Honest to god, I can't get a break, even when I have a good race, it gets tanked.
I ran 1:11.4 and a lot of others right near that in FP, so I was feeling ok about my pace at this track, which I kind of like, as weird as it is.
My qualifying lap was impeded by a complete idiot who pulled directly out of the pits onto the racing line, and we all know that 80% of the lap at Autopolis is in Turn 1... then he parked it on the racing line FOR THE WHOLE OUTLAP. WTH??!? complete idiot. He punted my on Lap 2 then, to add insult to injury. I lost P2 by 0.044, and P1 by 0.152, so do the math... I was likely to have P2 for sure, if not P1. But was happy to have P3, in the TT, all things considered.
THEN in the race... the guy directly in front of me in P1... he DOESN'T MOVE when the lights go out!!! WTH?!? He ghosts, I move left to get past him, already worried because I knew all the Megane Trophies are gonna swamp me anyway, but he ghosts, so I ease a bit... only to have him UNGHOST as I am nearly on his bumper... nothing I could do but accept the carnage. I get passed by a bunch of cars, now, and then I get a penalty for "hitting" him. SO UNFAIR.
And in the ensuing carnage in T1, which now is hard to blame on just anyone, after that cluster----. And while some guy or two go off the track in T1, there's a three-wide mess and I think I get another 1 sec penalty for that. Just wonderful.
So after serving that penalty, I think I fall to P8, and from there, I'm swamped entirely by all those Trophies, and have to use up my tires to defend any respectable position I might salvage from this disaster of an opportunity. HEre's the nice punchline: the guy who messed up the whole thing at the start, my race in particular: he WON the race. So unfair.
I'm so sick of the garbage in these lobbies lately. This particular cluster of DR A drivers at 35k-40k and the first slot have been a nightmare of sorts, it seems it's always something new and alway screws up my race. I should not have started in P3, I should not have been ruined at the start, and I would like to have had a fighting chance in the TT, if I was able to run up front a bit before the tires wore off. But as it went, I had little chance of any other outcome, as the TT isn't suited to fighting mid-pack in this combo.
Finished 10th, where a finish of 5th. or 7th would have been more likely under fair circumstances, and would have met my FIA points target for this round.
I did earn FIA points that may come into play still at the end, and I effectively was a net 0 on DR, with door #1 on the Audi. But I was SR down, thanks to the BS at the start. Thankfully still in the 90-99 top bin, so no damage other than a lost CRB and starting the next race on the threshold of the lower bin S rating.
Nice to race with
@afc5150 though we never saw each other during the race. Suspect he'll run it again. If I ran it again, I may try the Alfa, though it's more a Megane Trophy Cup event, so that may be a mistake too.
FIA points: 111