Grats to Fulvio on a good win, I was hoping for a nice battle, but I pushed too hard, too soon.
After a dumb mistake in the early laps I had chased down Dean several times during the race, but always ran wide just before I caught him and dropped back again. I now know that I had damaged my car in the early incident and the rear left tyre became over heated whenever I pushed hard.
But, I just about kept the car on track in the final laps and eventually got on to Dean's tail as we started the final lap, so I had to stay close and hope for a chance to pass. We exited the chicane and fired up to the right hander and Dean took a defensive line, quite legitimately. So I tried a wide entry to try and carry a little more speed through the apex, but Dean got a little wobble on the brakes and my estimate of his trajectory and speed got screwed.
As a result I could not avoid nudging his gearbox and spinning him out. I knew that there was a big gap back to 4th place so I waited for him to recover, but he appeared to be stuck in the hay bales? So I drove across the track to try and nudge him free ( or was it to finish the job and knock one of his wheels off??
).
Not sure if he escaped himself, or if I did help, but he got going and was able to retain his place and I cruised in behind.
Without my repeated spins and offs I might have caught Fulvio, but it would have been better to stay on track in the first place!!