Only doing this combo once, yikes. This is another rough one.
I ended up in a bit of a weird lobby as my SR still wasn't quite maxed out after Wednesday. It was worth 283 for the win which is higher than I'm used to seeing, but had a couple of DR A players in it.
Qualifying didn't go great. My free practice best is a 1:26.2 but I couldn't quite hook a decent lap together and started P10 with a 1:27.374. The start of the race was also a bit of a mess for me, and I'm talking about
before the first braking zone. I screwed up the run through the tunnel as that ended up being quite overwhelming in VR with another car right up in my face. That's something I had meant to try find a public lobby or two to practice in today, but I was over visiting family this morning for my niece's birthday and ended up leaving around an hour before the race started. By the time I got home, I had to focus on warming up.
I couldn't quite see where I was going and was wary of turning in too much and cutting the corner. Instead, I didn't turn in enough and hit the outer wall.
That dropped me to P11 immediately and then the damage dropped me to P13 going through the chicane and the curved tunnel. Not the kind of start I had hoped for. To make matters worse, the last car to pass me (a Spaniard) was on Hards.
P6 dropped it in at the right-hander before the sector 2 tunnel, so back up to P12. The end of sector 2 was a close call as I went slightly deeper than intended at the uphill hairpin, then the German behind me on Hards came in too hot and almost shoved me onto the gravel. He was already carrying a 2s penalty and then got another for hitting me.
The Brit who'd started ahead of me in P9 dropped it coming out of the upward hairpin on lap 2, picking up damage. I then managed to get past the Spaniard on Hards coming out of the curved tunnel on lap 3, going up the inside for the left-hander after the penalty line. Back up to P10 between the two. P9 was a Swiss driver about 2.4s ahead of me.
The Spaniard on Hards managed to give me some breathing room as he fell back, and I was reeling the Swiss driver in, catching him by lap 6. Trying to follow here is tough, never mind passing cleanly. I hoped I'd pressure him into a critical mistake as he messed up the sector 1 chicane on lap 8, but that fight got interrupted after the French driver starting P2 had spun out on the uphill hairpin on lap 10 and ended up in between us. This had me feeling particularly anxious because it's someone who's known for being rather dirty across multiple regions.
I hung back hoping they'd take each other out, but the French driver managed to slingshot past down the main straight into the tunnel and then ahead at the chicane. My hopes of the Swiss driver making a critical mistake almost came true as he once again got the chicane wrong on lap 14, but he didn't get a penalty and trying to get up alongside was asking for trouble.
The Swiss driver eventually peeled off into the pits on lap 15, which had me thinking I should hopefully be done with him more or less as he'd be doing a 2-stop. Or should I say,
needed to do a 2-stop from there since the Softs won't last and the Hards are too slow. Getting some clean air to run in for a while was also nice.
I hung on until the end of lap 20 then came in for my pit stop, picking up two positions from mistakes. The French driver had spun heading towards the sector 2 tunnel on lap 16, and the polesitter had binned it on lap 20 at the sweeping right-hander at the end of sector 2. When I came out, I was in P7 and right behind an Italian who'd also just pit for Softs. After my rough start, I was feeling good as I'm going forward. The Italian and I caught the Swiss driver on lap 23 which set off alarm bells. I couldn't see his pit stop in VR, so I had to conclude he's either had an issue and lost time after undercutting me, or he's not on Softs. I had my suspicions he may have come out on Mediums again, and I was right. I was being held up by someone with a 2 minute penalty hanging over him.
The Italian managed to get past him at the left-hander at the start of sector 2, leaving me to try to find a way past myself. I managed to get in front at the final hairpin on lap 25, but the Swiss driver then made a very aggressive dive into the chicane at the start of lap 26, overshooting it and pushing me into the wall. He kept the position so I figured the gloves will have to come off, making an aggressive dive into the left-hander after the penalty line that forced him to back off mid-corner.
From there I tried catching up with the Italian again but he'd bolted after getting past the Swiss driver. I crossed the line in P6, but a Dutch driver up ahead had gone Mediums-Mediums and been slammed by the 2 minute penalty. P5, along with confirming my suspicions that the Swiss driver had done the same.
I'm on the fence whether to be sympathetic to the two of them for missing the rule. There was a warning on the pre-race screen, but it's not exactly the clearest.
Regardless, P5 for 236 points - give me those and I'm out of here! 🥴 My SR's back up to max too, so hopefully no more silly DR range lobbies on Wednesday. Now to just hope this combo doesn't come up again for a while...
