Interesting race. Enjoyed it for a number of reasons, it was very different strategically to most races because of the barrier penalties. Picked the Lexus because the M3 actually felt too heavy for me and the Lexus suited my style more. I think comfort was more important than outright pace for this race due to the proximity of the walls.
First of all, qualified 11th. Got held up massively on my 2nd flyer in the tunnel hairpin by a guy who was carrying a 1.5s penalty (ugh) which cost me close to 1s. Was 11th but 1.08s off pole, so that could have been the difference between 11th and 2nd. Thanks bud...
Anyway, onto the race. First 3/4 laps or so were a MASSIVE excercise in patience amongst a battle of attrition. I spent the first 3 laps trying to spot those who would try and ram me into a barrier, so was exceptionally slow just trying to make it round in one piece whilst everyone else picked up penalties.
After lap 5 I was in 5th. Spent a couple of laps trying to break the tow behind, which I did, and got the gap between me and 6th upto about 3 seconds.
However then came drama. Some guy who was running high up decided this was his time to drop back and ruin everyone else's race. I caught up to him and the 4th place driver, and saw the loser guy smash the 4th placed driver into the wall and spin him round at the final corner. Fun. Loser guy picked up a penalty himself which wouldn't come in for a lap or so. So I spent an entire lap just hanging back, and when a gap did open up, loser guy would try and ram me from the side so I would hold on the brakes to stop him. Took a bit of damage myself but better than taking a penalty for being crammed into the barriers.
Eventually made it round to the penalty line in one piece and got away, but the drivers behind had caught back up to 0.6s or so.
Lap 8 and 9 I managed to drag the gap back out to 4th place to 3.5s or so, but after starting 11th I was a long way off the top 2, so the last lap was drama free "get her home" type driving.
Eventually, finished 3rd, I didn't pick up any penalties, and I managed to gain 114 points from what could have been a monumental waste of time after the qualy hold up. So now my top two scores are 115 from R1 and now 114 from R3. Very happy, that's my days racing done.
So if anything, this is a lesson in sensible driving and patience - don't be disheartened or frustrated if you're not where you wanna be early on! Drive smart and let others make the mistakes and you'll be okay.
3rd place as the Lexus sunshine in the sky of BMWs!
(Also, I was door 11, so according to Kudos I gained 5% towards A from this race alone. On 78% now)
