Well that was a race with highs and lows.
Wanted to get into the 53's during qually, as I expected that to be needed to try and get pole. The first 2 runs, I messed up my first timed lap, but for some reason, the softs survived a lot better than they did before. So I was able to get a 2nd timed lap out of them to set some times.
Had a good start, but went in to turn 1 a bit too cautiously. Had cars left right and almost centre and lost a position to Georg. Was able to get that back in turn 3 and 4. I might have scared Georg with my line into turn 3, but that's how I saw the pro's do it in MJ's video, so I just copied it
.
At the end of lap 2, I had nfsw's Nissan behind me, going onto the s/f straight. I remember looking behind and thinking, he is too far away, I don't need to defend, when all of a sudden, his car comes rubberbanding past like I am standing still
. Was able to follow him for a few laps as his ping went down again, but halfway through the first stint, I was right on his tail when his ping was back upto 150. His car slowed down more than normal in turn 7 and I tapped his rear, sending me spinning and getting aero damage. Luckily, the damage is less when you hit a lagging car, so it only cost me a few tenths per lap.
But it dropped me behind Maikel and Georg with a damaged car, good luck getting past them now
. Maikel had a few gymkhana moments, getting that Merc really sideways. At some point he drifted through turn 11, and I thought, I'll go left. Then his car swooped back, which got me thinking, uhm, okay, I'll go right then
.
At that point I was in 3rd and around 6 seconds behind the leader. I knew I didn't have the pace anymore with the damage to go for a straight up fight. So I gambled and opted for a no tyre change pitstop and just fuel. After the stop, I came out of the pits 10 seconds ahead of nfsw, but with stone cold and worn tyres
. So that lead quickly decreased to 7,5 seconds, with around 12 laps to go.
I knew I had to make the first few laps count, while my tyres were still kinda okay. Nfsw's fastest lap at that time was a 55.3, so I guessed he was doing steady mid 55's from that point on. With the lead I had and the laps to go, I was aiming for a loss of 0,5s a lap. I had to get low 56's lap times, or else I wouldn't make it.
Was able to kinda het those laptimes, but lost a second while lapping somebody, which really made things tight for the rest of the race.
Laptimes remained pretty stable in the low 56's untill the end, when I backed off, as the tyres were pretty worn and I didn't want to throw it away now.
Happy with the win after getting annoyed with the crash at the beginning.
For future GT3 series, a race length of 55 minutes or so might be ideal for different strategies. Shorter and not changing tyres will be best, longer and the race would be too long for 1 set. Might liven things up with the strategy, as now you never reach worn tyres with 2x30 minute stints
(Just an idea).
Grats Maikel and not finishing 3rd this time
