I was away on business all last week and returned on Friday with an almost terminal dose of man flu, which left me totally knackered and useless over the weekend.
I did not even download the track until late on Monday morning and was going to take the Aston as the easiest option and the car most likely to be fast straight "out of the box", simply because I did not have the energy to bother about any preparation.
As I loaded the track for a couple of quick sighting laps I just happened to scroll through the cars and noticed the Fezza 375 and that 194mph top speed. " awww! what the heck, I shall have to use it sometime so why not try it around Interlagos!!"
Before I went on track I applied what has become my default mods to the setup for these cars ( each different car then needs fine tuning, but at least it gets the basic handling somewhere near usable). First lap out and I thought..."should have stuck with the Aston!", but i could not summon the energy to quit and reload with a change of car, so I tweaked the roll bar values and went again. First flying lap was 3:15, but I had no idea whether that was good, bad or totally hopeless.
Gradually dialled in the handling and got used to the early braking and getting the nose into the apex before winding up that glorious howl from the engine to 4 wheel drift through the corners.
I squeezed a 3:10 after about 5 laps and quit back to my armchair totally exhausted.
I should have refreshed my knowledge of pitstops at sometime but I didn't and that cost me in the race.
It looked like Bill and myself were set for a duel until he vanished from the quali session and I was left with a comfortable pole position. For once I got a good start and played it safe through the first lap just making sure that I did not outbrake myself and run wide.
The lead grew to about 12 secs until Bill made his way to the front of the chasing pack and started to eat away at my lead. I was not too bothered as I knew that I could push harder if I needed to and was waiting for fresh tyres after the pitstop before risking anything.
I still have problems working out the fuel usage and the info on the display, so I simply filled the tank at the start hoping to do 11+ laps and then I would top up again at the stop to be sure I would make 20 laps with fuel to spare. The tyres were looking good for the first half of the race so I would be able to abuse the replacements for the final laps if I needed extra pace.
All the planning went AWOL when I realised that I did not even know where the pit entry was!!
I totally screwed up my pitstop and race as I saw the entry and the green lights too late ( should have done another lap!!) and dived into pit lane. Too fast and out of control I bounced off the walls and damaged the car, plus I picked up a speeding penalty whilst going backwards!!!
I rejoined the race , but had to stop for the SnG penalty and was now back in the midfield, so I just enjoyed the drive and managed to pick up a few places before the end.
Grats to Bill who was pressing me hard before the pitstops and to Doni for gently easing his car to the flag and to Flash for the final step of the podium. Considering how I felt and what a total Holicks I made of the pit stop I cannot complain.
On the up side I now have a setup for that Fezza that works for me, so I am slowly getting to grips with these beautiful cars and the way that they handle....thanks to Tony for this series.