Another successful wet race for me, going to hope for more from now on! Qualifying didn’t go too well, I didn’t get any clean laps in so started second. Even if I had got a clean lap in I don’t think I could have taken Lemon though.
I got a good start and was level with Lemon for first going into the first corner, but I was hit in the rear when going around the slow second corner, this knocked me into Lemon and I think just about everyone got a penalty there. I managed to untangle myself pretty quickly and came out of the chaos in 4th behind Maddog, Blackhawk and Mark (I think). Whoever was in third made a mistake and I got past before the end of the first lap, I closed on Hawk pretty quickly too and was hoping for a battle with him as I don’t think we’ve been on the same bit of track before now but unfortunately he spun as I was coming up behind him. Maddog had avoided most of the incidents at the start so had a lead of around 5 seconds.
Over the next few laps the gap closed slowly but only started to come down quickly once the rain started around lap 8. I got past around lap 12 but immediately saw a reduction in grip so I came into the pits not long after that, with Maddog and Lemon right behind. Something happened to both of them (I think Maddog mentioned going on to the wrong tyres) because I had a fiar sized gap by the end of my out lap. The rest of the race I tried to maintain at least a 20 second gap to Lemon due to my penalty from the start of the race and the distance remained between 23 and 26 seconds until it got dry enough to stick option on again with about 6 laps left.
I had fun on the last few laps, I know Lemon would be fast in the dry so I put the engine up to full and chased the fastest lap. The last few laps Lemon and I traded the fastest lap but I managed to get past the line with more than 20 seconds back to Lemon.
First win of the season and first 2-car podium for the Force Indias! Hopefully this will give me the confidence boost to get some more good results down. It was nice to see the old three car top three back together from first season too :D
DOTD: Blackhawk, he must have had a miserable race but he was professional enough to carry on racing despite being off the pace and was very fair when letting faster cars lap him