I'm still acclimatising to the DP. My GPL influenced driving style doesn't suit big, heavy cars with downforce and I'm having real trouble unlearning old habits.
I'd done a fair bit of practice here as I'm not a fan of Infineon though I've had a few decent races here in the past. I was pleased that I'd got down to the mid 1:27s and my 27.1 in practice was a PB by some distance.
In qually I simply couldn't get it together. At the end I somehow managed to drop in a 1:27.3 which I was ultimately quite pleased with until I looked at the grid. That was a lot of work for 7th!
In the race I got a decent start and was matching Mike initially then little mistakes started to creep in which would lose me ground. Andy behind me was a bit slower and I was easing out a comfort gap there but the increasing gap in front meant I was getting increasingly lonely.
I'd started the race without the split times as I thought I'd be able to concentrate better but after 7 laps or so I changed my mind and found it actually helped, giving me a focus.
When Oily had his off I managed to get near him for a few laps but never close enough to pass. When Mike and Simon went in I thought I'd do a few extra laps on low fuel to try and get past. Bad move. My tyres were evidently shot as I went just as quickly when I finally came out on new ones and Mike and Simon were 20 seconds up the road.
My pitstop probably didn't help. That was my first ever competitive pitstop. I think I may have missed the cue to go and I don't know how long I was sitting there looking at the 14 seconds message. Hey ho. I got past Oily who'd gone off again in the Esses.
After that I got into a rhythm and cruised. With about 9 to go I spotted a dust cloud and saw a car exiting the hairpin as I was coming through the Esses. Looking at F3 I saw that 20+ seconds had become 10, a few corners later it was 9. The car in front had obviously got some damage, game on.
There were still plenty of laps left so I didn't rush. I felt like a cat stalking an injured mouse and when I caught him I sat behind to look for the safest way past. I thought it should be fairly straightforward but as Simon says you need a big speed advantage here to overtake and Mike's car may have been undriveable but he was undriving it beautifully, making sure he got a good exit at the key corners and keeping the speed up down the straights.
After a lap or so of this I figured my best chance was at the final hairpin. My car was miles quicker through the Esses. the next tiem round I got too close though and had to back out slightly at the critical point. Mike went to the inside to cover the hairpin so I went round the outside. There's not a lot of grip there though and I struggled to keep it straight, giving Mike the advantage. He seemed to be having trouble getting the power down so I went for the right but at that moment his car cried enough and span broadside in front of me. It was way to late to react and I hit him straight on, knocking him unceremoniously out of the way. Sorry again Mike, I can't think of anything I could have done differently.
Amazingly my car still went mostly forwards so I aimed for the finish. Having practised hard for three races now and only managing one corner under racing conditions up till now there was no way I I was not going to finish.
I thought I had two laps left but in fact it was three. Gary had been closing on me for a while to lap me but that was not going to happen. I could see I had about 10 seconds a lap leeway and managed to nurse it to the end. Halfway round the last lap it occurred to me that Gary had already finished so wouldn't pass me now but I didn't ease up for fear of screwing up and I had to finish the lap to avoid being lapped.
All in all quite eventful for a lonely race. I need to work harder on my pace in this car and figure out how the pitstops work.
Congratulations to the top three, particularly Gary who's been threatening to win one for a long time and I suspect will only get quicker from here on in.
Roll on Brands.
Paul
