Qualifying was actually pretty good for me, although I only came in 3rd.
@Yeratel84 was a tiny bit faster, but
@raceorama123432 seemed to be out of reach, even if it was only 2 tenths. O'rama got away clean and I used his slipstream to pull by Yera, only to discover that his
annoying weaving around in the formation lap actually was a smart move as I was practically sliding through Curva Grande on the first lap. Yera instantly passed me again and I settled into 3rd. Yera then seemed to be too eager and went off in Curva Grande on lap 2, but caught it spectacularly. I just about managed to squeeze by braking for Variante della Roggia as his tyres were dirty. I was about 3 seconds behind O'rama by that point and subsequently we apparently were running the same lap times as the gap would only marginally change over a number of laps.
Then
@Furinkazen , apparently in an attempt to put my car inbetween his and
@jammy21 , dived into the inside of Variante della Roggia, which I saw coming, but then Jammy also tried to squeeze through, but my driver side door stopped him from doing that. The impact luckily was not that big though and I was able to carry on without damage. I lost about 3 seconds to O'rama though and as close as we seemed to be running in terms of lap time, I already thought then that it could be hard to catch up again. I then had an off in Curva Grande due to a lapse in concentration, which cost me about 8 seconds, so I figured I had to be about 12-13 seconds behind O'rama. I continued to press on though, so that I would keep O'rama honest, so to speak. I was able to pretty much do 49's all the way through my stint, which I was very happy with.
Pitted at the half-way mark with Yera entering the pits when I left, so I figured the gap was healthy there. O'rama covered and came in a lap later. About half way through the second stint I ran into
@RyanRacer and
@Downhill Dino , who were battling it out amongst themselves and who O'rama apparently just had passed. I knew I had to get past to keep the pressure on, but the low top speed made it difficult without cooperation from the other drivers. I basically had to brake in corners not to run into Ryan, but on the following straight he would pull away again. I was losing about 2.5 seconds behind them, so I had to get past quickly. Since he wouldn't let me pass although he must have known I was a lap ahead, I made quite a risky move on the inside in Parabolica, and we touched, which sent him off. I admit it was a bit rough, but I was losing about 2.5 seconds behind them, so I had to get past. O'rama was only a couple of seconds ahead, but it would still have been difficult to reel him in, but then I see him off at the Parabolica, pull to the inside to avoid him, only for him to cut across and into the pits at the very last moment. I almost took him (and myself) out there (which would have given most likely Yera the win). I saw him drop behind Yera in the standings because of his pitstop, so I knew I had some sort of a gap behind me.
A couple of laps later, I came up to
@chrisjohnson93 and
@Siggers and it was like a déjà vu of the Ryan/Daiba situation. They were fighting and seemingly in a world of their own. They both ran wide into Variante della Roggia at one point, I come up behind them with a better run off the corner and Siggers apparently believing to have overtaken Chris illegally and wanting to let him by again, suddenly slows down, so I run right into his back before Lesmo 1. Luckily, no damage again. Finally Chris then let me pass into Parabolica only for me, in my relief, to go wide and losing quite some time again. I then took it easy for the last couple of laps.
All in all, lucky win as O'rama probably could have preserved his lead until the finish, if it hadn't been for that lag-spike which apparently took him out. Would have been well deserved!
