If it has to be Nürburgring (apart from Nordschleife), then this is my preferred layout, as it gets rid of those horrid slow corners after T1.
Surprised and of course delighted to be on pole. Managed to hold on to the lead after the start, but all for naught, when Daz knocked me out at the hairpin on L1. 2nd to last when I had dug myself out of the gravel. Caught and passed Kurt at T1, and repeated that with Matt a lap later.
At some point, I passed a severely stuck Clive in amongst the tyre stacks at the chicane. Chased after Tony, but wasn't really making any impact in the gap. Had me scratching my head, as I'm usually a little faster than him, and my laptimes weren't overly slow. Gradually got closer, but by the time I had almost closed the gap, Daz had caught up and started a fight. When he bumped my car a 2nd time at the hairpin, I angrily tried to flash him past, but he wouldn't do it. This intermezzo handed Tony a new 4-secs gap, and I had to repeat all the hard work of getting closer once again.
Battle with Daz continued for a few more laps, until he got past at the hairpin in a clean move. I'm sure I would have appreciated the battle more, if I hadn't been as disgruntled over the earlier incident. Had almost reeled in Tony again (very slowly), when he pitted on lap 13. Did so myself one lap later. After my stop, I was around 8 secs ahead of him, and now increasing the gap lap by lap. Wondered if Tony had started on a partial fuel load, and if that could account for his speed in the 1st half. He would then have to fill up more, which might explain his apparent longer stop - I had started with a full load, and thus didn't have to add all that much.
Up ahead, Daz was steadily moving away, so no chance of catching him. Then on lap 26, what absolutely couldn't happen, did. Early on, I had gotten two - fair - cut warnings, so had been very careful all race about not getting a 3rd. On worn tyres, I now ran wide in T3, getting on the outside grass. Off throttle, moving slowly, and so very clearly losing time, but still the game's infinite wisdom decides I need another warning, and thus the S/G. Cursing the entire rest of the lap, as that meant losing the class win and position - with only two laps left, there was no way I could catch Tony again. That is, until I found him heading for the pits at the end of lap 27. Wondered if he had received a S/G too, but replay seems to indicate him short shifting like mad, so maybe he miscalculated the fuel amount during his stop?
Bit of a roller coaster of a race. Grats to DD & pod - even Daz..