I don't think you can draw a conclusion on the reliability of the cars. It really depends on how the driver treats them and not so much on the track or Pro rules. As long as you don't overrev by speed-shifting or changing down too early under braking, and not push too much in the opening laps with cold oil temperature, any car can be made to last.
As for the weaving, sure, it's not like it helps that much, but I still insist we come to some agreement on the pace at which the leading car should be going and the minimum distance between each car. It's really bothersome to have someone glued to your back and possibly rearend you if you choose to decelerate, and at the same time, it's bad if the car in front of you lets those in front of him/her open up too much of a gap. And I agree with Pod, single file formation is easier and safer in the sense that you only need to look forward and in your mirrors.
Regarding my own race, it was a very difficult one because Juha was unexpectedly very fast in the race, despite losing the pole by half a second. Even though I was able to stay in front after the start, he was immediately on the attack and managed to pass me once or twice, but the slipstream allowed me to return the favor very soon after.
It became obvious that he had superior acceleration and thus top speed, but I was slightly quicker through the slower corners, so we were pretty much equally paced. Still early in the race we came upon two backmarkers, one of them a Porsche I think, and I got distracted by keeping my eyes on the other car as it went off at Parabolica, so I followed into the gravel but at a lower speed.
I was back on the track in 3-4 seconds and started pushing to the limit to make up the lost time. It didn't took long before I was into Juha's slipstream again, but I didn't realize I had picked up so much speed going into Curva Grande behind him and went off into the armco, getting forced to slow down to try and detach from sliding alongside it. It didn't work out, so I kept riding it at low speed until the end of the corner.
By that time Juha had pulled away and the gap was about 5 seconds. I thought I would be able to close it up relatively easy again, but Juha went up another gear and it proved to be nearly impossible to catch him!
The gap went down to 3 seconds after a couple of laps, but then Juha went quicker than me and the gap grew up back to 4 and stabilized there for a while. I had almost lost hope for any chance of victory at that moment, but kept pushing anyway, hoping he would make some mistake.
With about 12 laps to go the gap began to go down steadily by about 2-3 tenths a lap, and once I managed to catch the slipstream properly, I could close up even quicker. We had a few small issues with backmarkers at this point, which probably worked a bit better in my favour, but time was running out!
With 3 to go I managed to pass Juha and take the lead, but knowing his superior straightline pace, it was far from over. On the penultimate lap he attacked me on the exit of Ascari, but I kept the outside line going into Parabolica, braked late and went around the outside on the exit, thus getting a faster exit, so I kept the lead.
The plan was to do the same on the last lap, but I needed to have a really good exit off Lesmo 2 to prevent Juha from passing me completely before we reached Parabolica. It almost didn't work out and I had to brake really late for Para, but once into the corner I managed to maximize my acceleration and exit it still in the lead. There was not enough time for Juha to pass me before the s/f line, so I won by just over a tenth!
A very exciting race and I must thank Juha for the tough but fair fight! I'm also finally relieved to win a race without getting DQ for not making a stop/go for shift-r, lol. And I suppose Oranges are victories points-wise as well.
-=Hristo=-
