Tough race! Was off pace during most of practice and qualifying, struggling to set up the car and to figure out how to drive it around the track. By the end of the session the setup felt a bit better and somehow manage to dig deep on my very last attempt and suddenly improve by almost a second, at least 2-3 tenths of which thanks to Clive giving me slipstream out of the final corner as I was completing the lap.
Had no idea what to expect from the race though and was feeling uncomfortable with braking late, especially in the middle sector and the slower corners. I had a good start but then Dimitar reached higher speed before T1 and also braked later, which allowed him to temporarily take the lead on the outside. I stayed in his blind spot though and it seemed he didn't want to take any risks by shutting the door, so we went side by side through all 3 right-handers, then I was finally back in front.
Obviously I knew he can brake very late and that worried me, so I either tried to stay a bit off line or brake late myself, just to make sure he doesn't get caught out behind and hit me. I just hoped he wouldn't think I was brake testing him or something, because that wasn't the case - I was really struggling to slow down the Datsun!
He was gaining massively at the uphill left and the next right, but I could go a bit quicker around the faster bends. Eventually he had a good run on me out of that uphill left, after I went too wide, and he was slightly ahead down the next straight, but then he braked too late and went off straight into the barrier!
Luck was on my side...
I tried to stay focused and just find my rhythm, but in the meantime after dropping to 4th or 5th, he managed to quickly move back to 2nd, with the gap initially at around 5 seconds and then fluctuating between the 7-8 sec mark.
I made the first of my 2 bigger mistakes by going off at the penultimate corner and so the gap was down to 6 seconds. From there on the gap remained pretty much the same until the last 1/3rd of the race, when I had another off and the gap was now down to just 3 seconds!
With the tyres wearing off, it was so easy to make a mistake, so I just tried to focus on keeping it steady, but I still had to take risks whenever I felt comfortable, because on some occasions Dimitar was easily shaving off a few tenths in just a single corner or track section, with the gap dropping to under 3 seconds. On some laps I managed to increase the gap a bit to nearly 4 seconds, but I couldn't maintain it for long.
Traffic played a bit of a role, but nothing major, so it boiled down to who was going to make another mistake. Neither of us did though and so I managed to bring it home in one piece!
Very happy with the result, as it's been a while since I had success in these races. Grats to Dimitar for the great drive - you were definitely quicker on average, more consistent, and if it wasn't for that off I doubt I could've done much to challenge you. Grats to everyone else as well for making it to the end!