Well, that was interesting.
Never driven these cars before, so that took a little getting used to. Not to mention that I didn't know there was something called Temporary boost available in these cars.
Hey, same here! First time racing this car, and nearly the first time driving it, and also didn't know about the boost until after the race
I feel like such a noob!
Race had its ups and downs. Well not downs per se, plateaus really. Starting from 6th and looking at Reik's pace in qualy I figured there's no chance I can get up there. So took it safe and easy for the first laps. Still getting used to the car and also didn't want to be that guy who shows up the first time and then runs out of talent and takes out people
Cars ahead of me were having a scrap and I was picking spots slowly and eventually found myself in P3 behind Charles, sort of keeping up with him. Some laps later he spun and then I was P2 with 10s to Reik and the gap growing. So I figured that's as far as I can go. Kept pushing a bit, trying slightly different things, pushing brake markers etc.
I knew my fuel consumption and roughly how much I needed more and when it was time to stop I took a bit more to be safe. And as tyres looked to be lasting really well, though rears were wearing down a bit faster and it made the car a bit trickier, I decided not to change them as I also didn't know how long it would take. I hadn't practice pit entry and the last time I drove Rouen was probably in rF1 5-6-7 or something years a go. So I braked way too early for the pits (At the tyre wall) and then accelerated back up a bit until I found the entry
Reik seemed to take tyres too as his stop was quite a bit longer. So I got ahead of him and I thought I might have some change for a win.
But he was really fast and caught up with me with some minutes left in the race and seemed to basically cruise past me. I made a last hope late braking into the second last corner when he had already passed me. It didn't work at all but also luckily didn't take him out or damage my car. I thought that would be it for the lead battle.
Couple of laps later he was basically stopped at the hairpin down the hill and I managed to overtake him. We remained close and swapped positions couple of times, I think, not sure. On the last lap he overtook me again by being much faster out of the hairpin that leads to the flast out section before the second to last corner. I stayed in draft and close to him and somehow managed to snatch the win by 4 thousands of a second at the finish line! And without push-to-pass!
Man, that was an awesome race! Thanks for the setup and racing,
@Reik Major, and thanks everyone for showing up
