Race Report!
Damn, this was a lot of fun. Good vibes from practice to race end.
During practice I was able to lap a low 45, which I think put the lobby into a bit of a stunned silence! It certainly had me in disbelief. I had
@Mistah_MCA behind me and he wasn't catching up. One of the best laps I ever put in anywhere.
Couldn't quite carry it to quali, but I got in the 46s and that was my goal. It was pretty close from about 4th to 8th for most of that session, but I couldn't improve on my first hot lap and messed up Ascari on one I think might've beaten it. Oh well, 8th is good enough for me.
Onto the race and a slightly sloppy rolling start for us at the back, a little contact but I don't think any blame to be dished around. The rolling start caught me at an awkward moment through Parabolica and the cars ahead got a much better exit.
Then I said hello to the gravel at Ascari. Pulled a classic Vettel unsafe re-entry and unfortunately got slightly tangled up with
@RacingGrandpa, apologies for that, you let me by like a proper gent.
So, recovery drive mode, and in the first couple laps I was eating the gap to the cars who'd inherited my spot pretty greedily. I made a lovely outside pass on
@The_Tullster at T1 and that set the mood for the race.
I'd built up a few seconds gap when, I'll be honest, I got distracted by the timing sheet and went wide at Curva Grande, allowing Fudsy the pass, so head down again to make a move, this time the inside at T1.
The race basically settled into that - make a mistake, Fudsy flies by, head down, extract the pace, and get ahead again. My only goal was to finish where I started in P8. Some skechy laps and definitely some moments where I lost a bag of time, particularly Parabolica where
@The_Tullster seemed more consistent than me.
But - mainly by talking to myself - I was able to fend off too many more mistakes and come home in P8.
I MIGHT have gone forwards if it weren't for my sloppy opening laps, but once I was out of slipstream I couldn't make up time, and to be honest I think that pack was just a touch too quick for me.
Pleased with the outcome anyway. Thanks to
@Bivittavus88 for hosting, and everyone for turning up. Congrats to
@GOTMAXPOWER for his ridiculous pace and the win - this man laps 44.9 on a DS4 in chase cam. Just take a moment to think about that.
Looking forward to the next one and really glad I came out.
This was the first time where I started driving pretty aggressively, which resulted in me almost binning it two more times and a couple love taps.
.
I'll try and get a few laps in for the next one though, If I get a spot of course, and at Barcelona too! 
