I had to watch that all again just to remember everything that happened in the race!
First up, apologies to Fran - I thought I'd slowed early enough to deal with anything unexpected. I didn't and couldn't avoid your car as a result, hence my waiting for you afterwards
Secondly, I don't think we should quite be lauding the Gordini to the extent Evil would like to suggest. Due to the very narrow power band and 4 speed gearbox the Gordini really isn't very fast here without draft. (I had to gear 1st to 70mph to have a chance of decent acceleration elsewhere, hence dropping about 5 spots by the time I reached Eau Rouge!).
I'm reckoning around a 2:05, maybe 2:06 on race fuel for a good lap without drafting anyone, my qualifying lap was done with some assistance from Clive L's recently spun car about 300yds ahead giving me a slight tow for roughly half the lap.
I only made the sustained progress I did in the race as a result of being able to leapfrog my way up the field and draft the Mercs until in range of the lead group. Without Bastian, Andreas, Tristian and John I would have been dropped like a stone!
That said I absolutely loved the challenge that race presented, everyone gave it their all in a no holds barred fight but still did all they could to leave room where needed. That was a proper top class scuffle
I had actually intended to take the Vanwall as I thought it should fair better here due to the slightly better top speed and higher power - but then decided to try the T16 for fun, before promptly running out of time to tune the Vanwall for the race
As a final note - Bastian, you really needed longer gears for your Merc. Out of the draft you were only about 1mph faster than the Gordini down the run to Masta. I think I may actually have had a better top speed than you when we were both drafting people.
You were revving to about 9,500rpm or more when drafting people and topping out at about 170mph, the SL should be capable of those speeds out of draft here I'd have thought. In draft you should have been a rocket!