Nations
Because of vacations and myself being away for most of the past week or so, this was only my 2nd race of the current series. Also, I didn't have time to practice with tonight's track until roughly 15 minutes before the lobby was open tonight. Still, I followed the thread and knew that the L750R was the way to go. I do a couple laps to get familiar with it, then on the qualifying session, I do the 5th best time. I could have done better, but penalties ruined my best tries. On the grid two fellow Peugeot and two Audi in front.
Race starts and I immediately notice that the Audi has no speed on the straight. I pass one on the Senna curve, but I mess on reacceleration and I let the Audi pass me before chaos happens. I pass him again on the following straight and now he's gone forever. Then, the other Audi, which seems to be way faster than the Peugeot in the slow section, has a rough going with P2 and he pushes him on the side in Bico do Pato. The Peugeot gets back behind me, and on the 2nd lap he passes me, but unfortunately for him, he goes wide after Mergulho, rides on the grass and becomes history. On the 5th lap, the Audi goes awfully slow (?!?) and he lets me pass him in the slow section. I pit around the 10th lap, 6 sec behind P1, for fresh tires and add 1 lap of fuel (I was burning a lot trying to catch P1). I exit right in front of P3, the Audi, but after a couple laps, he's already far behind. I gain some ground on P1 in the closing laps, but I'm missing time and end the race in P2. Very satisfied with the result, the best was making almost no mistakes and had a minimal amount of penalty time, which was served almost by itself in the slow sections.
Manufacturers
Yesterday, I felt that this was the track that needed the most practice because I almost never raced on it. So I did 30 or so laps to get the hang of it. Had a satisfying time, for me, in the 1:08.5XX, with a combined best of 1:08.1XX. I also did a quick custom race to get a feeling of my car with a full tank and degrading tires.
Also, I decided to do this one after Nations, because it could give me some extra times between both races (I was in the last two slots for tonight, so I needed it) and practice a standing start. Qualifications go well and end up with the 2nd best time. Before the qualifications session ends, I carefully put TCS to 1. Then, on the starting grid, I see P1 jumping the start. I stay focused, the race starts, I release the brakes, start skidding (!!!) and accidentally pin P4 in the wall... with a well deserved 2 sec. penalty (my bad). Almost everyone goes past me. I quickly notice that my TCS was reset to 0 before the race. I finally end up in the first curve in 12th place, with a lot of chaos happening around me. In the 2nd section, I do my best to survive, get hit twice on the side, which gives me another 4 sec. penalty (?!?). I try to not think about it and regain concentration for the race. I'm P9 at the end of 1st lap. Then on lap 3, it's time to wake up and do some overtakes. The AMG GT is an absolute beast on the big straight and I quickly gain back some positions here.
However, my best pass is during the 6th lap. I'm now in P5 and notice that P3 and P4 are having a hard time at each other. On the 3rd corner, P3 goes wide after being pushed by P4, but both lose traction and I take this opportunity to pass between them. I get a little sandwiched before the hairpin, but my brakes give me some advantage here and I keep my P3. On the 10th lap, P2 decides to pit and P1 is now very close to me. I pit on the 11th lap, select fresh tires, but I hit X twice, which makes me skip refuelling. I get angry, watching my helpless crew sending me back on the track after changing the wheels. Fortunately, I still had one lap left in my tank and the pit line is quite fast. So I do another lap, pit again, cautiously skip tires, wait for refuelling and expect the worst in terms of catch up. Finally, I exit the pit behind P4 (not bad after all these mistakes). I pass him on the same lap and now I have P3 battling hard with P2 right in front of me. On the next lap, P2 decides to push P3 in the grass before the hairpin. I jump on the brakes, see chaos unfolds in front of me, and take P2. Now, I try to catch on P1, but P3 decides it's better that I have to defend against him, so we trade places a couple times. In the last lap, he finally gets the best of me and even takes over P1. I still have that 1st lap penalty to serve, which was now around ~5 sec. I jump on the brakes before the checkered flag, but a little early. I see P4 coming fast, but I go past the finishing line just in time. I'm a little angry with myself because these stupid mistakes made me miss a win opportunity, twice. Still, it was interesting to see that with some proper practice I could be competitive on a track I knew very little.
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