Misano - not my best round that's for sure. I think this Mazda 787B has a bit of a sick sense of humour. It's a practical joker! I only had limited practice before the race due to a head Cold but I still managed enough laps to get a sense of each tyre compound. My Mazzie had me convinced the hards would be a good option (I know I know - silly choice in a sprint race - point fingers and laugh now!), but it wasn't until turn 6 on lap 1 of race 1 that I felt the bucket drop on my head!
Q: Using soft tyres, Qualy went well and I was chuffed to line up 6th on the grid (with a PB).
R1: With my supposed Ace in my pocket I felt confident I could hold position for a while and then gain spots as others got slippy on worn mediums late in the race. Um... it didn't pan out like that. I fought hard over the first 6 corners to hold position and not make contact, and it was all going OK but then Mazzie decided to have a laugh. On the exit of T6 before I'd even got anywhere near full throttle the rear let go with a snap! My neck swivelled with a crackle and off I popped to the nearest wall, sliding across a completely useless rice bubble trap. Naturally Mazzie made sure I nosed up to the wall so I had to completely stop, grab reverse and then watch as the last of the 10 cars that had gone by faded into the distance. The only consolation was that I'd made a clean exit and not taken out another unfortunate soul.
So I found myself in about 16th and I just hoped I could claw back some positions. All the while cursing my stupidity for choosing hards! It felt like I was on worn mediums the whole damn race so it wasn't easy to make headway. In reality it was only the misfortune of a few of those in front of me that gave me back some positions. I had some cool battles with
@Seanus and
@Cyber_STIG_77 which made it an enjoyable race. In the end I had to settle for 12th.
R2: Being a quick learner I started the reverse grid race on mediums. Starting from 7th, the opening laps were crazy. There were more position changes than in an 8 year old's soccer match. Not only that but more a than few got tangled and were sent straight off. Fortunately I kept my nose clean and this all meant that despite losing a few early positions I stayed in about the same spot. I had a great battle with
@spita84 during this time. The only major mistake for me came on lap 4 when I wagged my tail like a happy dog at the hairpin and lost 3 spots to Spita,
@Shaun_A and
@Cherno. I stuck behind Cherno for a while and gained a couple of spots back when Shaun and
@loris P. unfortunately tangled.
@TheStig13 somehow managed to slice through the battles behind, pass me and ended up heading off in pursuit of Cherno. Meanwhile I found myself in a great battle with
@Mael,
@Doublevision and Loris. Somehow I managed to keep my elbows out enough to prevail and in the end came home in 7th.
My final result was a pretty ordinary 13th but that's what you get when to try to be smarter than the average Mazzie!
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