Well, after the fuel disaster on sunday this one felt good. I thought I had the pole in the bag, but I guess Hristo found somebody to draft right at the end of practice and stole it away. At the start I got off the grid well and was first by the time we reached Eau Rouge. Then right after Masta on lap 1 I saw the green flag, and I'm thinking, aha everyone has crashed in the Big One, and now I have a solid advantage. Sure enough I throw it away at the very next corner, Stavelot, going wide, and barely managing not to crash the car. Hristo and Chris got by. I knew I had good top speed, so I was careful and patient, and overtook Chris on the straight after La Carriere. Then I quickly caught up with Hristo. Closed up a few time, but didn't want to cause an accident, and backed off. In the end I got him at the same place as Chris. For the next lap Hristo was hounding me, closing right up on my tail for every turn with any serious braking. But then he made a mistake somewhere, and I was left alone, with Chris over 10 seconds back in 2nd. Now it was a matter of keeping my concentration up. And I still tried to throw it away. On lap 6, on the entrance to Masta, I tried to cut too much on the left, clipped the hill, which threw me into the railing. Luckily this is 66 cars. With 67 I think I would have lost it and crashed. But here I slammed on the brakes, and somehow slowed the car down without losing control before it hit the house on the exit. After that I took masta very carefully on every remaining lap. There were no more hairy moments for the rest of the race and I won for the first time in a while.
Congrats to Lorenzo and Chris too, for their podium finishes.
Derek, don't give up.
That's what moderation is for, to review races and punish those that don't adhere to gentlemanly driving standards.
But it does seem like a good time to remind everyone that you don't win the race on the first lap. This is now 2 races, and two big accidents on the opening lap. Remember also that any penalty for first lap incidents caries an extra place.
Lol, grats, Syd, but you should observe better what's happening around you. No, nobody gave me slipstream in qualifying. No, I didn't make a mistake, your rear wheels sent me into the bushes at Stavelot.