@Magnificent-Geoffrey I’ve noticed a few errors in the championship standings. Add the scores from today to this and Steve isn’t on 120, and I’m not on 90…
@supernicebob Brilliant video! But what’s happened to the sound in your last two videos? It was interesting to see you were actually ahead of me into Les Combes on those two occasions where it looked like I outbraked you. From my video, you’ll see it looked quite different to that…
@slr Awesome! And that was some seriously good car control towards the end of the video when you’re going through Pouhon sideways!
My race was terrible and I have no idea how I salvaged 4th place!
I started qualifying with a series of spins and I was feeling completely hopeless in the wet conditions. I then tried putting traction control on, which helped me keep it pointing in the right direction, but it felt awfully slow coming out of corners. I set my best time with TC on (which I’m not too proud of) but it wasn’t anything special, so I’ve left it out of the video.
Poor @Electrolite had his connection fail, which I probably should have embraced considering our battles this season! But as we all discussed the predicament, I’d completely forgotten to turn traction control off again.
Starting on the primes, I had a poor launch as I had no-where near enough revs (I’d never done a TC start so I had no idea what to do) and I lost several positions before La Source. Going through Eau Rouge, I noticed @Aus_Steve and @ed24f1 were locked in a furious wheel-to-wheel scrap, whilst @supernicebob tried to capitalise. They lost a lot of speed through battling, and I approached the scene very rapidly, giving me little time to think. I swept to the inside, but just as I did so, Ed also went right, and I now had one wheel alongside him as he inched closer to the edge of the track. I could have lifted and tried to duck in behind (I have no idea why I didn’t) but I kept my foot in it and Steve, Ed and myself went three wide into Les Combes. I actually didn’t intend to outbrake Ed, but I tried to salvage the situation and keep a tight line when I realised I had indeed passed him. But it wasn’t enough, and despite thinking I’d left enough room for Steve (and assuming Ed was behind) the three of us collided. I have no idea how much it affected Steve, but I didn’t even know he was involved until I saw @slr‘s video on the previous page!
The rest of the first lap was a disaster. Into Fagnes, David was spinning. I wasn’t thinking quickly enough (if at all) and I ploughed into him, and dropped even further back. Then into the Bus Stop supernicebob tried a move up the inside, but the lag meant I had no idea he was there until it was too late, and I pirouetted into the run-off and into the wall. I quickly reversed out and then drove around the tyre wall at full-lock, but it wasn’t enough to get onto the pit staight without running wide, and I clipped Nic again as I tried to recover to the track! It was quite humourous in an extremely frustrating way!
The next few laps went quite well, and I set several fastest laps (I had no idea how I was quickest on track) and passed a few cars. I got past @Silverkeg, but later in the lap, I misjudged my turn-in point for the corner with no name after Rivage, and bounced my car over the kerb and into the outside wall where it stopped dead. I lost all of the positions I’d worked so hard to take in the previous few laps, and dropped back behind supernicebob.
I spent a while chasing the guys ahead before the rain started coming down. I stayed out for a few laps, and eventually made my first stop for inters at the end of lap 9/start of lap 10. When my pit crew decided to give me full wets instead, I was unsure if they’d burn out too quickly on the damp track, but despite getting hot and according to my race engineer, blistering, they held on for the rest of the race.
My final half of the race was very uneventful, and I just had to focus on putting in clean laps and capitalising on the mistakes of others. Poor strategies from the people ahead meant I was able to climb to fourth, and I fancied a shot at third when I realised I was catching Ed quickly. I took about 9 seconds out of him and it occurred to me that there was a chance of penalties, so I tried my hardest to get within 10 seconds. Alas, I fell 9 tenths short, and it was torturous to see that Ed indeed did receive a penalty, so I was in fact 9 tenths away from a podium. Oh well.
I’ve learnt a few lessons from this race. From now on, I’m not going to let adrenaline (or whatever it was that came over me) control me at the start, and I’ll be much less aggressive. I paid the price for getting a bit too excited this evening.
Secondly, I’m going to make sure I reaffirm my tyre selection as I come into the pits, because the pit crew obviously don’t pay attention, as I’m sure slr will back me up on!
And last but not least; traction control is awful. The car felt so sluggish and I had so much understeer tonight. I have no idea why, but maybe it’s because having no assists helps me to slide the car through the corners, whereas TC keeps it pointing straight if it senses the back end is stepping out. I really wish I’d remembered to switch it off, because I felt awful using it, the car felt slow (although that was probably placebo and me looking for an excuse for being so terrible!), and it was no-where near as fun.
Anyway, here’s the video.
And here are the correct championship standings: :P
