It is re assuring to see some other ( and better ) drivers than me experience the Aston's ability to destroy tyres at an alarming rate. Something that I painfully experienced at the last race and which Matt had confirmed as a known "thing".
Grats to DD on the win, which I am sure is as a result of me giving him a good push at T1 Lap 1, thus increasing his speed for the duration of the next 32 laps
Apologies DD, but having watched your replay I can see why you suddenly slowed to avoid Erling, just as I had nailed the gas through the apex. The resulting spin placed me dead last by 25 secs and TBH if it had not been such a long race I might have considered quitting. But, this is a track that I know from GPL and the SL felt solid, so I decided to see if I could chase down the field and at least catch my Grand Tour colleague AndyL.
It took several laps before I even saw another car and a few more to close on Matt who was clearly struggling with the D type. He ran wide at the hairpin allowing me an easy pass. Then I passed Kurt and Tony who both had off track excursions over the next 10 laps. Next car was AndyL, but he was still 15 secs ahead and I know that he is unlikely to make mistakes
I was pushing hard and discovering that I could brake a little later than I had been as the fuel level dropped? Unlike Geoffers, I rarely use trackside braking markers, unless they are very obvious, and rely on a visual judgement ( and a lot of luck ??) to decide my anchoring points. It was a long hard chase to catch Andy and there were a few buttock clenching moments as I pushed the limits.
I am guessing that Erling fell foul of the Aston's tyre curse when I passed him churning gravel at the hairpin? as I closed in on Andy. Catching Andy was one thing, passing him proved to be quite a challenge.
After a couple of laps it was clear that my gearing was accelerating me out of the slow corners much quicker than him, but he had a speed advantage on the straight. So, I planned my move for the hairpin which required that I was as close as possible to him ( courtesy of some slipstream ) on the exit of T1.
A little more draft got me very close and I was able to take a tight line and give it beans as we headed towards the Esses. Once I was alongside I knew that I had the inside line for the Esses, but that I needed to stretch a gap before the main straight or he would breeze back past me!! Fortunately I had just enough space to keep me safe and was able to stretch away towards the end of the race.
For what feels like a heavy car with bucket loads of tyre shredding torque, the Merc appeared to be remarkably gentle on it's tyres given that I was drifting it very hard through T1 and at a few other places. At the flag the rears were at 50% worn and the fronts at around 40% worn........the question now is, should I have driven harder??? The loss of 25 secs at T1 ( my fault for trying too hard too early!) dictated my race and maybe had I stayed with DD and the leading group I might have picked off those DB1s. Well I can always dream