Interlagos isn't a great track for me. In limited practice, when I wasn't spinning out or going off track, my best practice time in the Chevrolet Corvette Gr.3 was 1:34.6.
I ended up in a mixed C/B-C and D/S GT3 room, wearing #9 of 15, with 28 points for 1st and 11 for 15th/last, a guaranteed gain of 1 point. Because I am not great at this track, and didn't want to be a cause of carnage in turn 1, I was the only one to not take a time. My practice time would have been 7th, with the polesitter setting a 1:33.3 time in a Ferrari. The rest of the field ahead of me was, in order, another Ferrari, a McLaren, a Honda, a third Ferrari, a 2013 Nissan, a BMW M6 Sprint, a second McLaren (which would prove to be a major nuisance), a Mazda RX-VISION, yet another Ferrari, the other Corvette, a Dodge, a Lamborghini, and an ancient white Ford GT that was a rolling roadblock.
There was carnage, but I was only able to take one spot from someone who later dropped out. Later in the opening lap, I briefly had 13th as a backmarker who simply didn't have any control and finished a lap down went very wide in turn 7 (picking up a track-limit penalty in the process), but he ran through me as I was on the right half of the short straight between turns 7 and 8 (ghosted, fortunately) to take the spot back. I got that back as he served the penalty, which had grown to 1.5 seconds.
Meanwhile, the pole-sitter had gone wide in turn 4, and the 2nd place driver (and eventual runaway winner) took advantage.
On lap 2, another rather dirty backmarker, who despite not pitting in the first 17 laps, didn't record a finishing time, spun in turn 1, and ran through me (again, ghosted) in the apex of turn 2 after he recovered.
A lap later, I was able to take advantage of said dirty backmarker slamming somebody out of the way in turn 4 to grab 12th, while said dirty backmarker continued slamming his way to 10th, picking up another track-limit penalty in the process.
The person he slammed out of 10th actually signaled for me to pass him between turns 7 and 8 on lap 4, but I didn't have enough momentum to do so, and I stayed in line behind him. I was also out of range of passing the dirty backmarker as he served that penalty, though the person who had been in 10th did manage to get by.
On the succeeding lap, I got into turn 3 a bit hotter than usual and nudged the dirty backmarker off track. He recovered quickly (a bit too quickly for the AI stewards' taste, as he picked up a track-limit penalty), and my wait for not only allowed him to keep 11th, but also cost me 12th. Karma caught up with him as the other guy who had just passed me dive-bombed him in turn 10, they touched, and he spun off first to the inside grass then across the track. I had planned on serving the penalty with him, but that changed everything as I got back to 12th.
The first of the short-pitters came in from 5th on that lap. Not only did he come out a bit behind me because he picked up tires on his Mazda RX-VISION, he picked up a pit-lane violation. I came down a lap later, and as the tires were looking good, I didn't take any. I did avoid the pit-lane penalty, and came out 13th in clean air.
Even with the clean air, my lap times were still well off practice. The leader had really checked out on the field, and 2nd (the pole-sitter) and 7th (both Ferraris) came down for tires on lap 7, the latter picking up a pit-lane penalty, but still too far ahead for me to take advantage.
Karma kept on coming for the wrecky backmarker, as, on lap 8, he spun coming out of turn 9 racing the first of the short-pitters. At least he backed up out of the racing line as I passed, giving me 12th. Meanwhile, 4th place (a McLaren) came down for tires, picking up a pit-lane penalty and coming out 9th. I finally broke into the 1:35s, with a 1:35.7.
On lap 9, the new 2nd (a BMW M6 Sprint), 4th (a Lamborghini, having freshly served a 0.5-second penalty) and 5th (a 2013 Nissan) all came down for tires. The last gave me 11th as I completed the lap.
A drop-out near the beginning of lap 10 (the Ferrari who pitted out of 2nd on lap 7) dropped out after spinning coming out of turn 4 while defending 4th gave me 10th. 2nd (yet another Ferrari), 3rd (a Dodge, right after serving a 0.5-second penalty) both came down for tires, the latter giving me 9th.
On lap 11, the leader (yet another Ferrari) finally came down for tires, and as he had checked out, easily kept the lead. The other Corvette also pitted out of 5th, and as he abused his tires and thus needed to change them, that gave me 8th despite his fastest lap being 1:34.9 and mine being, at that point, 1:35.4.
On lap 12, I got another position as the RX-VISON came down for a second time out of 7th. I might have been able to pass him anyway as he was in sight.
I set my fast lap of the race on lap 13, a 1:35.1. Two laps later, I got turn 4 slightly wrong and picked up a track-limit penalty. That, and a rapidly-closing Nissan cost me 7th place. A spin and drop-out by the 5th-place Ferrari on lap 16 got me back up to 7th.
I couldn't quite keep up with the Nissan on my worn tires, while the other Corvette began to close on his fresh tires. I finished 7th (thanks to 3 drop-outs), almost 52 seconds back of the winner, 2.7 seconds behind 6th, and 4.7 seconds ahead of the other Corvette.
Of the 10 serious racers, I was the only one to not change tires. Could I have kept 7th had I changed tires? Perhaps. Do I recommend a no-tire-change run, even in GT2/GT3? No.
In any case, I'm taking my 21 points (6 better than round 3 and 11 better than the previous 2nd-highest), the nearly-full D DR bar, and the still-full S SR bar, and running. It won't be enough to improve my money any (except maybe for my metro area), but it's enough.
So into the pits and back out in 8th. Picked up one more position later on to finish 7th. Happy with that considering the start! 202 points I think.
