Wow that was hard and great.
Already started in qually where I swapped setup with 10 minutes to go. And luckily for me it was better and I had pole with 2 minutes to go. Then Madd went out and I saw that he was quicker in the first and 2nd sector and I knew what was gonna happen. With no time to spare for an outlap and timed lap I had to settle with 2nd. WHich I was happy with, as I have usually good standing starts.
At the starting grid something strange happened. There were cars passing me when the green flag wasn't waved yet. So when the timer started I floored it and immediatly took the lead.
I held on to that for some laps untill I touched the inside of the tight hairpin and it sent me round. I floored it to do a 360 but the sanddune beached me. Bara was quickly to overtake me and he had a big lead then (R: 783)
Few laps later I messed up again, spinning and losing another 4 seconds (R: 960). The 2nd setup I chose only had 22 degrees of steering lock, and normally I drive with 34,5. So when this car drifted, I couldn't catch it anymore.
At that point I was following Bara at a 10s gap. Noway I was gonna gain that in 15 laps. He then had something with a backmarker I think and I was 4s behind again. But he was quicker and drove off again. I had to hope for mistakes by him.
Even in his slipstream I wasn't gaining anything, but at one point he touched the grass at the last corner and I could overtake him on the s/f straight.
He was right behind me at the next straight and outdrafted me, and outbraked himself. So I was still on first place, but struggling (R: 2165)
I was surprised to see him outdraft me with no problem, whereas I wasn't doing that in the same situation. It was like he had no slipstream
.
Lap later he outbraked me at the hairpin and I dropped to 2nd. The corner before the Dunlop bridge we were door to door drifting through (and shaking hands ; (R: 2288))).
Again, lap later at the backstraight. I got a better exit and could get alongside. Braked as late as possible but the backend locked and my nose was pointing left, where Bara was
. Scary moment for me, as I was afraid I'd hit him, but luckily it wasn't the case and the pass succeeded (R: 2362).
Last lap, again before the hairpin, Bara tried outbraking me, but braked a bit too late and got wide (R: 2463).
Great battle in the end with Bara. I usually take some slower car to have great midfield battles, but the difference with the other cars (mainly Fezza) was huge, which would have made it impossible to fight them. That's why I went for the Fezza as well, and to fight for the championship. In the end I got the battle I was hoping for, not midfield, but with Bara for the win. So even with picking the best car, I had a good race and had to push me .... off
.
I added replay times in my post here Ossie, so that maybe makes it easier for you on the videodepartment.