You think you had a top speed deficit Erling....
Final lap in quali saw me finally post something halfway representative, but I knew I was going to be in trouble on lap 1....
Good jump off the line, but then 100 metres later they were forming an orderly queue behind to go past! Managed to hold on and squeeze back through on the twisty stuff, ending up behind a Dan/Erling/Clive combo that were dancing around a couple of seconds ahead. On anything that resembled a braking zone or corner of note I could catch up, but the straight saw them all blast off in a ridiculous fashion.
However, Clive exited stage left or right at some point, and for the next couple of laps I was actually being held up as I was close enough to Dan and Erling in the twisty stuff. Their race was definitely frantic, I was just sniffing for an opportunity to make some hay if there was any drama. Nearly stuck my nose in a couple of times, but not until there was an error from Dan could I really start to have a run at Erling.
As he reports, I has a cracking run on the way out of that uphill section, and could possibly have gone on the inside, but that would have been utter folly. No, much better to back off and drop back in the line and uh-oh, bit of unannounced understeer from being slightly unsighted as I was too close to Erling, and bang into the lamppost. I'm not sure how many times it went around felt like about 8.4, with some good air involved I think, must watch the replay....I thought the car would be MIA to be honest, but it started up, and I pulled off to try to define the extent of the damage, thinking puncture or wheel missing would be likely, but no, all 4 wheels were still on it. Unfortunately, the 5th wheel, the one in my hands, was out by about 70 degrees, and the car was what I would term 'a bit lively' from that point.
Understeer or oversteer, take your pick, it would do one or the other. All the time. Every corner. Normally without telling me which was coming next. It had lost a load of pace as well, so was just a case of trying to stay on and bring it home....
Good fun whilst the racing lasted, but the Merc was at best a flawed choice, all my own fault!
Grats to DD for the pace up front bringing the reward, and Erling for the well deserved 2nd place.