Phew! What a race! I had
@Jasje basically snapping at my heels the whole race with
@Steve Le Gallez right behind us ready to pounce, it was an intense and awesome three way battle! Cheers for that you two!
Jasje really pushed me every lap from start to finish, so much especially in the opening laps that I could see his engine smoking, so I knew he meant business as long as the engine could last. I must admit to have been hoping to see a great yellow ball of flames and the sounds of a dying engine after a few laps, however that never came to be, which in the spirit of racing was great!
I managed to stay composed even though these two guys were in my mirrors constantly, except for one lap where I manage to unsettle the car by braking while turning with my right rear over the curb, this sent me into a violent half spin right before the last left corner of the new ‘pretzel’-section but I was able to correct it rather quick and keep my position.
When it became time to do pit stops Steve pitted first, then Jasje the lap after that and me the lap after that one. And despite spending extra time in the pits, compared to the other two, with me filling my tank with roughly 35L extra unnecessary fuel I managed a better(relative) in-lap to counter that extra time spent stationary. This meant I came out of the pit just ahead of Jasje, followed right behind by Steve.
I had to do some engine management late in the race as I had red-lined it a bit too much in the beginning of the last 20min, however with the speed my two main adversaries were closing in on me I had to scrap that plan and go for broke just to keep that 2-3sec cushion!
Huge respect to all the GTE-drivers, I was fighting with two guys the whole race and we three managed to do that whilst lapping, so great work all around! Also it looked like a great field of GTE-drivers, I wished I could do both classes at the same time!
Also massive respect to
@Jasje you were attacking almost every lap yet being very respectful, true sportsmanship!
Thank you
RD and
@Ole Marius Myrvold !