I forgot to save a replay after the race, so I have not had a chance to review what happened through the race.
Definitely I owe David a huge apology for the incident that finished our race, on the last lap of an absolutely epic duel over many, many laps.
Although I had claimed pole with a PB in the 2 litre Brabham, I knew that the 3 litre cars would blow me away on that long straight. So the plan was to blitz the start, then use my speed through the Esses to build a safety gap on the first lap. If I could survive the straight on the first lap I felt that I could gain more space on each lap through the Esses......but I tried too hard on cold tyres into the hairpin and put a wheel in the sand. Axel and David swept past and I was back in 3rd place in an instant.
There was no problem in catching the pair ahead through the corners and the tow on the straight reduced my speed deficit, but that slipstream was a dangerous thing because my engine was being dragged to absolute max revs and the temperature was rising to dangerous levels.
I had to adjust my driving through the rest of the lap by using one gear higher wherever I could, to get the temp below 200C. I was happy to be towed along by the two faster cars for a few laps and any loss on the main straight was easily closed up through the corners, ready for another tow down the fast bit.
Axel ran wide into the sand just before the straight and David took the lead, so I followed him into second spot for a few seconds. But Axel was quickly back on the tarmac and the extra horsepower of the Ferrari allowed him to breeze back into 2nd on the straight. I delayed my braking as late as possible to put him under pressure at the banked corner and hooked up the inside line as he ran deep and high. I think he might have run a little too deep?? ( not sure as I have no replay ) because he was not on my tail as we crossed the S/F line.
The rest of the race was fantastic fun between our two cars with different capabilities. David had more power and speed and I could brake later and corner more quickly.
I felt that on a clear track I could go faster than David, but he was not about to give me that option and defended his position for lap after lap. There were a few minor slides or errors from David, but never enough to give me a chance to pass and the laps slowly counted down. Most of my small errors were because I was too close to David through corners and could not see the polos clearly. Any time I lost I could regain easily, but still no way past David as we entered the final 5 laps. My best chance was quite obvious to me, and that was braking into the complex before the straight where I could brake much later than David and exit more quickly, but that was pointless because he would simply pass me again on the following straight
. If I passed him it had to be early in a lap so that I could build a safety gap before the straight, but David's power off the final corner was just enough to prevent me making an attempt into T1.
I started to really pressure the rear of David's car hoping to force a mistake. Then as we started the last lap and went through the Esses I think David just clipped some of the polos and upset his line. This caused him to put wheels on the sand, right before the dip at the bottom of the hill. I could see a gap and a chance to outbrake him into the long 180 right hander and fired into the gap. David wrestled his car back on to the tarmac much quicker
than I had expected and I hit his rear wheel
. My car was fired into the air and landed upside down ..out of race...By the time I had quit David had got going but I was saddened to see that he only had 3 wheels on his car
.
Ziu who had kept his Ferrari in the race was able to pass both of us and took the win.....to finish first, first you have to finish and not get hit by a competitor
.
Sorry to have ended such a great race like that David. You deserved the win for defending 1st place for so long, over many laps. Please accept my apologies.