This has been a painful season. Need to see what the incoming BOP changes look like, but I am currently thinking that if I happen to random another manufacturer with a big heavy FR like the Corvette for the official season, I shouldn't run with it. Being in a car that's been quite out of kilter with the characteristics of the common manufacturers hasn't been pleasant in race conditions. The racing standards on show today were also very poor.
I qualified P7 but went down to P8 after being excessively cautious and going to the outside for turn 1, allowing the Mercedes behind past at the apex. Annoying, but of my own doing.
Sector 1 ended up pretty much being my undoing due to what it put me behind afterwards. A Lamborghini threw its nose in at the tight left-handed hairpin at the Mercedes Arena. I left far too much space, cut the corner coming out of it and got a 0.5 second penalty. The poor line then allowed another Lamborghini to get alongside and then go around me at the Endurance layout-only right-hander. Definitely off to a bad start.
The Honda starting P6 made a mistake through Hatzenbach releasing the two Lamborghinis and setting up for the first major incident in my race. The Honda made another mistake at Wehrseifen, understeering wide. I had to slow down to try accommodate his rejoin, and then the Belgian Porsche behind me nearly spun me at Ex-Muhle, giving me damage. By this point, really not happy.
The first Lamborghini to pass me earlier pushed a Portuguese Porsche off at the hairpin before the first carousel, so back up to P8. Back down to P9 when I serve my penalty and things get worse at the end of the Dottinger Hohe. The Belgian Porsche that hit me earlier was very, very set on overtaking me at the heavy braking zone and I almost got spun out again. It looked like he had backed out of being side by side with me, only to then release the brakes and shove his nose in at the apex after I'd already committed to turning in. At this point I'm absolutely not happy and now it's starting to show.
I struggled with understeer going through the Mercedes Arena, allowing a third Lamborghini and now also a Supra past. Very, very much frustrated with the Corvette by now.
A British Porsche pushed a Lexus off through Adenauer Forst so I gained a position there. I then gained another going up Kesselchen by passing the Lamborghini and upon watching the replay, I got lucky. I got a bump from a Supra behind, but he did it at a pit manoeuvre angle as though he was trying to go 3-wide with us. The Supra then got very opportunistic with the Lamborghini at Klostertal, causing both to spin. The Lamborghini came off worse, and the Supra got a 3s penalty.
I close up with the first Supra and the Belgian Porsche at the Dottinger Hohe, but lose the battle because of how the slipstream worked out. I got the run on the Supra, but then couldn't get past because he was still in the tow of the Porsche. The Lexus who had been taken out earlier had caught up and used my tow to slingshot past me.
I didn't want to be caught in a fight on my third dry lap with dying tyres, so I chose to do the opposite of whatever the cars in front did. They both pit, so I stayed out. At this point I could now finally drive my own race, and was gradually reeling in the Belgian Porsche and Honda after everything. I managed to get about halfway alongside the Porsche heading up Kesselchen, but he refused to leave space at the slight right-hand kink, forcing me to fall back or go onto the grass. I wasn't amused, but I could understand the intent after what happened on lap 1.
I pit with nearly dead tyres and 4% fuel, and re-emerge in P9. The overcut had gained me two positions, so actually kind of feeling hopeful as I'd also gotten my slowest lap out of the way. I could also see a train fighting for P4 - not that far off the back of the pack! The weather gave no indication that it was going to be a wet race. There were patches of very light rain on the radar, but nothing that would be likely to push the track to requiring Intermediates. The track stayed completely dry throughout.
I start closing up but then start to wonder what's going on because the Belgian Porsche is massively dropping back from the pack and the Honda is all over him. The Porsche gets Fuchsrohre wrong and goes off the left at Adenauer Forst. The Honda slips past, then the Porsche rejoins the track sideways and slams me into the wall.
Upon watching the replay, I know what heavily contributed to it. He took Intermediates at the pit stop.
I didn't see what tyres he left the pits on because of how the positions tower updated.
Getting shoved into the wall, recovering and then pottering around with everything on the front damaged probably ended up costing me 10 seconds or so, along with dropping a position.
The Portuguese Porsche started heavily pressuring me at the start of lap 5 and got past at the transition between the GP circuit and Nordschleife. I got him back at Kesselchen though, slipstreaming past and getting ahead into Klostertal.
The next bit is something I'll be submitting to Tidgney's Plebs of the Week after watching the replay. Good grief.
I caught up with the Honda going really, really slowly and passed him on the hill leading to the first carousel. It turns out a British Porsche (in P3) got bumped off and into the wall at Klostertal by the Supra that took the Lamborghini out there earlier. The Porsche then went absolutely berserk and charged into the hairpin without braking, firing the Honda straight into the wall for almost full car damage, including his engine. Utter disgrace. The Supra was never even a potential revenge target because he had already rounded the turn.
I catch the other Supra and then get past on the approach to the Dottinger Hohe as he understeers off on dying tyres, then bring it home for P6 and 207 points. The frustrating thing? This is the end results:
If it hadn't been for my lap 1 slip-up or getting taken out by the Belgian Porsche, who knows if I could have joined the fight in front and made it onto the podium. P3 to P5 were struggling HARD on that last lap.
