I hadn't hooked the wheel up in about 2 weeks, and never drove the ST before, so it was a learning experience. Overall, it may have been my best race I had at Imola (and I hate that track!). I watched the replay a bit and man is the replay so deceptive. Things look so nice and smooth from the outside even though I am struggling and fighting with the car in the cockpit.
I bogged down on start yet again, but came out OK, then there was a little lonely gap in front and behind. Guess I just needed to keep the car on the road since I kept gaining spots due to attrition
. I actually led the race for 3 laps! WOOHOO! Ok... but that was because I went 19 laps before I pitted
. At the time I had figured if the tyre warmers was off, I might get some sort of advantage by staying out while ppl who pitted had to warm their tires up for 3 laps. But that was all for naught because tyre warmers were on for the race.
I should have pitted earlier because I was a bit faster after boxing.
@Sniper took an offroad adventure and I was up into 3rd. Then I started feeling good behind the wheel and getting into a rhythm....except every time I felt good, I could see Tony was still like 0.5s faster a lap than I was
. But he made another mistake and I was in the clear. Then about 6-7 laps till the end I started seeing
@Michael Stead up front, but did I have enough time? The next couple of laps I was taking 0.5-1s chunks out of the gap, but then when I made a final push I bobbled a couple of times and finished 3rd.
It was a weird race in that I was fighting with the car for half of the race, but in the end I felt I could be faster because I was lifting anytime I got near the curb or the turf in fear of spinning out when hitting the throttle. Happy to get back in the cockpit though. It was fun and cant wait till the next one!