I'm still under adrenalin rush from yesterday night, argh, whole body hurts.
Right. Wing 2-8, med-med tyres, Dubai setup as a basis (tweaked gearing, nothing else). Managed to tweak the tyres into 199-200kPa pressure area allround, although that left me with a bit cold front&rear right.
Did some low 1.30s in practice (while tweaking quali setup, trying to get tyre temp down and pressure below 205kpa) only to realise (in quali session) I did a much too thorough job, since soft-soft on 200kPa do not work miracles. They do @ 205kPa. Go figure.
Anyway, P8 in quali, more then a second down on PB wasn't bad anyway, considering I did not manage a single flying lap without traffic. Argh.
Race started well, gained two places (via kind mistakes from other drivers
), had a good initial fight with Paul Richards, Jan Duijs and FreQ (while thinking: hmmm, it's quiet, yes, too quiet, I'm on same pace as the big boys, something ain't right
). Pace was fine, even better, I've realised I'm eating curbs A LOT and feeling safer at it compared to avoiding them. Weird feeling, especially on this track.
Then I did the one thing one must not do. Following FreQ close on his exhaust caused a classic so-where's-that-chicane-entry-anyway-situation. See replay @532s. AM I ONE LUCKY B*****D OR WHAT?!?!!!!
Cooled down, got two "cutting track warnings from race director" because I eased off, braked early and messed up due to it. Typical. Slower pace had additional influence on tyre pressure (think ice age) so I've decided it's time to push some more (Paul was in trouble by then). Exiting Schumy chicane I left some paint and aero parts on armco and while still enjoying my position (P6, I think) I've realised there's a completely insane, high revving lambo with extremely high gear ratios eating chunks of time out of me. Had no idea who he was but I knew he must be one of the big boys, high gearing usually means master-coming-through-get-out-of-my-way. Yup, Jon Moore was back there.
Tried to drive defensively (mistake) while praying for chequered flag (which, luckily, came rather fast
. BTW, my stopwatch showed 38+ mins of racing. Something to be checked, was pretty sure we're going to do at least 23 or even 24 laps). In retrospective (after watching replay) Lambo isn't fast enough down the straights for any serious passing moves vs F550except if one messes up in front (like I did, watching the mirrors instead of racing line, sigh.).
Anyway, P4 was up for grabs but I blew it early in the race. Nevertheless, P5 is my best result so far in GT1 sprints and I'm happy with it.
Endurance will be carnage (Not to mention long-term weather forecast. Care for a swim anyone?).