Welcome to the first race back!
I've stayed with Ferrari and went into this race full of confidence, entered the 8pm (4th) slot alongside
@Lost Sheltie
Qualifying started off a mess, came out behind a Viper, didn't really want a tow, did want a tow, I don't want your tow... give me a tow... rubbish, quicker second lap. Quit, new tyres and popped in a solid lap on my second run which ended up enough for 6th
Starting the race with a no stop in mind, I was quickly put under pressure by a Lexus that after going through into T5 in the early laps promptly got himself a penalty, allowing me to repass a lap later and begin to hunt down a Toyota in 5th whose pace suggested he was also on mediums. A failed attempt to pass into T1 cost us both time, lining him up for another attempt a lap later into T5 he yielded the position, clearly playing the longer game. From there quickly closed up on a Brit in a Viper who was struggling on tyres, pulled out down the S/F straight and he eased off to let me go without losing time. Forgot to thank him after the race (took me two hours to remember how I got into 4th!), so Scottiesnr, thank you!
By now the race had spread, the leader had cleared off and there was a 6s gap between me and the fight for 2nd place. Knowing from the pace though that the top three all had to pit I was confident of improving my position and picking up a good result
They pitted, I was promoted to 2nd and kept a gap of around 1.5s to the no stopping Toyota behind me until my race started to get a little messy on L19/20. Picking up a penalty for a final corner track limit transgression I knew I was going to come under pressure, but the Toyota was overtaken by the Porsche that had pitted from 2nd and now I had a car on fresher tyres chasing me down. I got all crossed up through T3 and T4, he got a run, took the place, I picked up another 0.5s penalty to serve on L22, 0.7s ahead of that Toyota, but he and the car behind had also picked up penalties! And I drove a clean final lap to finish 3rd, 0.3s ahead of the fast finishing 86 and just a couple of scrappy laps off a 2nd placed finish in all reality
A nice solid start to the season in a tight race, I don't see Monza being a strong circuit for me though!
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