Well that didn't go as I had expected it too.
I normally don't do well here. Qualifying 5th, I thought, that was going to be it..
Starting on the Medium tyre, I knew I was going to get gobbled up and this happened pretty quickly on lap 1, dropping me back to 8th, however first lap jiggers / accidents by others ensured that I was able to keep up with the lead pack. Also the difference between the Mediums and Softs early on was next to nothing.
I managed to latch on to the back of
@T F Eccles and
@Aiko_Mac allowing me to keep in touch. We had some good battles with in those first few laps, with mucho use of the radar
Very clean racing lads.
After I had managed to get past both of them, it was time to settle down and slot in some good lap times, to not let the lead pack disappear into the distance. I managed to keep in touch which was good.
I snagged another spot as
@btwong slipped on the green concrete out of T3.
Now sitting in 3rd...
During my few minimal practise this week (Last Monday and race day...), I had discovered that the Softs get chewed up here, so going long on the Mediums was the goal. Mediums last nicely and in practise I could easily get them to 16+ laps.
However decided to jump into the pits at 14 to give the Softs a chance and not lose touch with
@emmo46 and
@xlxy90.
This may have been a deciding factor.
Should I have pitted upon my strategy or do what I did...??
Emmo pitted a few laps later and however made a mistake in the pits and put the Softs back on, meaning he either had to cop the penalty or do another pit stop.
XL on the other hand, put on the Mediums. The race was now on between XL and I.
Due to the tyre difference, I was able to catch up, however not as fast as I would have liked. This is likely due to the fact that XL is just damn fast, but also the Mediums on low fuel do pretty good
I however did manage to catch up and had some fleeting moments with XL, making a pass at T1 on the last lap, however I went outside and should have gone inside with the better compound tyre.
Battling Experience won overall and I'm still rapt that I managed 2nd here.
Congratulations
@xlxy90 on the win. As Emmo said, we felt like that was a well earnt win.
Emmo had done the maths for me and said prior to the race that I needed to come 3rd or better to win the Championship.
Thank you Emmo.
I'll still race in the last race, cause it's me and I don't want to miss out on racing
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