Race Report: Reik Major - BRM / McLaren
Practice (9th):
Due to very busy last weeks this free practice was the first and only time I had to have a little test with fuel, trying to find a race balance. So i was 9th, when we swithched to practice start, because other drivers seemed to drive their lap times with qualy setup. The practice start wasn't good. Many incidents, so thanks god it was just a test.
Qualify (2nd):
I needed 2 or 3 stints to put in a 1:25:3xx which brought me 2nd position. Mark was better this time with a 1:25:2xx i think. Tim was very, very close behind me, with also a 1:25:3xx. I pushed hard for the rest of the session and maybe i could have improved by 1 or 2 tens, but finally Mark did a 1:24:8xx i think and that was too much. So a very well deserved pole for him!
Race (2nd):
It turns out that my starting position is also my finishing result this season, because that's what happend all the 4 races until now. So i need to get back on pole next event. :tongue:
Starting from 2nd, I had a good inside position for T1. Lights went on green and I hit a very good start and was able to drive next to Mark on the inside. He also started well, but first corner was mine. I was a little late for T2 but could hold first.
For the next 5 laps or so I was chased by Mark. With starting tire wear my cars balance changed a littel. I never before experienced more than 5 laps in a row, so i didn't know where it starts to become tricky. So exiting T9 the car immediately got a huge oversteer on the throttle sending me to the right. It seemed like I catched it, so i stood on the throttle, but the car made a huge counter reaction to the left. The only chance not to ramm it into the left wall was to jump into the brakes. So I slided sideways on the left track side and Mark showed a great reaction to pass me on the right. After Singapore it is the second time i have to thank you very much for your good reactions!
Luckily i didn't hit the wall and could go on in 4th, having a good fight with Robin for some laps. I could overtake him in the hairpin, when he had turn in oversteer, which i also had there very often. In the meantime Tim had taken the lead from Mark and i was in 3rd with a little gap to Mark.
Then, out of the spoon, Mark made a mistake and i jumped into 2nd. From this time on he chased me very close all the time and it was tricky to control the car with very much worn tires. It was nice to see, that Tim, I and Mark pitted into the same lap. Tim was of course first entering the pit with a 12 seconds lead.
We left the pits in the same order, with nearly same gaps. Again Mark pushed very much behind me and it required all concentration not to make a single mistake. Especially through the Esses he was a little faster and i t allways was a challenge to hit T8, T9 and the hairpin well.
His close chase made the laps go by very quickly until he made a small mistake in lap 33, which gave me some time to breath through and calm down. After this hunt my gap to Tim in front was around 10 seconds. Don't know if he still pushed or if he was just bringing it home. I tryed hard, hoping he would make a mistake on worn tires. But this day he did the least mistakes, so he brought home a very, very well deserved victory and I finished 2nd with a 8 seconds gap.
Congrats Tim!
I have to give in, that i had a little hope for rain during the last laps to spice things up, but the all times dark sky didn't want to let it out.
Also huge congrats for Anthony's 3rd! It seems the aussie connection is getting stronger and stronger.
Of course every points winner and finisher deserves gratulations, because the track is really tricky.
Thx to MMG, RD and especially Nico for making this cool racing possible.
Now i can't wait to "burn my rubber" into Monacos tarmac for the first time :wink:
C U there...
![Luca [OT]](/data/avatars/s/3235/3235113.jpg?1697196734){kind=avatar}
