Nations - Maggiore East Gr.4
Strategy: 11H-12M with refuel
My qualifying was much better than usual, putting me 6th on the grid. I elected to stick with my usual strategy of starting on the harder compound and saving the softer compound for later.
I held my position on the opening lap, before a familiar Mazda from Sardegna B got the inside into turn 7's hairpin and took 6th off of me. Annoying, but there was little I could do as he pulled away on Mediums. The Marlboro Slophy behind could not reel me in, so I spectated the duel between the Mazda and a Taiwanese Subaru ahead of me, with the former emerging the victor and the duo proceeding to pull away from me.
The Marlboro Slophy finally caught up to me at the start of lap 5, briefly pulling alongside me out of turn 1 before backing out as I held the inside line into the esses. He managed to take the inside of turn 1 the following lap, dropping me to 8th.
With the Marlboro pulling away and with a sizable gap to the next three cars behind, I focused on putting in some laps under clean air. 4 laps later, a Japanese Subaru challenged me for 8th. I forced him to back off into the esses, but he came back to outdrag me out of turn 7.
Since I was planning to box the following lap, I simply tucked in behind, only for the Subaru to run wide at turn 8, allowing me to get the run on him and reclaim 8th into the final hairpin, holding onto my place for the in lap.
After taking Mediums and fuel at the end of lap 11, I was back up to 7th by the end of lap 13. The Taiwanese from earlier and a Rothman Slophy caught up to me on the next lap, with the latter diving up the inside and forcing me wide to allow the Subaru to follow the Rothman while I dropped down to 9th.
I tucked in behind the Subaru and stayed there for the next few laps, with the Marlboro joining the pack behind me. On lap 16, the four of us caught up to the Mazda, now stuck on Hards. Things kicked off into the final hairpin when the Rothman dove up the inside of the Mazda, slipping through after the Mazda turned in on him. The Taiwanese was the next to pass, outdragging the Mazda down the home straight. With the Marlboro still on my rear and a clearly struggling Mazda directly ahead, I had to find a way past quickly.
The Mazda tried to reel in the Taiwanese for another fight and sensing a possible double overtake, I tried going 3 wide into turn 8 on lap 18.
The move backfired on me as I had to brake early by taking the inside line, allowing the Marlboro to pass me round the outside. Luckily for me, the Marlboro then found himself completely boxed in with the grass on the right, the Mazda ahead and me on the left, compromising him enough to allow me to retake 8th into the final hairpin.
The Marlboro then tried repeating the above situation the following lap with our roles reversed, taking the inside of turn 8 to force me to the outside by the final hairpin. It probably would have worked if he had remembered to brake into said hairpin.
The Marlboro's mistake sent himself into a spin and forced the Mazda wide, allowing me to waltz through for 7th.
With clear air ahead and the Mazda behind getting passed by the Japanese Subaru, I focused on chasing the Taiwanese Subaru ahead. However, I completely stuffed up line through the esses on lap 21, allowing the Japanese through. The Japanese then ran into the Taiwanese now on shot Mediums, triggering a Subaru duel over 6th. By the start of lap 22, I had two dueling Subarus ahead with an Alpine Slophy alongside for company.
I managed to hold off the Alpine before retaking 7th off the Japanese with a move up the inside of turn 7, putting me right behind the Taiwanese.
With the Taiwanese clearly on the ropes, I took the inside into the final hairpin and forced the Taiwanese to take the long way round, before finishing the job by constricting his line into the final corner to claim 6th.
I was now back where I started with one lap to go, but my Mediums were rather worn. I managed to park my Slophy in the right places to fend off the Japanese Subaru and the Alpine to keep 6th for 134 points. One and done.
The McLaren driver from Interlagos was in this lobby, albeit driving the sole Alfa in the lobby. And his shocking driving standards was on full display here, from spinning an unlucky Citroen to constantly blocking his fellow backmarkers. However, he had neglected to run any practice races in the Alfa and his rears were completely gone by lap 7, sending him down to last and getting lapped by the rest of the field in a beautiful piece of karma. Unsurprisingly, he quitted.
Manufacturers - Red Bull Ring Gr.3
Race 1 was a race to forget, as a catastrophic attempt to qualify under slipstream sent me to the back and kept me there for the entire race.
Strategy: 12M-7H with refuel
Livery by Raychii_DvR9
Race 2's qualifying was a great improvement, putting me 5th on the grid
After barely surviving the opening lap from a close encounter with turn 4's gravel as pictured above, I got back up to 5th to set some laps under clean air. I had a couple of bouts with a Renault, with the second round costing me 5th after I got a track penalty for running a little too wide at Niki Lauda.
After serving the penalty, I nearly lost another place to a Thai Mustang by making a complete hash of turn 4, but just about managed to stay ahead.
The rest of my stint was uneventful, with my strategy being 'copy the race leader'. Which was what I did on lap 12, boxing for Hards and fuel with the Thai also copying me.
The Thai came out ahead, which proved to be moot anyway as he immediately pitted again, revealing that he was on the 2 stop. I would have realised that earlier had I paid attention to the grid order or the first pit stop; he had started from 15th and worked his way up on Softs.
With my closest rival out of contention, my second stint was completely uneventful besides passing people in the pits. I came home 8th for 123 points in a combo I was dreading. Not bad.
Nations - Seaside Reverse Gr.3
Strategy: 10H-10M without refuel
Qualifying was about where I expected to be, starting 11th. And as is tradition, I overestimated my cold Hards' grip into CoD and slammed the exit wall, causing the Hyundai behind to run into me and propel me into the 4 car pack ahead fighting over 8th. I spent the entire first stint in the midfield, gaining places from others' mistakes and losing them by getting outdragged by down the straights while I was forced to short-shift the gas guzzling Beetle.
I had a close shave with the polesitter on lap 4 when he got shoved off out of the esses by someone's textbook rejoin and was ghosted. Naturally, the game unghosted him right as I was turning in to take the corner, causing me to bump him off.
Now he's ghosted....
Now he's not.
Now he's gone.
This is probably the one time I am thankful for the collision penalty system being off, because I would have been incandescent with rage had I got a penalty for that.
Pitting on lap 10 from 10th for Mediums only, I came out 11th, just ahead of the Hyundai I accidentally blocked on lap 1. As he was on Hards, I quickly left him in the dust. Jumping up one place over someone in the pits, I then attempted a pass for 9th, only to fail and watch him pull away.
Luckily for me, however, 5th to 9th were bunching up into one pack ahead, giving me another chance to make up places. I went 3 wide into Slope Hairpin, the tight space and me tunnel visioning on the grey GT-R next to me resulted in me forgetting about the blue GT-R (the same guy from Interlagos and Sardegna B) on the outside. I ran a little too wide and bumped the grey GT-R into the blue GT-R, sending the latter into the wall.
I only realised my mistake when I had noticed that one of the GT-Rs was missing on the way up the slope. I apologised to the blue GT-R afterwards.
The grey GT-R re-overtook me into the first hairpin the following lap, leaving me to watch three cars fighting over 6th. 5th had managed to pull a small gap on the trio, but was caught again on lap 17. Stuck on Hards with a pack of Mediums runners right behind him, the Wako's Supra plummeted from 5th to 9th in the final sector of lap 17 alone.
Despite my best efforts, the trio pulled away from me, leaving me to settle for 8th for 120 points. I had enough close shaves with CoD that race, so I called it a night.
Manufacturers - BMB Infield A Gr.3
Livery by Raychii_DvR9
I had high expectations going in to this race, but Race 1 was an unmitigated disaster. Qualifying placed me a disappointing 9th just ahead of Mr Scrappy. I let him past into turn 2, hoping that he would give the frontrunners some grief. Instead, he completely stood on the brakes into the second hairpin, forcing me to barge past him. With the slipstream to 8th well and truly lost, all hell broke loose as everyone turned on each other instead of working together. Mr Scrappy in particular got ahead of the pack and went full defensive on me when we were not even a quarter of the way through the race.
On lap 8, the Subaru ahead of me ran too wide at turns 2 and 3, forcing me to the left. He clipped the grass and swerved into me, annihilating me and any chance of a good result.
Even though I re-overtook him later on in the race, what really ticked me off was that he did not even bother to apologise for ruining my race with his mistake. He just left.
I had a brief scare when I saw the dirty Aston from Manufacturers Spa appearing on the loading screen, before the game thankfully ejected him before warm up began, leaving 19 players including
@pennanton, a familiar GT-R from Interlagos, Sardegna B and Seaside and the Subaru that wrecked me.
Realising that I needed some slipstream for qualifying, I tried to position myself to start my lap far enough behind slower cars for downforce through Sectors 1 and 2, before catching up enough to enjoy slipstream through Sector 3. The ploy worked, putting me 6th with the added bonus of exacting revenge on the aforementioned Subaru by slipstreaming past him, then taking the inside into turn 1 to ruin one of his flying laps. He wound up starting 16th.
By the end of lap 1, I had managed to stay in the leaders' slipstream while pulling away from those behind me. Then a different GT-R in 3rd ran wide onto the grass at turn 2 and made an idiotic rejoin. For whatever reason, the game did not ghost him, resulting in an Audi, an AMG and me all collecting him, with the Audi and the GT-R getting sent off.
That put me and the AMG up two places at the cost of allowing the pack to catch up to us. I briefly took 3rd off the AMG into the first hairpin, but he promptly reclaimed it down the home straight. I used his slipstream to pull away from the pack again, before losing the tow on lap 6. With the AMG clearly having the faster race pace, I focused on driving conservatively and managing the gap to 5th.
By the halfway point, the familiar GT-R had climbed up to 5th and was now gradually gaining on me. However, my substantial lead and cautious driving was enough for me to retain a 0.8 second gap at the flag for 4th for 152 points.
I'm dreading the utter trainwreck that tomorrow is going to be....
). Will probably enter it but that track scares me. Far too easy to put a wheel on the grass and spin off into the sunset. 
