Much fun and intense racing yesterday at Barbagallo.
I managed, perhaps with a bit of slipstream, to beat Stefan's SB with a 49.357 that felt great for pole.
Race 1
https://youtu.be/S6A4Au-f2zA started with Geoff and Dimitar's challenges, first on the start/finish straight that I managed to contain as cold tyres were a bit challenging on T1, but the second (this time successful) attempt by Dimitar was on the Tait straight when I played naively and left him to take the inside.
I had gone high on wings to improve stability on the turns and this wasn't giving me much advantage on the straight. I was keeping quite close to Dimitar but it was difficult to create enough gap at the obvious place (again end of the Tait straight) to secure the pass as I didn't want to force too much and risk an accident... The alternative was to wait for a slight error from him and be ready to capitalise. My additional wings helped to regain P1 on the first section of the track, from the Cat corner to the Shell turn, after a parallel run with Dimitar. Great fight. At that point, Geoff joined the party and they both got embroiled in battles that allowed me to secure the win for the race.
Race 2
https://youtu.be/N248BYy5tMk, starting on P8, was looking far more complex. We had a very close pace and overtaking had proven very challenging in the first race... On top of that, the battles in front unravelled badly and I got involved in an accident that relegated me to the back of the grid and with some time lost on the grass.
With a bit of body damage but not enough to pit, I got back on track and charging. I caught up with Geoff and Kimi(?) a few laps later at the end of the Tait straight. Geoff's car oversteered out of control and I went ahead chasing the front pack. When I cut the gap with Dimitar on P3, I was bracing for another frantic battle as in R1 but was surprised with a relatively easy pass (possibly after Dimitar run wide on the initial turns losing the flow?). Jari and Stefan were fighting in front for P1. I joined the party just when Stefan overtook Jari and could follow through for P2 again at the end of the Tait straight. Stefan pace was fast and, although I had a few laps and was putting a lot of pressure on him, he wasn't breaking... I made a mistake on the Cat corner with four laps to go and he gained .8 of a second... Enough to keep me out of his way. I kept pushing, tyres were starting to wear (yellow on my app) and we got to the final lap with the same gap... Stefan was very cautious on the first turns and I managed to reduce the gap almost closing it by the Shell turn. That gave me another chance before the end of the race and luck was on my side... Stefan had a wobble at the Bassin and I managed to get my car just in front for the win... That must have been very frustrating for Stefan who, otherwise, run a winner race.
Congrats to the podium and see you at Mugello!