This track has gone straight to my list of favorites; find it to be an absolutely exhilarating drive
Knocked a couple of tenths off my pb in qual, but Geoffers was clearly operating on a completely different cosmic plane, being 2 full secs faster
Ziu unsurprisingly was faster too, by a sec, but his race laptime suggests he could have taken it even further.
Didn't make a very good start, and when the smoke had cleared after T1, I was down to 5th, as both Matt & Mike Harley had slipped through. Looked as if the leaders were getting away, so had to find a way past Mike quickly. Went for the inside at the final hairpin on L1, but overshot somewhat, giving Mike a chance for the classic dive under manoeuvre. I still got a faster exit though, so managed to stay in front. Later on the following lap, when exiting the first tunnel, a 'Sorry' from Ziu and two stationary cars meant I was now in 2nd, as he and Matt had a coming together.
Knew I was running on borrowed time, and it would not take long before a certain Italian would come storming back. Sure enough, the gap soon dropped, as Ziu reeled me in quickly. He got past rather rudely, but I owe him a couple after hitting him twice in the previous race in the series, so no complaints
With Ziu gone, I focused on the gap back to (presumably) Matt. Stable at first around 6.5 secs, but then dropped below 6 secs. Pulled myself together and upped the pace, pushing the gap back to 7 secs. Then it suddenly jumped to 23 secs, so obviously Matt had run into trouble. Removed the immediate threat from behind, but kept going as hard as I could, in case any of the front runners should suffer problems. Towards the final laps, the gap to Ziu started dropping, and like any Coyote smelling blood, I naturally tried to exploit it. Tyres weren't up for it anymore though; as soon as I pushed harder, I was slipping and sliding through the corners. Gap still dropped though, so Ziu must have had even bigger problems. Would have loved for the race to last a few more laps, but as it was, it was too little too late, so had to settle for 3rd.
Grats to Geoffers for the win, and Ziu for 2nd. Thanks to the few drivers I lapped for making it very easy.
Anyone else have stutter problems with the graphics on this track ? Whenever I started a session, it would be smooth, but as time and laps passed, it would start to stutter badly in places, getting increasingly worse. Was quite bad late in the race.
Cheers,
Erling