What a race!
Qualifying was very intense as well and for some time I thought I had the pole in the bag, even when Tim closed up to 4 hundreds behind with his 1:19.84 lap.
I knew my BT7 had some more pace stored in it and so I tried a different set of gears, using 3rd for the hairpins and 4th in T1. It didn't feel very comfortable, but it actually worked and gave me an improvement to a 19.66.
Alas, Tim somehow found a lot of speed as well and produced a 19.66 as well, but his was 5 thousands of a second quicker apparently.
There was not much hope to pass for 1st on the start and passing in normal racing conditions would've been hard either because the BT7 just looses so much on acceleration, especially out the last corner on the uphill slope.
At the start I took the outside line of T1 to carry more speed, but Tim still managed to rocket his BT11 down T2 and the following straight. He looked at a good distance ahead, so I thought I would close up on him at T3 by braking as my usual braking point.
Suddenly I realized I was closing up on him too fast and it appeared as if he nearly stopped in the corner, so I couldn't avoid contact and we slid across the grass without much (or any) damage.
I was still close to the outside edge of T3 so I carefully rejoined, but someone took the outside line at that moment (or someone went off, not sure) and I had another contact, but managed to continue almost immediately.
Tim was also recovering just behind me and a mistake from me let him by, so now I had to chase him as we put effort to pass the cars ahead. I remember the likes of Phil, Clutch and King Hiro being our next rivals.
Tim eventually closed up on one of them at T1 but missed his entry point and drifted wide, so I tucked in on the inside and accelerated to line up alongside him. The car ahead had a slightly slower exit and Tim attempted a pass while I was still side by side with him, which led to a contact and we both spun in the grass again. I guess we were even now.
I think I had some damage on the car by then, because it was handling funny in some corners and the tires began to overheat, but for some 20 laps it was still quite consistent.
Passing Vix was not easy as he was very fast on the straights, but eventually he went wide in a corner and I took the inside, but he turned in as if I was not there and took himself out.
Clutch was next and I took him at T3 with a very late braking manouver, but somehow kept it in the corner.
By that time Goran was nearly 20 seconds ahead with about 23 laps to go, so I needed to take at least 1 second a lap to have any chance of catching him. This worked for 10 laps or so, but then he increased his pace and was on par with my laptimes on some laps. Amazing feat considering the RFB and H-shifter!
I still had some chance to catch him, despite the handling of my BT7 getting worse, but then I came up on a Ferrari backmarker who was about 100 meters ahead, but decided to nearly stop in T3 to let me by. Sadly it was on the line I take and I couldn't avoid contact, but at least it was low speed. It cost me 2-3 seconds though and the chance of catching Goran disappeared unless he would make a mistake.
With 3 laps to go the server lost me from the results and so the pitboard was showing me I was dropping a lap down with each lap. I don't know if Goran slowed down when he saw I "wasn't" behind him, but I could see him a corner ahead on the last lap, so the gap had gone down. There wasn't anymore time left though.
Amazing consistency by Evil to take the win, grats! Also a great drive by Goran! I really thought I could catch you both despite the incidents early on, but you were faultless in front, so a well deserved 1-2.
See you next race!
-=Hristo=-
