João's trademark war and peace length race reports are back
Positives: fun event, really fun car and track, great level of competition
Negatives: Screwed up what should've been a piss easy 2nd place
First of all, congrats Laurent, excellent pace and dominant win. And everyone in general, as it was a fun race.
Really frustrated with myself tbh. After driving the wretched FW31 this was actually fun, so for the first time in god knows how long I actually practiced more than a tiny bit the day of the race. Put in three whole hours in fact so I was very well prepared.
Qual: Aimed for a conservative goal in qualifying and was on pace to get it which would've put me second on the grid when I missed my brake marker for the chicane and went straight, losing 0.35s. Still 4th, but that mistake ended up looming large at the end of the race
Start, and I just cruised in 4th waiting for the train to lose Lau's draft. Once they did I could see I had about half a second a lap in hand on the rest of the guys fighting for 2nd so I decided to not take even the slightest risk as the race was looooooong
Settled back and saved tires, other than at Eau Rouge, only spot where I was going full pace to try and get a run on Jason, but he defended very well and I couldn't get past. Eventually I lost momentum trying to get by Jason so Blake got through.
Settled back, waited for him to pass Jason, and when he did I went for it the next time around at Pouhon, making the move stick. Followed Blake and did the same, trying to save tires and fuel and only really going full tilt through Eau Rouge to get a tow. I got alongside and even a bit in front a few times but he always out-drove me at Les Combes to keep position. We had some door baging and it was fun, so eventually I gave up and just settled in behind to see if we could catch Kevin. I have to say I don't understand why Blake was fighting so aggressively with an hour to go when I had so much more pace, as I was expecting he'd tuck in so we would catch Kevin, but strategy is each person's own so maybe it was the right choice. Who knows
Turned out Blake didn't have the pace to run down Kevin, so on the in-lap when Blake made a mistake and went wide I tucked inside for the spot. Unfortunately he lost control and there was contact. No hard feelings, mistakes are part of racing.
Unfortunately that lost me a huge amount to Kevin and Jason and blasted my rear suspension out of alignment, so when I pitted at the end of that lap the car was near undriveable and quite a bit slower (laptimes were the same on account of new tires and less than half the fuel)
Had a fun fight with JB that second stint, trying to catch Jason for 3rd again but in the end I came up a second short. Honestly I was amazed I didn't get a warning for ignoring track limits on the second stint, as I was losing control of the car all over the road and off it every lap. It just had no traction after the impact and previously flatout turns became like riding a mechanical bull
Overall quite fun but I have to admit I'm quite disappointed with myself. 2nd was there and I really should've taken it.
On to Homestead, but I'm dreadfully awful at that track so I'm expecting to be much further down the grid. Onwards and upwards.
