I think my pre race assessment of how this would go for me was about right
Grats to Ziu, erling and Matt for doing it right and getting it to the finish.
I did not get a chance to test Ati's or Geoffers' setups before I joined the server so I was stuck with my cobbled together adjustments. I might go back and try those "expert" setups and see where I was going wrong!!
Just could not hook up a clear, clean lap in qually and was more than happy to get a mid grid slot. My PB off line was in the low 1:38's, nowhere near you fast guys at the front!!
However, the start was an absolute gift, especially at Monaco. The cars in front bogged down and a clear track opened up to the apex of St Devote. I was holding my breath waiting for someone to chop across my nose, but nothing happened and I emerged on the run up to Casino Square in 3rd!!! behind Ziu and Erling......quite how that happened I am still not sure, but I could not believe my luck.
All I had to do now was keep Erling busy and not make any mistakes. This was a good plan, but poorly executed
and Jose was soon regaining ground lost at T1 and threatening to make my life difficult. I was just considering letting him pass so that he could go on and hassle Erling on my behalf, when he had an "incident" and dropped back. So I tried to push Erling myself and almost got alongside through the tunnel at one point but had to back off in the interests of survival for both of us.
Then the limitations of my setup began to show. I'm not sure why but I found that I was taking right hand corners too close to the apex and just clipping the armco, Not enough to cause any damage , but the resultant unsettling of the car was throwing me wide and bouncing off the outside barriers, or worse still on a couple of occasions breaking the grip on the rear tyres, and causing the car to spin 180 degrees!!
Monaco is not a good place to be facing the wrong way around blind corners!! and I was relieved when Matt, Jose and others managed to slip past my stranded car without major damage.
I think Jose and myself exchanged places a couple of times before I made one mistake too many and he got well clear. the second half of the race involved a couple of heavy contacts with the armco and I had not really checked the "Damage meter" since the grid ( where I had been pleased to see 100%!). With 5 laps to go it now read 1%!!!!
By now Maipor had got past me during on of my spins and was some 10 secs up the road, so I did not think I had any chance of catching him before the flag, and besides I could not afford to push or risk any contact with the armco if I wanted to reach the end. The car must have had severe damage to suspension/brakes/chassis and the tyres were totally shot as each corner was an adventure.
But then I realised that even though I was backed right off, I was catching Maipor very quickly.
Geeez! but it was hard not to push after such a temptation and gain another place!! and I decided to just keep what I had and not risk a DNF. But sadly for Maipor he was running out of gas and moved over to let me pass on the last lap in a very gentlemanly manner.
As I crossed the line my Car Health dropped to 0%, so I think another lap was out of the question.
I had abused that poor car to the max and tested just about every mm of the armco around this track....and had great fun doing it.