Entertaining race from start till finish.
Qualification was great fun, as the track dried up and everybody was getting out towards the end to do a last quick lap. I had a good one and had a nice pole.
The race started dramatically. The track was damp so I went for intermediates....bad choice
. They were only getting till 60 degrees and Backo overtook me quickly. He showed so nice and fair racing tonight, well done Backo
.
Zacari and Paul were quick to follow up behind me, and once they overtook me around lap 9 I thought it was time to get in pits for soft wets and again a full tank.
By that time I was 30s behind the nr 4, Leuven, and was gaining (as he was in NGT
). I was doing some quick laps there and I was gaining on Paul about 2s a lap.
By that time I noticed my engine's health dropped around 2% every 5 minutes, and I was only at 80% at that time. So from around 40 minutes I had to short shift and try to keep it in one piece.
Zacari and Backo went in the pits, so I was 6s behind Paul when I went in.
I went for a splash of fuel and hard wets and I came out just behind Backo and Zacari. We past Paul when he was in the pits a lap or so later.
We then had a nice 3 car train for a few laps, which looks great in the wet. I had to put pressure on Backo, but also try to keep the engine alive. After a few laps he went wide at Adelaide and I could take 2nd and chase the Lister of Zacari.
I was a bit quicker, but I couldn't find a way past, as I was quicker on the wrong parts of the track. That Lister is pretty fast on the straight.
With 10 minutes to go I finally blew the engine which was said as I was in 2nd at that time. And being in 2nd with doing 2 stops was surprising to me. I thought race would be over when I had to come in for the first time.
Grats to winner in all classes.
