I know, I know, I'm hysterically late. But, better late than never, right? At least I hope.
Qualifying
I felt like I had pace but I knew I was losing a lot of time. I knew I wasn't going be in with a shout of pole, Massi pretty much had it wrapped up before the session begun. He had been so much quicker in practice. I felt like I was losing a lot of time particularly in turns 3, 5, 9, and 14. My first few banker lap weren't nearly quick enough for any acceptable position, I knew I had the pace for the top 3. In the end, I just couldn't string a good enough lap together and I qualified P4, 3 tenths down on pole-man Massi. My teammate Max qualified P3.
Race
As embarrassed as it makes me, I have to admit that I spun on the formation lap. It happened on the exit or turn 10 and my rear swung around and tapped the wall, giving me a slight bit of suspension damage. Not enough to cause concerns, but enough to give me a headache throughout the race. I started in P4, and had one of my worst starts of the year, however I still beat my teammate into turn 2 and took P3. I saw Massi go wide into turn 5, and Jakub Kalbarczyk took the lead. From then, I was battling to stay in slipstreaming range of Massi.
I slowly started to fall back from Massi and Jakub, but a mistake on lap 5 coming out of the final turn saw me drop behind Max again for P4. Another mistake a lap later saw me drop down to P5, elevating Szymon Kuczyk to P4. A series of messy laps and a collection of mistakes saw me drop further behind the P3 fight. I ended up pitting on lap 13, and after a relatively quick stop, I rejoined back in P5, albeit a long way back from Szymon in 4th. What I was yet to realise was that during the pit stop stages, Massi had fallen right into the clutches of Max and Szymon, and all three were now engaged in a battle for P2. A spin from Massi a few laps later played perfectly into my hands, and I was right on his tail starting lap 18. I eventually dived up his inside going into turn 5 and took over 4th. The battle wasn't over though, he tried a move up the inside of turn 9, but I was just able to squeeze him inwards enough to hold the position.
I pulled away slightly and I was able to hold a gap of around 2 seconds for a few laps. I didn't realise at the time, but I was catching up to Szymon in 3rd, and I had caught up to him with one lap to go. I had a very messy final lap, and he ended up sealing 3rd. The winner was Jakub, so congratulations to him. Max finished in P2, so some good points for the team overall.
Thanks for reading,
Peter J.