09-10-2007, 11:42 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-10-2007, 11:44 PM by Alexfighter.)
It was disappointing for me, a week ago, to come to this track after some months and discover I coudln't go down 1:39s and see a 1:36 in my telemetry records. Sure, that time had to be with Quali setup but I somehow remembered a race going from 1:39s to 1:36. Now I know I must have been remembering Osterreichring. Fiuu... That, and the fact that I have some tendency to forget the existence of the fifth left-hander turn (and that took me out of the race in a league I run before) I found myself not capable of doing what I thought it was a good time and focused myself in SRP-CCWS.
Now I came to today's race and in the 10 minutes prior to the qualifyign it was even worse. I couldn't go down 1:40. But I went to quali and did 1:37 in my first try, and thanks that I tried again and lowered it 1 tenth, because Roberto did his fastest lap only 0.026 from me. So I qualified 2nd.
I didn't a good start and Duarte overtook my in acceleration, but I braked later and recovered my position. However, as I was still very careful, throttled badly and he took the position again. Contrarily of what he said he thought, I wasn't in the pace of catching him. I lost ground quickly and maybe I was more careful than I should because I started with 1:42s and 1:41s, and I tried to go faster but couldn't. Soon Roberto overtook me and started to put ground between us. In a few laps I saw how he reached the leader group and I was the first of a second group of three drivers. Then I made a mistake and spun and lost another position but I recovered it after another driver error.
At last, I stabilised myself in 1:40s, when Roberto had an incident and suddenly I was behind him. At the beginning I thought he was going to pull out again but I got to grips with the car and the track and started a very good middle of the race, going a tenth faster everylap. Roberto made little mistakes while I had the car on rails and finally he had a bigger slide while I was closing on him and took the position. For some laps I continued my constant pace and pulled out bit by bit. It was so good (I was so surprised) that I even thought about going for fastest lap when I saw Duarte make 1:39.0 and I had reached 1:39.2, but he made me changed my mind later when I sae his 1:38.5.
Well, after some laps I made a 3 seconds gap, and growing, but I think Roberto started to have some more incidents which left me with a comfortable advantage.
What surprised me most is that after 5 laps I thought I was gonna be lapped, and at the end I only finished 28 seconds adrift.
Now I came to today's race and in the 10 minutes prior to the qualifyign it was even worse. I couldn't go down 1:40. But I went to quali and did 1:37 in my first try, and thanks that I tried again and lowered it 1 tenth, because Roberto did his fastest lap only 0.026 from me. So I qualified 2nd.
I didn't a good start and Duarte overtook my in acceleration, but I braked later and recovered my position. However, as I was still very careful, throttled badly and he took the position again. Contrarily of what he said he thought, I wasn't in the pace of catching him. I lost ground quickly and maybe I was more careful than I should because I started with 1:42s and 1:41s, and I tried to go faster but couldn't. Soon Roberto overtook me and started to put ground between us. In a few laps I saw how he reached the leader group and I was the first of a second group of three drivers. Then I made a mistake and spun and lost another position but I recovered it after another driver error.
At last, I stabilised myself in 1:40s, when Roberto had an incident and suddenly I was behind him. At the beginning I thought he was going to pull out again but I got to grips with the car and the track and started a very good middle of the race, going a tenth faster everylap. Roberto made little mistakes while I had the car on rails and finally he had a bigger slide while I was closing on him and took the position. For some laps I continued my constant pace and pulled out bit by bit. It was so good (I was so surprised) that I even thought about going for fastest lap when I saw Duarte make 1:39.0 and I had reached 1:39.2, but he made me changed my mind later when I sae his 1:38.5.
Well, after some laps I made a 3 seconds gap, and growing, but I think Roberto started to have some more incidents which left me with a comfortable advantage.
What surprised me most is that after 5 laps I thought I was gonna be lapped, and at the end I only finished 28 seconds adrift.