I had a great race. I knew the Lancia would be outclassed on the straights around here but I felt it's nimble handling through the fast sweepers and relatively decent brakes (for the mod!) might be able to compensate the mighty Merc's straight line grunt.
First half of the race, I had a grandstand seat enjoying Tim, Tris, Axel & Bastian vying for the lead. I was holding back in 5th, content to watch the action. That worked until I lost brakes at Muzon
, overshot and nearly lost the tow rejoining! Luckily with the guys battling hard up front I could catch up.
About half race distance, Tris had fallen back due to failing brakes at Muzon. Axel had overshot at Thillois and followed by Bastian getting a poor exit, I vaulted up to second place, but Tim in the SL Merc was almost 200 yards ahead
. I had to drive very hard through the sweepers to try to close that gap. Any larger gap and the tow would have been lost.
Somehow I did manage to catch up, mostly under braking I suspect and that set the scene for me and Tim battling for the lead for the rest of the race. With his slipstream, it worked well enough staying with him, but ducking out of it proved tricky, as I lost all advantage of speed and had to duck back inside the slipstream! I could see I was far better on the brakes, but I just couldn't get close enough and didn't want to risk a lunge in case I made a mess of it and took us both out. Tim would have simply powered past on the next straight anyway.
Tried as I might to harry Tim into a mistake, this is Tim we're talking about, that was unlikely to happen
. I inherited the lead a couple of times after he ran wide at Bretelle Nord, but the rate at which he passed me on the back straight was somewhat dispiriting.
On the last lap I was in the lead, but when Tim grabbed my slipstream to slingshot past I was way too far back on the approach to Thillois. Did try to make it up nevertheless and did manage to get alongside, but Tim had the inside covered nicely and powered home into first place. Congrats Tim, very well played.
I hope you can get GPL sorted on your new PC Clive, it would be shame to see you go. As Bill suggests, it is worth a fresh install using the install guide
http://gplworld.org/tl_files/srworld/upload_old/downloads/simracing/grand_prix_legends/guides/GPL_Easy_Installation_Guide_ENG_v1.6.1.pdf?
I was thinking of a fresh install myself for my machine at the end of this season at it is running sluggishly these days, but I might stick with Windows 7 as a stop gap measure until I cough up enough coppers for a new PC. I believe Michael Turner was also having issues with his Windows 10 install, but his issues were more to do with his wheel being recognised than screen freezing.