Quali: P3
I made a late decision just before the start of the race to try a one stop race, despite tests showing I was ripping through my rear tyres. Was too tentative around the first few corners on super softs but I hadn't done any test laps on them; only having one set, I didn't want to corner cut and miss what was potentially my only opportunity. I planned to do two flying laps but I made a couple of minor mistakes on my second and wasn't going to improve so boxed instead.
Race: P1
My God what a boring race. I hung on to Fuyjin early in the race with Avallac remaining directly behind me. Fuyjin pitted from ultra softs at some point, I pitted for softs on lap 12 after qualifying on supers. I suspected Avallac was trying the same as me but he came out on super softs again so I knew even if he closed up on me, he'd have to pit again.
After that point with Avallac/Fuyjin pitting again, I was struggling to concentrate. With around 6 laps to go and maintaining a 7.5 second gap to Fuyjin behind, I let a few cars past as I didn't want to interfere with their battles. As they started to battle ahead, I set my fuel mix to lean so they didn't think they'd have to let me back through and followed with a gap behind them. It was a bit tense toward the end as Fuyjin eliminated the gap between us but if it had of happened a lap or two earlier, I'm confident I could have gone to rich mix and held him off as I had a lot of fuel and a decent amount of pace to spare.
Overall an extremely boring race from my perspective. I managed to adjust my driving to save the rears so all four tyres degraded by the same amount but I really don't want to have to drive like that again. Here's hoping the next few races we can push on the tyres a bit more.
Incidents:
I was thoroughly disappointed to see Robin taken out as I suspect he was doing the same one stop race as me and would have been a podium contender at the very least. I understand your frustration buddy, I've been quietly concerned by your obvious pace but lack of results for a while now; both hits in this race were uncalled for. I don't really know what else to say about it.
Pretender, I know you've had issues with rain in the past but I didn't realise you were having stuttering issues, otherwise I would have said something earlier. I've made a separate forum thread regarding stuttering as a direct result and I hope it helps.
Disregarding these last two races where I've felt I've actually been on the leaders pace, all of the previous races have seen me benefit basically only from others mistakes, especially on the opening few laps. I'm pretty sure my total overtake count is in the single digits as every battle which has been shaping up has ultimately been won before the fight begins due to frustrating mistakes. It has been quite infuriating, even taking into account that **** does indeed just happen sometimes.
1) If you're overtaking on the inside of someone, leave 50% of the tracks width for them around the corner, until you get to the exit. If it's a chicane, this should immediately apply for corner exit as soon as you've finished braking.
2) If you're overtaking someone and you haven't got at the VERY least your wing alongside before braking, do not try and overtake them/out brake them. Either you'll collide or they'll have to take such evasive action that it wasn't a fair overtake anyways.
3) If you make a mistake, please don't try and rectify it by hammering on the throttle to rectify. Lost time is lost time... just learn and move on.
4) Take it easy on the opening laps ffs. Seriously...
I'm making these points specifically after this race because they can't be pointed toward anyone as I wasn't involved. All I want is fun, respectful fighting and I've seen enough videos to know that isn't always happening at the moment. Please do feel free to tell me if I'm wrong but I think everyone has been the victim of frustrating moves this season... I think in fact I've been the least effected person of all... it's still stopped fights during races though.