- 2,034
- Bristol, UK
- OJBrit
I went into this one with a bit of dread. A couple of laps yesterday left me well of the pace and not feeling too comfortable with the car. However a few laps this morning and I burnt seconds of my FP times and was able to get a tune from the car. Certainly felt I could be competitive.
Lobby was a bit down on my DR, needing 7th or above to better my lowest points. As usual I waited in the pits. The Frenchman behind me blew their horn after 10 seconds and seeing as there was a gap I left about 5 seconds after that only for them to follow me.
I guess my wheel isn't straight as I leave the pits, the wobble I get from correcting puts me over the line on one of the easiest to avoid. 🤦♂️ Still at least it is on the outlap. I gap the Frenchman a little but make sure I get out of the way and stay off throttle until they pass. Though they also brake and hold back a little before deciding against it. I'm not sure if they also had a pen or are somehow playing with me given the horn and instantly following me out. On my first flying lap I run wide out of the esses and slam into the pit wall. Still this lap gives me provisional 8th. At the start of lap 2 the Frenchman lets me past into t1 which puts me off and causes me to run horribly wide through turns 2 and 3. The rest of the lap is better and I amazingly not only run my fastest lap of the day finally braking into the 51's but also grab P3 on the grid. So top tip; muck up the first sector it is a lot faster.
All is good and us top 3 brake away a little. The 2 guys in front are too fast for me and start to pull a gap. But then I hit car issues. I get a slide through BBB and a corner cut pen in LM's famously non existent track limits (just my luck!) and it allows them to catch up. I run wide out of T4 and a Swede passes me. Then a German forces his way through the fast chicane. (WTF!) Then the Frenchman from before gets past me as the car hasn't settled from the hit. It settles after that but I have much to do. I pass the Frenchman in S3 and one pits off mediums. (A car I didn't even see pass me.) The Swede goes in on Lap 9 and I stay to lap 10. Man the mediums are awful! I come out and slide under braking right across the Swede's brow. This confusion allows me to keep the place. I begin to pull a slight gap but then through the fast chicane after the straight the car just pulls left. I guess I must have clipped the sausage but I don't recall feeling or seeing that. I hit the barrier and spin. I am sort of facing the right way but once I recover I am down to 10th. In the remaining laps I can only recover 1 place and cross the line P9. I get P8 as a Czech driver forgot the tyre rule. Apparently I gain DR but Gran Tracker tells me I stayed the same, I guess PD don't have an icon for that. And I equalled my lowest DR for the season.
Lap 1 before it all fell apart.
The car is wonderful in FP and in clean air. But you can't race wheel to wheel in it. It is unpredictable like that. You don't know whether the car refuses to brake one lap to the other. You don't know whether it will skip under acceleration causing to to portal a few meters to the side and the grass. So a bit of a what could have been for me.
Lobby was a bit down on my DR, needing 7th or above to better my lowest points. As usual I waited in the pits. The Frenchman behind me blew their horn after 10 seconds and seeing as there was a gap I left about 5 seconds after that only for them to follow me.
I guess my wheel isn't straight as I leave the pits, the wobble I get from correcting puts me over the line on one of the easiest to avoid. 🤦♂️ Still at least it is on the outlap. I gap the Frenchman a little but make sure I get out of the way and stay off throttle until they pass. Though they also brake and hold back a little before deciding against it. I'm not sure if they also had a pen or are somehow playing with me given the horn and instantly following me out. On my first flying lap I run wide out of the esses and slam into the pit wall. Still this lap gives me provisional 8th. At the start of lap 2 the Frenchman lets me past into t1 which puts me off and causes me to run horribly wide through turns 2 and 3. The rest of the lap is better and I amazingly not only run my fastest lap of the day finally braking into the 51's but also grab P3 on the grid. So top tip; muck up the first sector it is a lot faster.
All is good and us top 3 brake away a little. The 2 guys in front are too fast for me and start to pull a gap. But then I hit car issues. I get a slide through BBB and a corner cut pen in LM's famously non existent track limits (just my luck!) and it allows them to catch up. I run wide out of T4 and a Swede passes me. Then a German forces his way through the fast chicane. (WTF!) Then the Frenchman from before gets past me as the car hasn't settled from the hit. It settles after that but I have much to do. I pass the Frenchman in S3 and one pits off mediums. (A car I didn't even see pass me.) The Swede goes in on Lap 9 and I stay to lap 10. Man the mediums are awful! I come out and slide under braking right across the Swede's brow. This confusion allows me to keep the place. I begin to pull a slight gap but then through the fast chicane after the straight the car just pulls left. I guess I must have clipped the sausage but I don't recall feeling or seeing that. I hit the barrier and spin. I am sort of facing the right way but once I recover I am down to 10th. In the remaining laps I can only recover 1 place and cross the line P9. I get P8 as a Czech driver forgot the tyre rule. Apparently I gain DR but Gran Tracker tells me I stayed the same, I guess PD don't have an icon for that. And I equalled my lowest DR for the season.
The car is wonderful in FP and in clean air. But you can't race wheel to wheel in it. It is unpredictable like that. You don't know whether the car refuses to brake one lap to the other. You don't know whether it will skip under acceleration causing to to portal a few meters to the side and the grass. So a bit of a what could have been for me.