Maybe I should have qualified today. My best time in testing was just under 1:18, though I wasn't overly-consistent. I wore number 1 in my 15-driver all-D/S lobby, with 11 points for 1st/2nd. The fast time was just over 1:18, with 2nd a second slower, and me the only driver to not take a time. My plan was, thanks to
@Moose78's testing, do a 3 RM/17 RS run, and qualifying would have wrecked that strategy, and probably a few drivers' races.
Carnage ensued on the first lap as usual, though I only was able to pick up 1 spot that lap, because I was the meat in a virtual 3-wide situation in turn 10. The 13th place car ran into 12th and went way wide and slow. I came in maybe a bit hot, but had almost cleared 13th, and had to take the outside lane to avoid 12th. There was right-front tire to left-rear tire contact as the outside car fought to get back into the racing groove, and I let him by.
I got another pair of spots from continued carnage on lap 2, and an actual pass on lap 3, which is when I headed in for some feel-goods.
I came out 14th, ahead of the main cause of the lap-1 carnage (he had a 5-second penalty from that). I took advantage of a pair of 0.5-second penalties to get 13th on lap 6. The next lap, that guy then had a massive run in turn 6, but drove in too deep, flew off the curbing beyond the tight lane I had left him, and, had the game not ghosted us, would have taken both of us out. I let him go, then I then proceeded to mow the left-side lawn coming out of turn 9 I took my time cleaning off my tires, dropping to last, and still the only driver to take a pit stop.
The next set of pit stops came on lap 8, with one of what had been a front-runner until a lap-7 spin taking mediums and a back-marker taking hards. I got by the latter, climbing to 14th. More pitting on lap 9 (3 changes to mediums, 1 change to softs) got me to 10th, on the tail of the aforementioned former front-runner.
I remained patient, and lap 10 saw another 4 drivers pit (again 3 changes to mediums, 1 change to softs), which brought me up to 6th. 2nd place pitted on lap 11 for mediums, but he was too far ahead for me to catch at that point and he came out 4th. Meanwhile, I hounded 5th place into a mistake on turn 10.
At the end of lap 12, 1st was 46 seconds ahead of me, but had yet to pit for his mediums, 2nd was 27 seconds ahead and still on softs, 3rd was 22 seconds ahead and still on softs, and 4th was 15 seconds ahead with his change to mediums complete. 3rd place had already burned through over half his overtake, while the rest of the top 5 still had full overtake.
The leader and 3rd came down on lap 13, with the now-former leader blending in 2nd 30 seconds ahead of me and me picking up 4th. The last of the pit stops among the front-runners (the driver who assumed the lead on lap 14) came on lap 16 for mediums, which put him in 3rd, a couple seconds ahead of me. By this time, my tires were a bit worn down, but my last 3 laps were all sub-1:20, and my fastest 3 laps of the race. I quickly got to his rear wing, but I waited patiently for a mistake that didn't come. I then remembered I had the overtake on the last lap. I got a run on the front-stretch, and instead of hitting his own overtake button, he tried blocking (really too late to be a block as I was already by his back wheels) and not-so-subtle ramming. It didn't go well for him, as the game ghosted us until he bounced off the outside wall he tried to put me into.
I ended up about 21 seconds behind the winner and 9 seconds behind 2nd. I'll take the 10 points, though it only replaces a 9-point effort and won't move me up from all-bronze to any-silver, and the modest bump in DR.
As an aside, a pair of drivers tried no ABS. Brave, but foolish, especially considering one of them had pace when he wasn't spinning.