Here comes the sour flavour.
Getting ready for the start at the back of the grid I was thinking: "well, be carefull at the start, race is long and there's plenty of time to gain positions".
Race started, Mel ahead, David on the right. Did a good start behind Mel avoiding risks.
Then I saw a way too confident David trying to get through the middle of Mel and another car. "That can only end in disaster I thought", and so it happened. Cars' tires made contact and started an erratic dance through the track. My only posible way to avoid them was through the left, but that's just where they headed and I took the worst damage of the three. Both cars pushed me hard to the barriers causing me severe damage.
Very difficulty I managed to get to the pits and wait for 180sec for my car to be repaired. At this point my race was a lonely drive for 15 laps to finish in 10th pace.
Pretty angry about losing that many point to the guys ahead in what I felt as a completely unneccesary move.
PS: thanks for the cheering :
horn while I was at the pits
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