Gongrats to Guus for a well deserved 2nd
and sorry for steeling the win.
Also congrats to Sean for bringing home 3rd on wets and to all finishers. Was a tough race for everyone.
Qualy (2nd):
I started the flying lap not far behind Sean. I couldn't leave a big gap not to cause a jam behind. Earlier Tim was so Kind to let me pass him.
Sean was fastest all time so I didn't see a problem, however to my surprise I slightly closed the gap in the flying lap. In a few places it felt like I could have been slightly quicker if I didn't let myself irritate by the car in front. On the other Hand Sean gave me a blasting slip stream on the back straight.
I was happy to manage the braking point well and to finish with a 1:46:4xx.
For a while it looked like I have pole again and in the second outlap I realized I couldn't finish another flying lap. So I watched David and Sean, both being on a quicker second run. Finally David pushed me off the top just before time ran out for Sean to do the same. Very breath taking qualy.
Race (1st):
strategy for dry race: 14/11/11 laps (72/56/56 liters) - I also started like this into the wet race
I had an OK start but Guus had a better one to catch me immediately. It quickly turned out, that I wasn't as fast in the wet as the tup runners. Maybe due to more fuel and/or due to no practise. So Sean quickly made a pass on me too and sent me back to P4. Also Peter made pressure on me and a few laps later he catched me, when I had a little wide in the final turn and I had to lift not to spin and collide with Peter.
Later Peter went in early so it was clear he does a 3-stopper. So considering the rain and my pace it felt like "that's it - P4". However I tryed to stay motivated and not to make a mistake, to keep a little chance if things would change dramaticly.
Then the scheduled stops for us 2-stoppers took place. I came in last in lap 14. Due to the ongoing rain, I reduced the scheduled fuel load from 56 to 53 liters without calculating (I wish I had a Crew to do that properly while I drive) and stayed on wets of course. Maybe I gained a few seconds to Guus, David and Sean because of the lower amount of fuel I had to take but the gap to the front runners was still very high (maybe ~ 15 seconds? Can't emember exactly).
I still thought the race would finish like this. Later I catched up on Peter, who was in front of me due to his 3 stops. However I was a bit quicker now and managed to pass him on the back straight.
When the 2nd stint progressed it got noticebal the track was drying a Little bit, because tyre temps climbed up and lap times got slightly quicker. But my XD overlay still showed "W" for wet, so I expected to stay on wets in the last upcomming stop.
This process continued and I was thinking all time about wich tyre to choose. But the XD again still showed "W". Guus, David and Sean had done their final stops now and I was wondering which tyre they might have choosen.
I was in the last lap now before I would run out of fuel. The wets felt very slipperynow on the racing line and it could only be due to being too dry for them. Now the XD swithced to "H" for humid which was my sign to change on Slicks and so I did.
Leaving the pits I hammered into my brain not to overdo it anywhere and to strictly stay on the racing line at all times. So I didn't realise David already had stopped unscheduled to take Slicks too. Racing was tough now but it felt good and lap times improved. Guus also came in for Slicks now and the gap of more than 10 seconds to Sean in P1 decreased more and more. I finally reached him by 3 laps to go. He defended well and I had a Moment when I left the racing line to overtake him. So I was quicker but it was tricky to overtake on the wet lane. But later this lap I could take more Speed onto the back straight so I finally passed Sean in the hairpin.
I pushed the last 2 laps to be safe if rain would come back and I finally finished 1st with a decent gap to Guus who cathed Sean in the very end.
The result was a big surprise to me and I feel very happy that I had been on the lucky side this race.
Thanks to Nico for Hosting and to all racers for a very good event!
PS: Sorry for long post.