This one didn't end up the way I had in mind, but at least it was not down to my own mistake and I did the best I could.
Started out on pole after what felt like a really neat lap in Qualifying, but Tim was just over 2 tenths back and I expected a tough challenge. I had a good start and opened up a gap initially, but that didn't last long. Once Tim dealt with Tom's BRM, he quickly closed up on me and put some pressure on.
I thought it was full tanks, cold tires and my cautious driving that allowed him to follow so close, but it soon turned out that wasn't the case - Tim was really flying through some parts of the track, particularly at the left hander in the middle of the lap, the one that leads uphill to the hairpin.
It took me some laps to figure out what's wrong - my gearing was simply not ideal and on top of that, I raised up the ride height which, in hindsight, was a wrong move. As a benefit though, I could really attack the chicanes and cut through the dirt without slowing down much, and was able to pull away from Tim in those places.
Once we went into the hairpins though, he was instantly closing up, both under braking and acceleration. I handled the pressure pretty well though and wasn't making mistakes apart from a few moments, but nothing critical. We ran like that for half of the race distance and I was beginning to wonder what role slipstream played into all that because I couldn't break away despite the fuel load going down. As it turned out after looking at my lap times later, I was simply lacking pace.
Tim finally made it through after a great exit off the aforementioned left-hander and led the race going into the hairpin. I thought that's not so bad, at least I'll have the benefit of slipstream and be the one who's going to put pressure on for a change. Before that though, I planned to follow him for 2-3 laps and avoid taking any risks that could put us both out of the race until I could figure out his rhythm.
Sadly this lasted less than a lap because in T1 (or is that T2, if we count the kink) at the start of the following lap, Tim went wide on the exit, clipped the tree and despite my efforts to go to the right, I got nudged a bit, but it was enough to send me into a tree. The car flipped over, landed on its wheels, but it soon become clear that it had lost power and had bent suspension.
I continued on and Tom was 22 seconds behind, so there was some chance to keep 2nd place or at least I thought so. It all became irrelevant when I noticed the fuel pressure going down rapidly and the car ran out of fuel in the middle of the next lap.
Grats to Tim who was faster today anyway and deserved to win, but I hope such things won't happen anymore because it's for such and other silly reasons that I dropped out of contention the last 2 Amateurs seasons. Bring on The Green Hell where I'll be taking no prisoners!
-=Hristo=-