Congrats Iestyn, Peter, Dean! I'm glad I wasn't the cause of your spin Peter. Although I probably was by being a distraction as you closed on me. I didn't think you had got close enough yet for me to cause trouble. I'm glad that was true.
Rough start to that race. An instantaneous flag drop caught me off guard. Doni was able to take the inside away from me into T1. I was afraid to slow because I couldn't see any place to fall in line behind me. I made it through the first turns on the outside. I was very happy to keep the car going and a little irritated that Doni was playing so tough with me.
Excellent job Doni holding the inside line! Had either of us made the slightest mistake, it likely would have been catastrophic.
I wasn't expecting what unfolded next. I was looking at Doni in the mirror when all hell broke loose in front of me. I was confused as to what to do. Luckily I found a tiny and rapidly closing hole to get through. Sam was so kind as to keep his Brabham going in a straight line. I said it aloud twice, "Don't move, don't move!" Had Sam turned left any whatsoever I couldn't have avoided him. It's a shame veering to left to miss Sam, put the car in a slide I couldn't recover. After an distant excursion off the left side of the track, I started to cruise back to the track side at a 45 degree angle when I ran into an invisible barrier running perpendicular to the track. Then even worse as I got to the track side I hit another invisible wall. I had to back up several meters to get back on the track. Had the obstacle been visible, I may have been able to avoid all the damage I suffered, and that extremely slow opening lap of 1:51 may have been avoided.
After all that, I wasn't sure if the car was damaged or not. It felt slow though and it was reflected in my early lap times. I did notice much later in the race that I was much sloppier entering some of the turns and I couldn't put the power down well through the first two righthanders. Considering the damage the car didn't drive too bad, and I'm very pleased to see Honda take that abuse rather well.
It got kind of lonely early in the race. The only cars I saw after lap 1 were, Pelle's car sitting in the pits and later the 3 cars that lapped me. Pelle's only lap was 12 seconds faster than my opening lap and he did most of it on three wheels.
After my mind wandered and I spun after T1, it was a rather uneventful race.
My commiserations with all the drivers taken out or handicapped by the early fracas.
Thanks guys.
