Tom, I made a similar mistake with Amir in race 2 and with Lenno a few races ago at Dijon...
Basically, what I did wrong, and maybe also what you did wrong, is that I wanted to pass on the inside but I did not have the right of way cuz my car was still behind Amir's as I was entering the corner. In this case, what I should have done was retreat. I needed to let off the brakes a bit, let Amir hit the apex while I tuck in behind him and try to pass him again later. I did the same thing (if not worse) with Lenno. With Lenno I tried to out brake and out turn him on the tight, uphill, right hander at Dijon. I ended up locking up the front tires as I was trying to turn right and slammed into him.
I understand that your situation is different, since you would have probably never touched Stu had Jack not bumped into you. But in the best case scenario you would have gotten a warning for cutting the track when trying to avoid contact with Stu. And it would have been for nothing cuz you would have just given him his place back anyway since you did not intend to pass him while being off track. I also understand that at the beginning of a race we are almost always a little more nervous/anxious. But this is especially the reason why we all have to be a little more careful during the first few turns (myself included). The first few turns are always volatile cuz we, as a group, haven't yet sorted ourselves on the track and found a rhythm, so we are more likely to have an incident.
I would like to say that I am not drilling you in any way Tom, I know that you are a good, clean driver. We all make mistakes (I have a catalog of them myself lol).
I posted this here in this thread mostly so that everyone else knows that it's risky to try and take the inside of a turn if you aren't actually in front of the car you are trying to pass before you both near the apex. It's just safer/better to have more time to plan a passing move that will have more chances of being successful.
I would also like to request that in the future, any questions or concerns that any of us have regarding driving incidents, be PMed to that person or to staff. If anyone comes into this thread, I don't think this is what any of us would want them to read about. We have a reputation of being a club of gentlemen. Clean , fair drivers. Let's try and keep that up right?
I really hope that you guys understand that my request is for the greater good of the group, I'm just looking out for all of us.
I also hope that we agree that there are no hard feelings here. I saw what happened in the replay and it looked like a small mistake that turned into a disaster because of an outside/unpredictable force. Typical racing incident. But that doesn't mean that we can't take steps in the future to try and avoid them.
Thanks.