Had a good qualifying with a 30.0 earning me a front row position alongside Nin. The majority of time lost was in S1 though where I was about 4 tenths down on Nin, predictably lost between Bus Stop and Eau Rouge. The Nissan's ability to take Eau Rouge flat out on a good lap at least stopped any further losses up to Les Combes.
So, I knew I had a good chance taking the lead right away and that's what happened going into T1. I managed to defend P1 for a couple of laps, but then Nin and Andil just drove by between La Source and Eau Rouge and I had to really push to stay close. In the last 2-3 laps I got a lot closer to Andil again, but he defended P2 well, so I couldn't use the better speed I had. Might have even be able to challenge Nin, but that's academic.
Lots of bumping in races 2 & 3, but nothing really outrageous (although that's relative in TOCA
). It seemed that every time I finally managed to pass someone, some other obstacle would materialise to further hinder my progress. I managed to get up into 5th in R2 after Yera's last lap trouble, and again 5th in R3 where I was catching the leaders fast, but ran out of laps before I could catch their tail end.
All reasonable results, but it simply takes me too long to get to the front in the reverse grid races. Either I'm too polite, or the car's strengths don't lend themselves too well to overtaking as it's making its speed mainly through faster corners where other cars are slowing you down and you can't rely on power to get you past on the straight. Probably a mixture of both.
Nin and Andil will be fighting for the championship, that much is sure now, as they have their dropped score already in their points total, so I guess 3rd in driver championship and to get SYM to winning the teams again should be the goal now.
Plus, I liked the fact that we had a completely dry Spa weekend.
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