Thanks all, welcome to Skanda, and congrats to Toni and Frex on the podiums. Also to Geoff on his great pace. His bad luck with the spins worked also great for me although it would have been fun keeping that battle for the 45 mins of the race.
I leave a link to the video of the race from my angle here:
https://youtu.be/_s19FLtgXCgIt was another good and lucky race for me with the 90s F1.
I was adapting the RedBull Ring race setup during practice and didn't get to test softs and low fuel settings before qualy so I had no idea of the pace I would have before we went on (and was running 3 secs slower!! than the 1:31s someone did during practice).
I was in doubt over the engine map but decided to go with 5 (and a subtle throttle strategy) for both qualy and race. I think Geoff was probably with a lower map which helped me hugely on the first straight...
It worked well and I managed to reduce significantly my times qualifying on P3.
I saw a few messages about the 30 laps (last minute) instead of 30 mins... And added a lot more fuel. With map 5, I should be able to cope with the extra weight... And it worked well. No fuel shortages this time.
The race started with a bit of chaos at my right and it was lucky that I started on the left of the track as my throttle management wasn't great at the start and there was also quite a wobble that would have thrown me into the wall, had I started on the other side...
Luck didn't end there for my race. I was overtaken by frex and back to P3 in the first lap but had a couple of freebies at the end of L1 and, to my surprise, I was leading the race from L2.
Hungaroring is not a track for overtakes and with map 5 in the engine, I felt quite safe on the straights. The attack from Geoff was pretty serious. He was obviously much faster on the slow part of the track but I could, relatively easily, retain him there and regain a safer position at the end of the main straight for the following laps. I think Geoff knew that his options for an overtake would depend on doing a very fast main straight and the throttle betrayed him with a spin 13 mins in the race.
From that point, it was just about maintaining the 9-10 secs distance with the drivers behind and avoid pushing too hard and making mistakes.
All in all a lucky and solid race for me.
Happy to take the title of 'man to beat' but I think luck has been on my side so far and this is hiding some facts... Yesterday Geoff was faster than I both in qualy and during the race... I think the key is in the balance between speed and a safe setup making no mistakes. I'm sure the following races will bring more variety as we all fine-tune our approach to these extraordinary cars.
All the best,
Jos
