Were it not for bad luck I'd have no luck at all lately.
In qually I went off on my outlap so reset and started again. Coming up the straight Rob came out of the pits and wombled to the middle before spotting me at the last second forcing me to lift. Another lap gone. After that I kept screwing up a corner a lap until I got the two laps fuel warning. that lap I hooked up and was heading for a mid 1:20 or better until the final complex when I missed the downshift to third. I kept my foot in and lugged it to the line for a 20.8 and 6th.
I got a decent start and held off Ross into T1. The car felt strange, I wonder if I'm getting frame rate problems in traffic, I was too busy to look. After a couple of laps with Ross under my rear wing he made a mistake, dropped back a little and I started to find my pace and pull away.
Brendan was a little way in front by now but I was still in touch. When he had his off I settled in to drive smoothly and aim for my planned pitstop around lap 26.
Approaching the pitstop window Gary was getting close behind me after his stop and Pete was ahead but a lap down. Rather than lose time lapping Pete or defending from Gary I went in a lap early. By now I had a pitstop in hand on Ross in 6th so took it easy.
Not easy enough. I saw the speed jump to 46 for a fraction of a second on the run through the pits.
I wasn't taking tyres so it was a short stop though was still surprised to come out right behind Simon. That was short lived though when i saw the speeding penalty. What it didn't do is tell me what I had to do. I came in on the next lap and stopped in my box whereupon I was given 21 laps of fuel and some new tyres before my penalty even started! What a stupid piece of software design.
So now I came out about 6 seconds behind Ross pulling a caravan. I caught up with Ross when he made a mistake and tried to harry him but he was driving well and his weight advantage gave him so much better acceleration out of the final complex I couldn't get near.
Not long ago I'd have looked at 6th as a good result rather than a missed opportunity. In reality Simon was quicker than me and I'd not have done better than 5th but it would have been nice to at least been in his mirrors for a few laps after the stop.
Ho hum.
Paul