Manufacturer Round 1
And so begins the trials and tribulations of a little Mitsubishi in a sea of Aston Martins and Dodge Vipers. My god,
I NEED MORE POWER. 
I think this must be one of the toughest races I've competed in to date. Partially due to the race length, but also due to the nature of the circuit and the sheer number of power-oriented manufacturers I was put up against. I qualified in P6 with a 1:37.500 and started on the Mediums. The Viper that started on pole position is someone who's normally around 45k DR but recently had a DR reset, so maaaaybe a tiny bit unfair being in a lobby where the average is probably about 29k!
I'd practiced going long for a 11M/1H/11S 2-stop, and also a 6M/1H/8S/8S 3-stop and found both came out to almost identical times for me, so I figured I at least had options. I ended up going long!
The race started with a bit of a scare as I had a wobble coming out of the first chicane, but thankfully I managed to save it. Dealing with the reduced downforce was rough, as I hadn't really practiced that much. An Aston Martin on Softs completely outgunned me down the main straight at the start of lap 2, but was carrying a penalty so he fell back behind... until he got past me going into the final hairpin. I fell out of his dirty air during lap 4 (thank god), but another Aston Martin who'd started on Mediums in P11 was gaining on me.
He passed me into the seafront hairpin on lap 6, putting me right back into dirty air again. However, he was burning through his tyres and fuel much faster than me as he was revving it out and I was shortshifting. We battled for a few laps after that, with me managing to briefly get in front on lap 9 after he had a poor Chicane of Death, but then he absolutely shredded me down the main straight. I decided to pit 1 lap earlier just to get away from him, as I felt like I was losing a lot of pace.
A Mercedes (coincidentally, the Austrian I was battling with during the first half of Wednesday's Nations race) was staring down my exhaust as I came out of the pits, and got past me right before the first hairpin. At the start of lap 12, the Aston Martin I'd been battling with had just emerged from the pits on Softs and was immediately fighting with the Mercedes. I had no intention of getting involved with that on Hards, so I just stayed back in P7 and let them at it. I just wanted to survive my Hard stint and get onto the Softs. The double slipstream though, my god. Where's the grip?!
I pit at the end of lap 12 with 50% fuel left, so the fuel saving was comfortably on target. On go the Softs, and now it's a run to the end as I come out in a nice gap. There was a Lexus charging down the straight who got within ~1.5-2.0 seconds, but he was on Hards so he quickly fell back. I caught up with the Mercedes and Aston Martin at the end of lap 15, but the Mercedes pit. At that point I realised I was no longer competing with him because he only had 21% fuel left going in and emerged on Hards, so up to P6! I was now in a comfortable gap, with the Aston Martin 2 seconds in front and a 7.5 second gap behind.
I start reeling the Aston Martin in on his worn Softs, before passing him on lap 17 after he had a very poor Chicane of Death, hitting the corner on the right side of the exit quite hard and getting damage from it. Up to P5! From there it was pretty much a drive to the finish, nursing the Softs as much as possible to make them last. P4 was almost 18 seconds up the road from me (although with a pit stop still to make), and the Aston Martin couldn't keep pace with me anymore. Not to mention, he still had refuelling and a Hard stint ahead of him. Once he pit at the end of lap 19, there were over 11 seconds between us.
The fuel saving worked out as planned, and the tyres were... a bit dead when I finished.
I got a very nice surprise on the line too. The Porsche who started P3 and won the race hadn't met the tyre requirements, so I was promoted up to P4. I'll happily take my 127 points and run, no more of that thanks! Here's hoping that's a very strong haul in the Mitsubishi ladder.