Fantastic race for me yesterday. I think everything worked well in the race and, indeed, everything needed to be perfect for me to end in P2.
After a frustrating beginning of the practice session, I managed to break the 1:22's barrier and set (for a little while) a SB which caught me by surprise... This was soon improved by Tim, Mark and Fabri... So I went to qualy expecting a fight... There was no such thing from my side as I was way off my PB and couldn't get the Skoda on the sweet spot... I ended P5 and, with the impressive pace of Mark and the Italian squad (no need to mention Tim anymore) the race was looking hard... I wasn't expecting the no-man's land race I had at Thompson...
And indeed it wasn't. I couldn't gain any positions initially despite a good start and could see Barone putting a brutal pace behind the
... Fabri and Mark looked more at reach although Fabri's approach to this track was quite different to mine and there were points in the track were he was definitively faster... He made a move on Mark after his slow exit to the main straight... So much speed from Fabri. I tried to follow as Mark was out of line but I didn't get through although we had a great parallel run. He had another slow exit on the main straight
and that had to be my chance to avoid losing contact with the Italians... We went through T1/T2 and Mark has narrated well the outcome. Thanks for avoiding an accident despite the increased damage to your options, Mark
(Is this the emoji for gentleman?)
The Italians had got 3 secs advantage and I needed to push hard. It was good to see some hesitations from Barone when he was caught by Fabri and that helped me to catch up with them just at the right time... Barone made a mistake in T1/T2 and I followed Fabri without further delays to start our epic battle that lasted for the rest of the race.... I literally had to prepare my overtake (Only chance) for 24 minutes... If I was improving my times, Fabri would respond with even better ones... He got me to do the FL of the race (I now know what FL means) out of desperation to get an opportunity to overtake. It was presented after I patiently waited a few turns before... I knew I could exploit my later braking on T2 to have a go at T3... A bit surprised that Fabri didn't defend when I attempted the overtake. His defense had been brutal by keeping a massive speed and consistency but I could make a move almost without resistance and got in front with a few laps to go... I initially gained a second over Fabri but he started to catch up dangerously in the last two laps... No room for mistakes... And got a P2 that could have well been a P5 or P6 with such a competitive grid had you not suffered some incidents.
Well done to all for a great race and looking forward to the last one... Congrats to Tim and specially Fabri for the podiums.
Video of the race as usual:
https://youtu.be/4hoKZPDPd7YEnjoy!
All the best,
Jos