I knew going into this race that it was going to be a slip stream race, once out of that slip stream, good luck catching back up.
After lots of testing (Thank you to my NLR team mates) it was determined that the no stop was the way to go, due to the RM being within a second of the RS, combined with the Slipstream and a decent pit stop length (26+ sec), pushed the 1 stop strategy away.
Qual
Luckily I was able to sit in Saturn's slip for my first lap and snagged pole, although Saturn was still only .1XX behind me o.0
However I held pole for at least a lap
I was happy to come away with 4th at the end of qual. I wanted to gift it back, but your just too damn fast dude!!
Race
God I hate Lap 1.
After the Apex bullet train T boning GT, Saturn and myself slot into 2nd / 3rd respectively. However I got dirty tyres coming out of the container complex and ending up drifting through the next corner. I managed to 'save' it, but lord it was messy. With so many cars going everywhere, I'm lucky it wasn't worse. I think I got bumped into the wall, but it was 99% my fault and I lost several spots, sliding in behind GT and Tubbs.
Going down the back straight, I was in Slip and gave Tubbs the bump to have the inside corner.
I had GT next to me and Tubbs in front and the amount of dirty air was ridiculous, I could actually feel the car getting buffeted by it. At the next corner, all the dirty air, meant turning was next to nigh on impossible and I nudged GT.
I did let off the gas and by the next portion of the tunnel I had lost 2 spots to Groover / Hat, then at the hairpin, GT got his spot back.
I apologise for the bump
@gtkingx it was a pure accident.
Given hindsight, maybe should have bumped GT instead of Tubbs to have a better angle for the corner with the reduced tyre grip, or not at all and just sat in their slip. Lots of options available, sadly I chose the wrong one in the moment.
I'm now sitting in 8th..
However I managed to settle the nerves and improve my lap times. I managed to sneak past groover and emmo into 6th.
I checked a few laps later and found that I had chewed through an extra lap of fuel..., so I re-adjusted my gear change point and went about hitting those lines, It took most of the race to reclaim the lost fuel, but I managed it.
During this time, both Hat and Josh had pitted, gifting 2 extra places and 4th place.
I was slowly catching Tubbs in 3rd, but aging tyres and my own fatigue got the best of me (I ran the race with an inflamed shoulder).
At the end of the day, very happy with coming away with 4th in D2.
Well done to
@UrsineSaturn9 @gtkingx @TUBBSTER22 for your win and podium finishes.
You lads are just too fast.
See you at the enduro at Interlagos...
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