My feelings after the race described in a picture:
Qualifying:
I knew that I would be fast, because my engineer and I were sorting out some things last week. After the first run I was on third behind pipeslice and shaggy, but I knew that I can drive low 1.14s so I was happy to see their times. So I decided to make three stints, usually I only plan 2, because I knew that Pole Position is possible here.
In my second stint I got a very good laptime with 1:14:3xxx. It was the fastest time so far in this qualifying. I remember the deafening cheers in motodrom in my outlap. The support of our fans was great.
I knew that the game wasnt over due to the fact that pipeslice and shaggy were not so far away from my time and the track becomes faster and faster at the end.
So I started my third stint targeting a 1.14. 0xxx. I had a stunning first sector but than in sector 2 after a little oversteer moment i had to break up the round. It was to late to start a new round.
I saw that pipeslice made some great sector times and I was afraid to loose the Pole Position but he must lost it in third sector somethere.
And so I made my second Pole Position this year. It was a good feeling to know that I can compete on one flying lap with Shaggy and Pipeslice. Big thanks go to my team and especially engineer, our new setup style works fine as I already told Pipi Hammer in my prerace Interview. :-)
Race:
I was really looking forward for the race after that qualifying. I knew that pipeslice was on the inner line and unfortunately this game doesn't really simulate dusty and clean racelines (HELLO CODEMASTER PLEASE FIX THIS).
I had a bad start and pipeslice was just beside me before the Nordkurve (Turn 1). I speculated that he would break but immediatly realised he wouldnt (which was absolutely ok because he had the inner line) so I must open the steering a little bit which felt like steering in the other direction in this fast turn. So I opened to much and Shaggy could past me too. Hmm ok i thought no problem cause the race is long and one second behind the leader before turn 2 is ok. And than it happened...
I was braking for Parabolica (Turn2) quiet late from my point of view and pj-gm was far away when I looked in my mirror before, and suddenly bummmm.... (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0yZOlC9ajQ)
I turned completely and the field flew past me. With scare i had to realise that I lost 10 seconds to pipeslice. Just after I was back on straight I had to avoid a crash with someone and go on gras, which lead to a 10 seconds penalty cause overtaking under yellow (stupid game). Than i rushed through the field with a little mix of too keen to do well. So what I remember i have to say thank you to all the fair racers who let the too keen to do well german home racer flying past, (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0yZOlC9ajQ 2:20min) here I was really breaking late and great how kcheeb opened the door when he realized (great racing from kcheeb).
But I had to realise that it wasnt that easy to catch the 2 leaders and so I made some small mistakes (little oversteer moments). I had some little issues with some backmarkers, but overall absolutely fair racing. After half of the race pipeslice lost some time, I think he wasnt so comfortable on primes. I realised and tried to catch him. I succeeded and had 7 or 8 rounds of awesome racing with pipeslice. Than he made a mistake I think in entry of motodrom. Now i was second. Pipeslice could go with me for about 4 or 5 rounds and than he made another little mistake. So I was safe and a mix of sadness and happiness with my 2nd place after all.
Congrats to Shaggy Alonso who made an awesome job without any mistakes. I'm happy to know that our car goes better now and next circuit is very technical (Hungary). I also know that now its time to win if I want to have a chance for getting the championship. The main problem was and is that I couldn't apply pressure to shaggy, its important to get a chance to beat him in races. He is so unbelievable fast and when he can drive free there is no chance to catch him.
Best regards
DarkPSI