Sorry to retire, gas pedal acting up. Noticed it during practice that everyone going so much faster and during race had to few times unplug pedals and put back on. Basically it means im getting 90-95% of the gas so was little bad today. Mod was great!
I figured it must've been something drastic like this, or spilling your Beer , that took you out Toni.
I feel that, I still need new pedals because sometimes I have the same problems. Anyway, sorry for the little nudge at the start, I was caught out by you bogging down. Not a big issue, although it is always the same. When I need a good start, because passing is hard, something like that happens. I could keep my position but when Paul did go sideways, in reaction I pressed the brake too hard. That was enough for Ken to pass me. The good thing was, only a few laps later I got it back. It was also good that I learned in practice not to drive a defensive line into turn one. I spent the rest of the race mostly behind Paul, which was not the most pleasant experience. Not because of his driving style or so, just the circumstances. I had him after he did go wide in the tight middle sector, but immediatly lost the position, because I made a similar error as in lap one. So the unpleasant part was to follow a car that lagged a bit and seemed to have a different setup, which was better in the places where you could pass but less good in the middle sector, where you could not really pass and I had to be very careful not to crash into him. Then Paul had a weird spin, I hope that was not caused by me due the lagging. But as Toni said, Mod is fun - I hope for less lags and a better start next time Oh and I made a little highlight video
Good to be back after a month. Still learning the car so span 3 times exiting Turn 1 which destroyed my chances of finishing unlapped. Sorry about the debris on the track - that was me as well. Had a decent start and had a nice little race with Jose. We traded positions due to errors but my big oversteers ruined that adventure. Too much gas too early, I guess.
This weeks race was a bit of a weird one for me. Due to the fact that I had to spend my "daily" practice time to another car/track combo I had almost no practice time for this one. Seeing Phil's amazing online practice lap time, 1.44.***, I was not sure where to find the time I was slower than that. So after my Wednesday race I allotted some extra time to get the setup right as I was using the Oulton setup as a stop gap solution. Anyway, found something that worked being able to do Phil's lap time offline. At that I figured Phil had found the set up sweet spot. Then official practice started. Decided to join early in the session to make sure the set up would work online. Weirdly enough, it didn't... Went offline to see if there was a setting that was off. Nope. Figured it was me then. Got back online just at the time when Kiril was in a conversation with Ken about the track temp. At that point I realised what was wrong. Changed the setup to adjust for the lower temp and got my mind in race mode. Suddenly I was seeing delta times that showed high 1.43's. Good. In with a fighting chance at least. Then quali started. Wanted to get a banker lap in early but the pit exit didn't go as planned. I had 2 cars in front of me, so my out lap warming the tyres wasn't ideal. Or so I thought. Turned out it as as my first flying lap was a 1.43.8 Kiril equaled that on his 4th lap, so decided to do one last try on the final lap. Lucked out and improved a little on my time. Pole. Didn't really expect that. The start of the race didn't worry me too much as the pole position is best placed to get a good line into turn 1. Had a good start. After lap 1 I had a small 0.6 sec lead. Not good as that had the 2nd place car being able to get a tow on the long last corner/pit straight. So head down and do some quali laps. At first I could slowly increase the gap until Kiril pulled a 1.43.6 out of the hat. I equaled that lap time on the next lap, but it did send me the message that it would not be an easy race. So I kept on doing quali laps and taking risks. Pulled a bigger gap, but then on lap I nearly lost the car. That had Kiril close the gap again. From then on I decided to go as fast as possible without taking risks. Was able to do about 10 laps with incredible consistency nearly equaling my fasted lap every time. The gap slowly increased. Halfway into the race (or maybe a bit later) I came upon the first car to be lapped. Couldn't afford to lose too much time or even have an incident at that time. However the car being lapped was well aware that I was there and gave more than enough room to get by. From then on the race was, in my view anyway, decided. Came up to a couple of other cars being lapped, but all knew exactly were to let me through. Had one "brown" moment where a car that was on the grass rejoined the track at exactly the moment when I arrived at that corner. I did all I could to avoid a crash and I'm sure the other driver did the same as no paint as traded. I want to thank the drivers being lapped again for their racecraft and being aware of their surroundings. NICE! Next race Cadwell Park. Not one of my favorites and I think it will be a challenge in these cars for sure.
Q: Didn't get all the sectors together, but still a good lap. R: This time the tire temperatures were ok and I was able to brake properly. Really intense first half of the race. Like Roy, I had to constantly do quali laps so that I could stick with him. Twice I was a bit unlucky with the traffic and lost about half a second each time, which doesn't sound like much but it was. But the guys did a great job, the places were just unlucky. At some point I ran out of talent and could no longer keep up the pace. Impressive pace from Roy again combined with no mistakes... Congrats! Since I now have two weeks of well-deserved vacation, I unfortunately won't be able to compete with you in the next round. Have fun and see you all in Round 4.
