Grats to Hristo on a wonderful pole position, Fastest lap of the Race and a victory.
Thanks, Dimi, though it was Clive who got the fastest lap!
What an exciting race, especially the way it finished! Earlier in the day I was unsure whether to go with the regular W196 or the SL, but imagining how it would be very difficult to overtake the SL once it's in front of someone, even if they're faster in the corners, made me go with it instead of the other. My suspicion was proved right during the race!
Qualifying was all about who got the most slipstream, and I got lucky to take pole by just 1 hundred of a second. I don't know how Enrique did it, but his time in the Lancia was incredible, as was his pace during the race too. The best I could do with that car when I tested it yesterday offline was a mid 04...
I had a decent start and stayed in 1st, but it was soon clear that I won't be escaping away and that Enrique is much quicker in the corners. As long as I didn't mess it up though, it was going to be very difficult for him go through, so I wasn't worried too much. After some laps there came a moment where he had a really good run going into T1 and I decided not to contest it, so he took the lead, but lost it on the next straight because of the top speed difference of the SL compared to his Lancia.
Soon after this I noticed another Mercedes SL closing in 3rd place and one of my viewers told me it's Dimi! He eventually overtook Enrique and after that we spent many times working together to try and not impede each other too much. Whenever one of us was attacking, the other would lift up the throttle a little bit so we don't enter the corners side by side. It worked fairly well, though there was one moment where we both lifted up going into T1 lol. I imagine it was quite frustrating for Enrique to not be able to capitalize even from that mistake.
It was such a shame to see him disconnect though, so now it was just myself and Dimi running at the front. With the massive slipstream though, it didn't take long for Clive to join the battle, but again similarly as with Enrique, he couldn't do much about our SLs. I had a moment in one of the laps where Clive was on my inside, in my blind spot, and I didn't dare turn, so taking the outside line allowed Dimi to escape a little bit ahead. Even that was fine though, as the slipstream gradually got me closer to him again.
After about half race distance Dimi switched to driving more defensively and eventually found a way to always remain ahead. As much as I tried, there was just no way to overtake around the outside of corners. The race was almost over and I had just about settled for 2nd, when in the distance I noticed we were catching up to 3 backmarkers fighting together (Phil, Jonny and Evil, apparently). I was still thinking they would benefit Dimi more as he would be catching their slipstream first.
With 2 to go we were at about 300 meters behind them and I could feel the slipstream effect already on the back straight, as Dimi took his defensive line again towards the infield of the track. When we exited T4 to finish the penultimate lap, he again moved left and this gave me exactly what I needed - slipstream from the trio ahead, who were now even closer! I managed to overtake Dimi before T1 and then somehow navigate my way through the 3 drivers ahead as we exited T2!
From there on I just had to keep it clean, as the gap to Dimi seemed sufficient enough. I almost messed up T3, but Dimi did the same it seems, so aI had just enough gap out of T4 to stay ahead until the finish!
Congrats to Dimi for a great race and 2nd place, and Clive for 3rd!
