I didn't have much hope for this race after realizing that we're racing Carthage 1935 and not 1936 which I had installed and had experience with some time ago in oAo, with Ferrari.
By the time I downloaded and installed the correct version there were just 20 minutes left, so I copied over my Spa setup, adjusted some gears a bit to space them out more evenly and went off to try and figure out the track in the reminded of the session.
There was no point going cautiously so I took full advantage of the fact that we can esc-enter and restart during Qualifying. I kept crashing on each of my first few attempts, especially at T1 and T2. That helped me to test the gears though and I made some further adjustments.
On my last run I managed to set and then improve my lap time, but it was not a match for the pace of the Tim and Tom duo. Setting 1st gear for the start was tricky as I wanted it long enough for the last corner, but short enough to make a good start. As it appeared, I set it more for the corner...
Dropped down the revs too early on the start, despite reacting quickly as the green flag fell. That left Evil with no room to go behind, so I could see him lifting up while waiting for me to pick up speed. All that allowed Bob to line up alongside on the right and we went into T1 like that.
I braked a bit later and opted for the outside line. I think I left enough room but saw Bob spinning under breaking very close to my car; I assume he braked a bit too deep while turning in and the fact that he had to stay inside to avoid hitting me was the cause of his spin.
By the time Tim and Tom were more than a second ahead, but then Tim went into the wall and I was up to 2nd. From there on it was a very tough chase on Tom who was driving superbly and his Lotus had the upper hand on acceleration, so I was losing time out of every corner and my only chance was to take big risks on corner entry and trying to get the power down as soon as possible.
This lasted for the majority of the distance and the gap between us fluctuated between 1-2 seconds. It was quite intense as every little mistake led to and increase or decrease of the gap, so we were trying to balance between taking risks and being consistent.
I had a big moment at the esses in the middle of the races - braked a bit too late for the right hander there, lost the rear and just as I was about to spin around, the rear left wheel touched the wall and that straightened up the car, so I lost just about a second to Tom.
I thought I lost my chances right there as it was nearly impossible to close up the gap to him, but then he had his spin at the long right hander in the middle of the lap and dropped back. From there on I just kept my pace without taking too much risk, but was worried about the fuel load.
According to my pre-race calculations I had put JUST enough fuel, so I was checking the fuel pressure gauge frequently, but it turned out that I had 19 liters (worth more than 2 laps) of fuel left at the end. That must've cost me some pace in the race, just enough to let Tom snatch the fastest lap by a few hundreds of a second.
Anyway, it was great to win a 4th in a row and I can see why Al is worried - it seems others have bad luck and that works in my favor and against him. It's nice to have the last race decide it all though. Commiseration to Tom for his bad luck, he drove really great before his off and was most likely going to win.
Grats to Evil for making it to the podium - SHE will be pleased!