Congratulations to John and Federico.
A somewhat better start for me than at Dijon but nothing to write home about.
I passed John off the line but Federico was still in front and I knew that if I didn't get in front on the first lap then I would just have to wave bye-bye.
I nearly rammed him at Becketts and was hard on his heels as we hit Hanger Straight. I ducked out of the slipstream.............. and he pulled away!!
What was more, John had sorted out his differences with SS in the Ferrari and was showing prodigious speed on the straight. So having gone into Stowe on a tight line, whilst having a go at Federico, it gave John the chance to take a wider line and we came out of Stowe level. I could see that my chance of doing anything with Federico was spent and so I lifted to let John have a clear run into Club.
I was a tad cautious at Abbey and as a result SS in his Ferrari had a lunge down the inside into the Bridge Chicane. I saw it coming and gave him the room and was surprised that he kept it on the grey bit! Which was more than John and Federico had managed ahead of us.
So now I was fourth, with Simon sniffing about behind me.
At the end of lap two, I made a better job of Abbey and was able to put SS under pressure at Bridge. His exit from the chicane wasn't good and so I was able to pass him on the start/finish straight. Just!! I was on the left going into Club and on past performance, fully expected to see his unpainted Ferrari come barrelling up the inside. Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather when Simon's big red bus shot across my bows an headed for the gravel!
That was it, more or less. At just before half distance I had about a sixteen second lead over Simon when I made a stupid mistake at Bridge, which suddenly put Simon just three seconds back.
Thankfully, I was able to pull away again but it was a shame that I had made a mess of it as it appeared that Federico had issues towards the end of the race and a second place finish was not have been out of the question.
See you next week.