Round 5 Crystal Palace 69

I started the event after a week of illnes and still having a bad cold, which took a lot of effert focussing on qually and the race.

1st Q: 3rd doing and 2nd Q: 4th

Race report:
I had a good start off the line... Inside the 1st corner I locked my front wheel with rear wheel of Michals car.
Luckily, we untangled quickly and I could continue in 3rd having Jens behind me.
After a few laps I managed to pull away from Jens until I noticed mid race that Gavino was closing in very fast.
I tried to increase my own pace, but my left front was heating up so I lost grip.
I struggled getting out of the 1st right hander after start/fiinish and getting on to the back straight.
The battle with Gavino was tough but defended as best I could.
Unfortunately our wheels locked 15min before the end going side by side into the banked corner after the straight which caused us both to spin.
I had no damage and was a bit lucky to continue in 3rd. After the incident John caught up with us joining the battle for 3rd.
From that point on the pressure was a little bit less, because John and Gavino were also battling with gave me a breather.
I made a bit of an error that when I crossed the finish when the timer was at 0.00 the race was finished. However I realised later that Toni could have passed before it was counted down so to make sure I put the peddle to the metal to be sure to cross the finish line in 3rd with John right on my tail.

Happy with 3rd after an intense race...

One remark I found it difficult to judge when lapping backmarkers that they left too little space or lift the throttle too late to let you pass.
In my opinion if you get a blue flag go off the throttle a bit to let a faster guy pass and do not wait at the end of a straight and in case of a corner leave the inside line clearly open.
I sometimes had to take a lot of risks of crashing to lap a backmarker.

CU next time

 

First Qualy: Pole
2nd Qualy: Couldn't manage, with low fuel to put a better lap time than in Practice with fuel tank. 11th.
Race: I luckily avoided the pile up at the start, then that was mostly a race on my own. I made a couple mistakes and lost a couple places, but no damage. 7th in the end, happy with it.

Apologies to Michal Mazurek for misjudgement under blue flag. I should have give room in the straight line rather than the turn just before it. Sorry mate.

 

For the sake of completeness I made also a little race review from my perspective.

Actual quite interesting how lucky I was that Roberto hit John and cleared the way for me. But the karma bit back as I decideded to become a lawn mower.

 

I was surprised too, regardless of my bent steering ot losing the frontwing twice. But if you are speaking about my mistake into the last turn, the front wing was still attached, I think I was simply too fast respectively I braked too late.