I thought that was a cracking race tonight, a brilliant track for these old classics, full of nostalgia and excellent racing battles.
Qualied 5th after beeing 4th almost the entire session, but my new nemesis Brian snatched 3rd from me with about 2 mins remaining. Knew a high qually spot was important here so still very pleased with 4th. Was amazed that a new PB for me of 1:51 was only good for 5th!
Got a reasonable start in the race and managed to avoid the spinning Alpine of Assas? at T1 up ahead as i rounded the corner, just squeezing between him and the armco..phew.
I think a rolling start here would have been even more chaotic at T1 as the cars would have carried more momentum into a spun car. Even in the real world T1 at Monaco is notorious.
Set about chasing after Pablo and had an amazingly tough fight with him ahead in 3rd, me 4th and Kerr behind in 5th for about 20 minutes / 10 laps or so, with only a second or two between us. I was sweating like anything with wrestling the F275 around the tight corners. I eventually closed right down on Pablo and he started to make some errors under pressure and then he cracked running wide at Ste Devote.
With 3rd under my belt and setting good lap times i was feeling confident but was keeping a close eye on the hard charging Kerr who wasnt giving me a moments rest for lap after lap. It was strenuous stuff
With about 3-4 laps remaining i caught a back marker in the swimming pool complex (worst place
) and he got a little indecisive as me and Kerr bore down on him. I unfortunately clipped his rear into the tight corner and he half span blocking the track. So apologies to Madmacc? for that. I thought i would do the gentleman thing and let him turn back around rather than force my way through but Brian, being one of those dastardly Shark blighters, pushed around the outside and nicked my hard earned 3rd place. :'(
I drove like a man possessed to chase him back down and closed right up but on the final lap i side-swiped the armco on worn tyres, lost momentum and he pulled out the 1second needed to stay nicely ahead.
Pleased with 4th but gutted i lost 3rd to traffic. So
but also
Congrats to the podium guys...save me a sip of champers, i earnt it