Great race yesterday guys. Thanks to everyone who took part, and I'm glad to hear that you all enjoyed yourselves. Also congrats to the winners -
@April Dillon and
@Aleksi Kivelä really showed us their mettle.
@David O'Reilly, you were one lucky guy getting onto the server with mere seconds to spare.
It was fun and interesting "battling" for 4th place with you, though not necessarily on track; the differences in our strategies made it very compelling and challenging, both physically and mentally - you were pushing me hard before my incident.
Meanwhile, it's a shame that
@Marçal Bonet Andreu had an issue just before the start; that awesome sounding two-way battle for the top spot could have been an incredible three way challenge - maybe next time.
Now for a few quick apologies. First of all,
@Davy Lauwereys for cutting you off whilst overtaking you down the main straight to the second chicane - I moved back to my racing line a tad too quickly (underestimated your speed, and turned my wheel too sharply). Second,
@Kristian Puhov for the incident that caused you to spin, also down the main straight heading up to the second chicane. I think Aleksi was lapping you, and the two of you parted waves, leaving me a gap in the middle to overtake you both. I tried to be careful, to ensure that I made it through what was still quite a tight gap. Unfortunately, I didn't realise how close I was to your car (the fact that it was dark made it even more difficult), and accidentally scraped you as I overtook. Finally,
@Rob Milliken for the overtake into the second chicane down the main straight, which didn't really cause an incident (until I went into the wall), but I can imagine it was pretty scary have an LMP car cut right across the corner entry point. When I overtook you, I still thought that there was another marker left before I entered the braking zone, but whilst performing the move I must have miscounted, and thus I ended up braking way too late.
My race didn't get off to a good start: going down the Mulsanne Straight and just after exiting Arnage, on the second lap, my game decided to minimise itself on two separate occasions.
Thankfully, after this I was able to get into a rhythm. I was obviously nowhere near the pace of the front runners, but I had a good drive, and an interesting tactical battle for 4th position with David. However, with just under 40 minutes to go in the race, and the track shrouded in complete darkness, it all started to go wrong. Two big incidents forced me to pit twice, and I was awarded a stop/go penalty as well as a drive through penalty to boot; this put to bed the fight for 4th (if it weren't for the incidents, I was anticipating that David and I would have had the opportunity to battle it out on track for the final few laps), and ultimately cost me 5th position as well.
Nonetheless, it was a learning experience and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
There will almost certainly be more of this on the way in the coming weeks and months. I hope to see you all there.
EDIT:
Ooops, I almost forgot to also say thanks to
@Ricardo Edelmann and
@Frederic Schornstein for an awesome broadcast!
