Unfortunately it was definitely not my night.
During the third flying lap in quali, when I was on a path for the 38.0 in the second sector I suddently lost the feedback on my wheel, so I had to left the server, trying to unplug and replace the usb, but nothing happened. My wheel was seemingly dead
I resorted to the last hope restarting my pc, and luckily that led to the rebirth of my G25, and with 1 min and 20 secs to go, I was quite ready to go.
Despite a good start and some great head to head with Jeff during the first three corners, on the braking of the fourth corner I was a bit overambitious, forcing Jeffrey to widen his line to avoid my car. We had a light 'exchange of paints', so I decided to lift up the gas a bit and let him pass again. Great mistake
Jeff seemed very comfortable with his softs, but I was keeping the pace for at least one lap and a half, then I made a little mistake, losing contact with Massimo and Jeff a bit. In the attempt to recover the gap I was doing some very bad laptimes, forcing too much lap after lap... really counterproductive strategy. When the gap went above the 3 seconds I had to restart my brain.
My pace became very good and my laptimes were sometimes better than the guys in front, so I hoped at least that Jeff' soft would have caused him some issues during the last laps, and have a chance for a final assault. That was not going to happen
After another small mistake I've lost another second, and with a few laps to the checkered flag my hopes were more feeble lap after lap.
In the end Jeff's tyres probably did abandon him, but it was too late... time up!
I've lost the train too early in this race and I'm bothered by the fact that it could have been another cracking race like in Misano cause I had the pace to fight until the end for the podium. A bad result for me, but the fight for the second/third place of this champ is thrilling.
As ever, Massimo will not leave a commen on this thread but he thanks Jeff for the great duel. I was in TS with him and Gavino and after the race he said us: "When Jeffrey passed me, I put the heart in the attempt to take back my position, and this time I wouldn't let him to be placed in front of me."
It's very difficult to pass this guy when he feels like this. He is a bit competitive by his nature
Grats to Gavino, Massimo, Jeff and to all finishers. Is always good to read that people had some fun during the race. What a pity I can't just say the same
See you for the next