a tale of two halfs again for me last night.
Spent an hour on monday night getting some laps in and tweaking my setup that i knew from a race before here, worked well at Dubai.
Was pumping in regular 1:52.9's and a few low 1:53s in race config. and was convinced i was set for race night.
BUT!..as usual race night pace was completely different and the tyres suddenly felt like i had coated them in icing sugar.
Was reasonably pleased with qual position despite being a long way off my qualy pB of 1:51.6 with a 1:53.2?
and was expecting a hard time off purds alongside and Shark right behind on the grid.
I managed to jump inside Andy at T1 under braking and we ran side by side for a few corners on lap 1 and then despite some heavy pressure from him, managed to eek out a couple of seconds and then a full straight length away from the pack as i kept pace with the front 3 for about 10 laps. I kept closing on Pseudo around the first half of the lap only for him to pull out a gap on the 2nd half.
Then for no apparent reason, i started dropping about 1 second a lap as the car got more slippery in the turns and first, Mark Mc and then Simon caught me with almost relative ease despite the big gap i had over them initially.
I dont know what it is but the maserati seems to go through random spells where the grip just goes and the tyres become like glass. This has happened on numerous races, i dont think its me (tho of course, could be) and only lasts for a few laps then grip comes back. Its bloody weird and very frustrating.
I was really annoyed that i suddenly couldnt do anything about my lap times and they tumbled into mid 1:54's allowing two cars past. Simon instantly pulled out a couple of secs on me over next couple of laps but then grip 'magically' came back and i was able to set off after him again.
I closed right up for a lap or so but then coming out of that spoon curve onto the infield main straight, i got a very late tail swish and as i tried to correct it i got a huge tank slapper that at that velocity saw me spin off very quickly onto that large tarmac run off area without any contact with the barriers thankfully.
I saw DG, who had been 8.8 secs behind me upto that point entering the straight at the bottom and thought i had best wait, despite the straight being quite wide, as didnt want to collect his fast approaching car with a re-entry
Felt totally dis-illusioned after that, running 4th most of race only to drop to 7th in final 10 minutes. :'(
Dont know what car to switch to now, i am fed up with the maseratis inconsistent grip feel.
Congrats to TT on his excellent win and great pace shown by the front 3 guys and the annoying resurgent Mark Mc who 'always' catches me at some point in the races and steams past from his lower grid slot !