Very hard and intense race from start to finish.
Going online and seeing the posted laptimes, I briefly held lofty delusions about possibly being contender for pole. Bah#1; as usual Ziu was sandbagging, and did a laptime in qual I could not hope to match, despite a new pb. Well at least I was 2nd on the grid. Bah#2; in the dying moments, both Geoffers & Daz felt the need for delivering a reality check, posting quicker times.
Relatively bad start went to worse at T1, where I got trapped by a wayward Geoffers. Couldn't avoid hitting both him & the barrier, fearing for my headlights, but luckily they survived. Down to 7th though. Arrived at the back chicane ahead of Matt, but had to take avoidance for an early braking Clive. Went over the grass, earning a warning, despite losing a position to Matt. He got past Clive, but then went off in spectacular fashion next lap. Daz & Ziu going off gained me two places. Battled Clive for what felt like an eternity without finding a way past, but in reality it was only a couple of laps, before he most graciously let me past.
Spent the next many laps hunting down Dan, in a sort of deja-vu from last week, albeit in a very different setting. Dicing with Dan after catching up seemed to lose me time, as the gap behind was shrinking. Dan too waved me past eventually - very kind of you guys and definitely not callled for. Despite now having a free run, the gap behind continued dropping. It was my now regular nemesis Daz, chasing me down. In one lap, I knocked 0.6 secs off my fastest lap, but still lost 0.1 sec. How could I hope to keep up that performance.. When he got closer, Roger losing it in front of me momentarily broke my rhythm and basically sealed it. Was determined not to be a pushover, but next lap Daz just drove past as if I wasn't even there..
Tried to keep some pressure on him, but had no answer to his pace, especially not on badly worn tyres, and thus had to settle for 3rd.
Grats to Dimitar & Daz, commiserations to everyone meeting misfortune.