Well, that all went a bit wrong.....
Could not get as comfortable with the car here as I had been at the last 2 events, it was forever going around on me in the fast chicanes (yes they are Geoff
) and the rear end just would not play ball for me. Best time I had done in practise was 2.10.4......
Managed to trim that with some setup tweaks before quali, but it was always hard work. And then Geoffers went over a second quicker than any of us had at that point, so really thought it was a lost cause. Where the lap I did for quali came from eventually I don't know, can only presume it was a fluke as I couldn't repeat it in the race at all.
And then the start. Count gets to 3, I push the clutch down and engage 1st gear, the car immediately rolls forward sharply. Now, I know I've already got a stop go here, there is no chance it hasn't given me one, I'm too far over the line. So, the choice is to stop, and wait for the green, and in doing so maybe get involved with some cars at some point of the lap, and maybe affect someones race by getting in the way. Or, to wait on the line, and try to let everyone past as quickly as possible, which is also fraught with danger of someone maybe not avoiding you. Or, I could do what I decided to do and just gun it, and get up the road and out of everybodys way, with it being very obvious that I would be going to the pits shortly for a stop go. Hence the stupid start, it was a clutch malfunction, and totally screwed the race really.
Hit the pit at the end of lap 2, came out over 30 seconds off the lead, and about 20 behind the tail of the pack. Spent a few laps closing down, and ended up making my way past a few without incident, right up to Tony.....I am sorry for the little contact that we had, the second of which was to try to straighten you up after half spinning you initially, I hope it didn't cause any major damage. You were driving really well, and it was very difficult to find a proper opportunity to get past, very disappointed that it ended the way it did
Managed to scrap my way to 4th eventually, not sure I would have been too much higher even with a good start, so I'll take it. Not sure what Geoffers found in the setup, but his pace was on a level no one else was at, very impressive indeed.