In many ways a great race yesterday, at least regarding the result.
Love this version of Spa, if you're in a fast car, like the 917 or these F1s, which are even faster - even the pedal versions Tony allowed us to use
New pb in qual, but still over 3 secs slower than Ziu in the same car; quite sobering. Tony could put the aliens in wheelbarrows, and they'd still be ahead of everyone else it seems.
Still can't start these cars despite many tries, so lucky to lose only 1 place at the start, when Clive got ahead. Soon had De Martini behind me in his faster Brabham, but kept him at bay for most of the lap, by staying on the racing line. Late on L1, Clive decided to take a closer look at the slope next to the track. I was too focused on his car and partially followed him. De Martini shot past, but I got past Clive, retaining 6th. That was upgraded to 5th when De Martini crashed in spectacular fashion at Eau Rouge on L2.
Cars up ahead were slowly moving away, while behind, Clive was trying to make up lost ground. Determined to make him work for it, so gave it all I had. He still slowly reeled me in over several laps however. He eventually got real close, only to drop back a little, and then more and more again, in bigger chunks, so guess he must have gone off.
Some relatively lonely laps followed, until about 1/3 was left. Then cars ahead started dropping like flies. Passed a wrecked MaiPor, but puzzled to find myself 3rd when passing start. Hadn't seen that Atilla had crashed in the same place, as his car was hidden from view. Next came upon Geoffers having an argument with the grassy shoulder of the track, and was suddenly in an unexpected 2nd!
No hopes of catching Ziu some 25 secs ahead, unless he crashed too, and that was unlikely, with no pressure on him at all.
Still very happy about 2nd of course; far better than I could possibly hope for. Grats to my fellow podium'ers and all survivors. Commiserations to those that met with bad luck.
Btw: I also had a wrong revcounter in my car. The Ferrari revs to 12.000 rpm, but the scale only went to 10.000 in the online version. Quite a nuisance, as I relied more on that than the lamp, for timing my up-shifts.
Cheers,
Erling
