For the first time ever, I entered this beautifull track with this car just half an hour before practise started. At first I was a bit scared how "tail happy" the car got into T1 and T2 but finally I managed to handle it by applying some power under braking, so I could make use of this effect through the longer bends.
In
Qualy I was lucky to put in a completly clean and smooth lap without mistakes to result in pole position with a 2:16:9xx.
I had a good start into
Race 1 and could open a small gap to P2. Peter and Craig were fighting for P2 (I guess) so the gap slightly increased to ~ 3,5 seconds. It was all about the challenge to be clean every single corner, because one mistake could cost many, many seconds in a spin. So even if the gap felt comfortable to me, I had to remind myself that it wasn't. So I pushed hard until the end to finally finish in P1 with this gap.
Race 2 I started last at the grid and took it easy through the first lap, only overtaking drivers who made a mistake. In lap to I closed up to a bunch of fighting drivers. They had a small traffic jam through the last chicane, so carrying a bit more speed through the chicane I was able to slice through the middle of the pack down the s/f-straight.
I braked very late and had a nice drift through T1 but I think it worked out well for every one, did it?
So I was 3rd now behind Franco and an "Other" driver (sorry mate, for not remembering
). Those two drove a decent pace but suddenly the "Other" driver disappeared
. Sorry mate! So I chased Franco for 2 laps or so until I got the chance on the s/f-straight when I had a better exit out of the last chicane and managed to overtake him into T1.
After that I built up a nice gap to Peter who also overtook Franco a bit later. I didn't know how big the gap was, because suddenly my XD overlay decided to show me each one's lap times instead of gaps
as it should. With something around 4 liters left I crossed the line and thought it's over BUT there was still one more lap to go
! (don't know if I had more fuel consumption compared to Race 1 or if it was one more lap...)
Without knowing my gap to Peter, I had to cruise very, very much doing extreme early upshifts and no full speed the whole last lap. Entering the Spoon my display showed only "1" for fuel
. So I carefully accelerated into 6th to go to neutral then and roll on the whole back straight allways watching behind to see when Peter closes up. When I humbled to the last chicane he came close behind me. I held on my breath, acellerated for the last time and was very happy to cross the line in P1 with a stuttering engine.
These were two very nice races for me so big thanks to Dennis for hosting and to all drivers filling up the grid and making it a pleassure!
