Nations Round 8
Very long, frustrating day but with a light at the end of the tunnel. 👍
I had originally thought about trying the Ferrari here and did some practice but ultimately went for a meta car, using the 86.
Attempt #1
Everything that could go wrong did in this one.
I screwed up the exit of the last bend on my outlap in qualifying, so I dived into the pits for fresh tyres. When I was finally on a flying lap, a Finn who had made a mistake or something and had been sitting at the side of the track near turn 3 decided he'd just rejoin onto the racing line even though there was a train of hotlaps inbound.
That compromised my time, although I still somehow started P7.
My first major problem was a Belgian in an Audi. Why anyone would want to suffer through the tyre wear of the FF cars in this combo is beyond me!
When I finally managed to get alongside him and attempted to outbrake him into turn 4, he seemingly acted like I wasn't there and just turned in on me. That then dropped me down a bit and let my second major problem get in front of me - a German in the Renault. That comes later though...
I had been intending to go 5S/2H/5S, but dove into the pits at the end of lap 4 because I wanted some space from the Audi (and potentially undercut). Except that didn't last long because I was on top of him again less than a minute later at the hairpin.
. Thankfully by this point the tyre difference was enough to get past fair quickly.
On lap 6, the German spun out after turn 4 and started wildly weaving across the track right in front of me. The game didn't ghost him, I couldn't avoid it and boom, I have engine damage. All the way down to P17.
I managed to get back to P13 by the line and got promoted to P12 because a Swede in front was carrying a penalty.
Attempt #2
My first of two races with
@das89ca today.
Qualifying wasn't great. I left a gap to the Swede in front at the end of my outlap, but a Spaniard behind me didn't give me that courtesy. He ended up going for an overtake and compromised my first flying lap. On the second, the Swede made a mistake and I had to back off. I started P16.
Starting so far back I decided to try 2H/5S/5S instead. All going well until the banked hairpin on lap 2, where I tried to switchback a Renault that went up my inside only to get taken out by a Spaniard and dropped several seconds off the back of the race. I eventually managed to finish P14.
Attempt #3
My second race with
@das89ca.
This one didn't have any mishaps thankfully. Well, at least none involving me!
I got a clean qualifying lap after getting a tow from a Czech driver, but had to abandon the second as I was right up on his bumper at the line and didn't want to compromise him going for an overtake into turn 1. That led to me starting P8.
I went on to have a clean race doing my intended pit strategy with some good battles on the way, finishing P3 after some incidents and errors from drivers ahead. The only real thing of note was a slide I accidentally made going into turn 1 on the Hards with another Brit coming up close behind me. He avoided contact so I let him past at turn 2 to apologise. He binned it later on though so...
That earned me 147 points, increasing my end of season total by 21 to 413. Considering I had 446 points at the end of the last exhibition season with that counting from 5 rounds instead of 3, I'm very happy with the end result! Just need to see what that does when the final rankings are calculated.
.
🤬 
? No practice again 
