(TS186) Contact with Tom Watts - I entered spoon a bit hot and was a little wide. As described in the first post Tom decided to brake late and take the inside. Sadly, in order to hold the inside you can’t simply brake late, it just wasn’t going to happen in spoon, especially on lap 1. Tom apologised in his first post, and his apology is accepted. There are some lessons here however. It’s lap 1, we are on cold tyres , and we’re on spoon, it’s not an overtaking opportunity. My car was launched over the fence, lost front wing and suspension damage. I have to pit at the end of lap 1 and come out in 18[SUP]th[/SUP].
(TS628) Contact with Anthony Moufarrege - As I come around the final turn on lap 6 I meet Anthony M who is stationary across the racing line after making contact with the pit entry wall. I lose front wing and gain suspension damage. I’m also 5 metres past the pit entry. Though tempting, I continuing on for a whole lap.
(TS1466) Crazy pass on Vincenzo - . I reached Gaetano (5[SUP]th[/SUP]) and needed to go by him. He was at the same time trying to lap Vincenzo (14[SUP]th[/SUP]) who I was about to challenge for position. As I pulled into Vincenzo’s slipstream, he lifted to let Gaetano go by, I quickly went left onto the grass and managed to make the pass. My apologies, I think I should have been more patient here.
(TS1537) Contact with Gaetano – I was making a move up the inside on the hairpin. Sadly there was a small contact. I certainly had the corner but perhaps should have held it even tighter. I do apologise for the contact especially considering I was unlapping. I hope no damage was done, though I did see in the replay Gaetano came into the pits that lap, I do hope it was a scheduled stop.
(TS3854) Contact with Nicolas - I make a move on Valter in Spoon (after all I said earlier). I manage to make it stick without contact (though I think I am helped by the fact that he out brakes himself). In the second half of spoon Nic runs into the side of me. Reading his account I do understand how it happened, I was on the extreme right so he had every right to go up the inside, but I’m not sure I would describe it as a racing incident as he ran into the side of me while I maintained my line. I’m sent off track and lose out to Valter.
(TS3997) Contact with Nicolas - The following lap Nic and Valter touch in the final Chicane and I get a good run past Valter on the start of the straight. I go past Nic as well and take T1. In the esses I get slightly out of shape but hold it together. I have lost some speed. As we come to the next turn, Nic turns in on me and turns me around. Nic is right to say I was going slow, but I don’t think I slowed down suddenly, and I don’t think I was re-entering the racing line. I had the inside of the corner and he turned in. Nic did let me pass later in the lap which I appreciated but again, I don’t think I would call this a racing incident.
I’m keen to hear what people think of these incidents. I’m sure I wasn’t completely innocent, but I think we can all do a lot better. My race was completely compromised.
But I’ll get over it and I look forward to the next one.
Tim.