Overall it was a better result for me than the race per say, didn't have the best strategy as I made a RM stint before the rain came out and I changed too soon to Intermediums which made me lose even more time to the guys in front.. Then the track got really wet and most people had troubles to control the car, with that I was able to win some places and finish the race in 4th which as I said before wasn't too bad as I had the heaviest car on track, I made some spuns in the rain but no damage and most of time I was able to be consistent, taking in account that it was my first run in the rain with this car/track I can't really complain.
Congratz to AGRO for a great race leaving a huge gap to everyone else, congratz to skeng and Chris for grabbing a podium result.
See you guys in Fuji
Yes it was for me a great race also, in fact the first time i have told myself - just survive after 60% wet, and it worked, forget the race just survive.
Fantastic race for the front 3 for many many laps really great close stuff, i really enjoyed watching that.
Well done Agro, a real master and Sken and Chris for a great podium in really hard conditions.
I had my car a little softer than i really like, as i thought it had a good chance of rain, but it made it a pig to drive on full fuel, so i was planning to run 10 laps including pace lap on stint 1 - then stints of 9 laps with 65 liters of fuel at around 1.58 1.59 and that should take me right to the end, even allowing for the extra lap we always get suprised by at the end.
I qualified 7th, that was ok.
I wasn't surprised as i dropped down to 8th as Flank passed me early on, then Pubs pressured me and i was happy to let them past, then flank crashed and the race settled down and i was running in 8th and 9th as the pit stops passed.
I did think the tyre wear was more than practice, even though i was running the same lap times.
Then the rain started after 30 minutes and gradually built up.
i had a great battle with Karl for many laps and a more distant battle with Pedro as we overlapped from tome to time on pitstops.
As the rain went over 2% when i pitted for softs but short fuelled as i guessed inters at 30% would be in order.
As we got to 27% wet many drivers were really struggling, and my stop was perfect for inters, and then again short fuel for 7 laps as i knew the rain would not stop and i would then be ready for wets for my final long stint.
My soft car was acting better than many around me and gradually positions came as drivers made mistakes.
Then with 28 minutes to go i came in and went Wet rear and Inter front, i prefer this a lot as my driving style has been to try and be as gentle on the front of the Lexus and i can and try to use the rear tyres at all tracks in all conditions, so Wets on the rear helped me with the power and at corners i would lift and let the car run through and it seems to work for me. I was also seeing others spinning up the rears, but my car had more rear grip so it tended to drive out of turns better.
At 60% i stopped racing and just tried to forget the others on track and just not crash, at some points i just was going so slow that it hurt, but it worked, and Pedro had a bit more pace than me at around 8 minutes to go and i had a big big moment and really just backed off and Pedro went past, and there it ended.
I was thrilled to have ended up in 5th place, and it was not because i was fast, it was because i was slow that i did so well.
Great race _ no Incidents reported - I have updated the race 2 and Championship table on Page 1 post 2 Index 12
