I was happy to sit in P3, didn't think I had the pace for the two in front of me. Sadly one of them over committed to Parabolica and I crashed in sympathy, but lost a wheel doing so...
That's 2 solid P3s in a row I have lost...
I was that guy; having already made a mistake at Lesmo 1 I tried too hard to catch back up to Ricardo and just missed my braking point ever so slightly, causing me to overreact and lock my wheels. Then I thought great, that's another position lost that I probably can't catch back up, suddenly I hear the sound of gravel, look at pribluda, see Arf 18m behind, look in my mirror and see your car with just 3 wheels... Sad because unlike you felt, your pace was great and had I caught back up to the flying Eagle, you could maybe have entered the battle for the lead if we battled hard in the slow part of the track; that would have been the only place to take the lead because the Eagle was so damn superior on the straights.
As for my race weekend, Quali went good, but I went for only one qualifying run because of real life. Shame, because I would have needed that extra practice because my only practice were 20 minutes on the server beforehand, so I was a bit less coordinated through the actual track part than I would have liked. Still P2, on a good lap I could have come close to pole, but well... I was really satisfied to have made the Tifosi proud without any kind of slipstream.
I was quite anxious to have to go side-by-side into the first corner, but gladly that didn't happen. The race started off with... A surprising/unsurprising (pick your answer yourself) massive crash behind me. I was of course a bit sad for the runners, but all the Eagles had suddenly fallen out of reaching distance which was very relieving to say the least. The opening laps consisted of a solid chase after Ricardo who unsurprisingly had the edge over me on the straights, but I was superior through the corners and put him under constant pressure, yet I didn't manage to overtake him even once. He didn't crumble, no, but I was the one who did. Locking tyres into Lesmo 1, hitting the wall backwards with the exact rear of the car... Engine damage? No? Oof, that was very lucky. Training had shown me that you could loose a wheel here with such ease.
4 second gap to the leader, 1 or 2 laps later came the Parabolica overcommitment, another 11 seconds lost again. But somehow I got no damage again (perhaps I got some fans in heaven), and with Arf out of the race, that took some pressure off my shoulders.
Finally then, without pressure from behind and the persistent sight of an unovertakeable car, I got into a real groove and finally knew my exact braking spots, so I went and tried everything I could without overcommitting to somehow catch back up these 15 seconds as far as I could. But the second accident had dropped me back within 10 seconds of Bastian, so that was another reason not to take it easy. In the end I finished 9 seconds behind, having taken 6 seconds out of Ricardo I was quite proud of myself. Bastian though gained 2 seconds on me from the crash onwards until the finish line and took the fastest lap by just a few tenths as well. I wanted it, but the Ferrari didn't allow me to...
In the end I wish I had not overfuelled by 12-13 liters, but nonetheless I am very happy with P2 on my F1 Sprint debut.
A big thank you to all the participants who all had their share in making this a very enjoyable event, Congrats to Ricardo for the win and to Bastian for rounding out the podium places, and commiserations to everyone who did not make it to the finish line for various reasons.
Hopefully I will see you guys in the next season where I will try to participate as much as I can, whether in the Sprint or in the Grand Prix category is yet to be decided. Until then, have a good one!
