Has the password changed for the youtube account, or is it that if someone else is logged in and uploading it won’t let anyone else in? Either way, I can’t log in at the moment.
Like most people, I had a pretty scrappy day today. I think Monaco is simply too much for my old brain to process. As you will eventually see in the video my multitasking went out the window and I was all over the place.
It started before that though with the qualifying muck up. I saw there were lots of messages going on, but didn’t stop to check out what was actually occurring and just got my head down and got on with the session. If I had taken the time to check stuff out then most of the delays wouldn’t have happened so apologies for all that.
Actual qualifying wasn’t great. I completely failed to set a good lap time, and I don’t think any of them were spoilt by traffic. Reckon I could have easily got another second, although there was a pretty big gap in the times as I recall.
Somehow managed to not focus on the start, and despite knowing that David might not move off the line I still totally failed to avoid him. Apologies for any contact at T1, Slr. You had already spun and I did try to avoid you. Not sure if someone else hit you though as the way your car moves doesn’t seem to make sense in terms of what I was up to, but I guess lag may have been an issue. With a couple of errors and an early pit stop ahead of me I was up to 6th at the end of lap 1.
Things were pretty stable for the next few laps, but I’d evidently taken a lot out of my tyres in qualifying and had moment coming out of Rascasse at the end of lap 4. Probably should have dived into the pits then. Shortly after I came across a Spud/Shyguy road block after Casino which promoted me to the dizzying heights of 4th. I definitely should have come into the pits at that point.
Lap 6 and I had a huge slide through Massenet and I struggled to get power down for the rest of that lap. This let Shyguy and Spud back through before I finally came into the pits, though not before I fumbled my tyre selection. Exiting the pits in 9th, I was up to 8th after this time coming across Electrolite on the exit of Casino.
I then caught Ads up, struggling with his tyres towards the end of his stint I think. My mind completely melted at this point and I was totally distracted by his car. Very poor on my part. I turned into Tabac way to early, bounced off the barrier and Electrolite was back through and quickly past Ads before he went into the pits and I now had David on my tail.
A couple of quiet laps passed by before I caught up to Spud, now struggling with his tyres. I thought he was going to move to the inside going into the tunnel, but this may have just been a squirm on the old tyres. It was a bit of a mess after that, and I backed out going into the chicane as I wasn’t totally sure I’d got by Spud completely cleanly. Chaos in the chicane as he spun in front of me, backed everyone up and meant I had a little train of cars behind me.
Slr was putting me under pressure, with the gap constantly shifting up and down, but by the start of lap 15 it had just about got to 2 seconds. I think if anything I may have relaxed a little, and missed my braking point for Sainte Devote. I was really annoyed with myself for this mistake which cost three places. All quiet after that until I came in for another set of primes at the end of lap 17, rejoining in 9th.
Later that lap I passed a stricken Steve, spinning in the second part of the swimming pool. Then, along the start/finish, Electrolite came out of the pits. I went by but he came back into Sainte Devote which I wasn’t expecting. So a good opportunistic move there. I was hoping to counter-attack as his tyres got up to speed, but I was not up to task and he began to pull away.
Lap 23 and the leaders were coming round to lap. Really not sure what was going through my head when I thought that the best way to let Damon through was to park my car on the apex at Sainte Devote. Really bad move. Sorry about that. Later that lap Mag was behind me, until I lost it in Tabac and kindly pirouetted out of his way. A couple of laps later and it was Steve’s turn. This time I got out of the way by hooking my inside rear wheel on the first apex of the second swimming pool chicane, once again spinning.
David was behind me and he would obviously get by soon if I kept on making mistakes on the old tyres, and I was fairly sure the gap to Spud meant I would only lose that place, so I decided to come into the pits for a late blast on some options. The gap to Spud was indeed large enough so I set about trying to get some quick laps in to take any advantage of late mistakes ahead. That was not before my brain totally melted when trying to change fuel map and instead told my pit crew I would be coming in again, this time for full wet tyres.
Fuel map sorted, I put in my fastest lap of the race. It was greatly aided by fresh options, low fuel and a rubbered in track, but it was at least good to have one bit of the race where I wasn’t driving dreadfully. Was pushing a bit too hard on the next lap, which would be my last having been lapped, and got very leary in the first bit of the swimming pool. The gap to David ahead of me had not really come down much though. The yellow flags were out around Rascasse and Anthony Noghes, but what ever had happened had cleared.
Crossing the line 9th, I was surprised when the result came up with 7th. Evidently some misfortune had befallen both David and Electrolite as not only had they both picked up penalties during the race, but the gap was less than 10 seconds. Not really sure I deserved 7th, as although I think the pace was there, I made far too many mistakes.
