So, as you might have seen earlier in this thread, I decided to have a crack at the MX-5 race as it was one of the few combos from this stage I was looking forward to. And boy did I deliver...
16:20 Nations
Met
@watto79 along with Lucas Ordonez for the second time in three races. Qualifying was hampered very early on by traffic and needing to slot in behind faster cars. There were also some dodgy manoeuvres up front on my first lap which I won't delve into, but there was promise in that I set purple first sectors on both my second and third attempts. Alas, that was the best I could do, as I get passed on the inside by a Spaniard and held up as he tries to fight an orange and black Italian. The latter scrap cost me a good chance to improve on my 1:25.121, which left me down in 15th. Only eight-tenths covering the first 18 drivers; who knows where I might have started without the traffic issues I encountered.
Shortly after the intro played, there was a longer pause than usual, almost a minute and a half after the theme ended. I thought for a moment that I had been disconnected, or that the game or my PS4 had crashed, but held out just to see if it was a temporary network issue. Sure enough, the grid sequence starts and I see from the top of my screen that there is a massive gap where 11th-13th should normally be. Three drivers clearly couldn't hold out the delay, which promoted me to 12th as I furiously burnt fuel on the start line.
My focus then was to try and get close enough to the Martini-liveried Czech driver so we could slipstream our way towards the Top 10, but this turned out to be far from the case. Things started to get sour on Lap 2 when the Italian goes wide at Turn 4 and a blue Spaniard serves a penalty. At this point, I was satisfied just to get into the top 10, but didn't anticipate the Italian
and a German driver squeezing past me at the hairpin when I believed there was no space for them to go through. Though I apologised later (as I do) in case they thought I had turned in on purpose, that move annoyed me greatly as it suddenly put me back into the centre of the tail end scrap that was developing. The ensuing laps were rough, to say the least, with bumps, dives and offs aplenty from everyone around me. By the end of Lap 3, the top 10 had disappeared up the road...
Stayed within the group for 12th, which gave me a good idea on how things were going for the gaggle up front. On Lap 8, a big incident at Turn 4 unfolds; the yellow Frenchman runs onto the grass after going wide the previous corner, the Italian picks up one of many penalties for what I assume is contact with a blue Brit who I'm following. There's contact between the three cars which sends the Brit spinning into my path and forces me to back out behind the Italian who pitched him sideways. The Italian gives the Frenchman an angry punt going into the hairpin, doubling his penalty to 2 seconds. Did get a good slipstream battle for 13th with a Polish driver, which ultimately allowed us to catch up with another Frenchman in a white and black-striped MX-5; it turned out that he himself had been spun out of the leading pack the previous lap.
Unfortunately, the subsequent battle between them allowed the Italian to catch up and take the Frenchman out with his trademark dive-bomb at the hairpin. Lost 14th to the Falken-liveried Brit, but then decided to let the yellow Frenchman past at turn 1 so he could have a chance of leading me to the pack again. He and the orange Italian picked up yet another penalty each, and it was during this time that the Spaniard in 2nd suddenly dropped out of front-running contention following an incident before the final turn. Said Spaniard unghosts right in front of the yellow Frenchman, doubling his penalty and allowing me to regain two places down the straight. Got close to the bumper of the Falken Brit on the final lap, but not enough to get any better than 13th and 135 points.
I don't know which is worse;
another poor run in the MX-5s, or the scrappiness of the bottom-7 pack in general. The test lobby I had yesterday with mostly Japanese players was far cleaner and more enjoyable than that. Even some of the moves Watto saw at his end looked questionable after watching them through my replay. Ah well, the only way is up... or so they say.
19:00 Nations
For the second run, I chose the 19:00 lobby, where I was greeted by
@T_revisio along with a couple of faces from the 16:20. Despite a clumsy bit of driving on my part - where I biffed a Polish driver through the double left-hander on my outlap - qualifying was more satisfying. Stuck to the tail of a Dutch driver who I recognised from other FIA and test lobbies, clocking in a 1:24.892, 1:24.514 and 1:24.554 on each of my fliers. Pole was a 1:23.753; the second lap I did was just over seven-and-a-half tenths off for 14th. Not much improvement on paper, but inside I already felt like I was significantly faster than in the 16:20.
And in a way, this was how the race turned out. Full grid, fuel burn to 98% on the grid, get up to 13th before being hung out to dry by the chasing pack. Dropped to the back, though in this case I think that decline was down to me and me only. Eventually started climbing back up the order, taking advantage of a scuffle between T_revisio and the Polish driver from earlier along with a retirement for the 11th-placed Portuguese runner. It gets to the stage where me and my Apex Motor Oil MX-5 are engaged in a fierce fight for 12th, and so it is that I end up following the Dutch driver once again while he fights a Greek Supercheap Auto entry. A PTR Spaniard fights past me on Lap 10 after serving a penalty earlier on, and his attempt to push the Dutchman wide at Turn 1 gives me the chance to try a pass at Turn 2. I have the inside, but this isn't enough for me to get it stuck, so the Dutchman holds his ground... for now.
That being said, we're still on his tail, and on the penultimate lap he ends up punting the Greek driver after he in turn punts the Italian forward. Though I again can't get a move done at Turn 2, the penalty received by the former gifts me 14th and 127 points all the way to the end. Didn't have the momentum to sweep past the Dutchman in time, but came very close even as a Russian spun out over the line.
Both races were scrappy, both lead to more underwhelming results on top of what has so far been an underwhelming Nations run this year - both in the main season and the Exhibition Stage. At the end of the day, however, I'm not going to lose sleep over the 8-point loss I incurred with my retry. Despite once again losing touch with the top 10 early on, I felt far happier with my pace in the 19:00, and the fact that my low starting position was down to others simply doing better. If I hadn't been so eager to get 13th on the first lap, maybe things might have gone a little better, but never mind.
