Qualifying
I knew I was much quicker than last round at Malaysia. So much so that I could challenge for pole. Quali started well enough, with a solid banker lap for me. I was improving all throughout the session, and I had a few laps that could've got me pole, had they've been just a bit cleaner. One lap in particular I was going a few tenths up before missing my braking by a few metres at turn 17, losing all the time I had gained. Skip a few minutes and I'm on the last lap of the session. I had a very good first sector, going a tenth up on my previous best and half a tenth up on the best overall. However, a messy sector 2 followed, and by the next split, I was a full tenth down on the overall best. I had a good final sector, but not good enough. I managed to claw back half a tenth and finished the session in P3, just 0.076 behind pole. Had I not had a messy middle sector, I would've had pole by a comfortable margin.
Race
I started 3rd, meaning I was on the outside for turn 1. This made me decide to line my car up pointing inwards, meaning I would then have a straight run to the apex. This paid off massively, and I was able to slot myself between Jacob Reid and Szymon Kuczyk before turn 1 even started.
I was in the lead! After losing out by such a small margin in quali, it felt so satisfying to be leading after a great getaway. I now had all the quick guys bearing down on me though, so I needed to keep my head down. A battle broke out with me and the quick starting Jakub Kalbarczyk halfway through lap 2. Trading places, we battled for a few laps before he got past and began building a gap.
At turn 3 a few laps later, I touched my wheel on the inside wall and I did a small half spin. My teammate got through, followed soon by Jacob Reid. Both of them also began pulling away, so I was left in 4th trying to fend off Szymon and Edijs Batars behind. Yet again, Szymon got through, and we both began pulling away from Edijs. It was then that I started realising something was off. Here I was in 5th, losing ground to people who I qualified ahead of comfortably. I was setting lap times a second slower than I should be. Something wasn't right....
I pitted a number of laps later, and this was when another bought of bad luck hit. I had stopped last out of both the Eight-Six cars, meaning I had filled up less fuel than my teammate. I asked him how long his stop lasted for, and he responded saying '6 seconds'. My stop was 7 seconds. So my stop was a second slower than someone who had filled up more fuel than me. Neither of us had repaired damage in our stop, so I'm still not sure why. My stops have been slow for a few races now.
After the stop, I cam out in 6th and nothing happened until the end of the race, so my final position was 6th. Max finished 4th. and the winner was Jakub Kalbarczyk. Well done Jakub!
However, I can't figure out why I was going a second slower than I should be. My fastest laps are normally within a few tenths of the fastest lap of the race, but this time I was half a second slower than it. I had qualified within a tenth of pole so I knew how to drive the track.
All in all, a rather confusing race. All I can hope is that the next round at Istanbul brings the Eight-Six name back to the podium.
Thank you all for reading.
Thanks,
Peter J.
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