Slot 1: Qualified 12th with a 1:34.4, when I was capable of at least a high 1:33 without mistakes. Obvious strategy was to start on Hards. My plan was to go 7H/11M/7S. The first lap started really well and I was inside the Top 10 before the Degners due to the expected start carnage. Unfortunately I soon became involved in the carnage myself, when the car in front of me punted the car in front of him and came to a dead stop in front of me, causing me to then hit him and giving me a 2s penalty. Back down to 12th I went after serving the penalty, but I soldiered on, and aside from 1 mistake where I ran wide at T1, the rest of my race was relatively uneventful. I stayed within sight of 2 cars in front of me through my Hard and Medium stints until their pit strategies put us out of sequence.
I lucked out and had a clear track to start my final stint on Softs, by which point I'd worked my way up to 7th, then "UnExPecTEd ErRoR" on Lap 20. I probably would've had to go again since anything less than a podium wouldn't have given me the points I wanted, but I was at least in a position to gain some DR back and move up a split. Instead now I lost more than I could possibly gain over the rest of the night.
Slot 2: The lost DR from my disconnect dropped me into yet another mixed DR split, divided perfectly between A and A+ with 8 each. The win was only worth 246 points, so this was a win-or-bust race for me; anything less than victory meant I was going to go again no matter what. Things got off to a decent start with a qualifying lap of a 1:33.88 putting me 3rd on the grid. This time I elected to start on Mediums because I wanted to try to avoid being run over by people on faster tires. Turns out I was the only one in the first 4 spots not starting on Hards. I stayed stuck behind 1st and 2nd for the opening lap, then the polesitter outbraked himself into T1, allowing me up into 2nd. Unfortunately one of the other Medium starters had gotten through the other Hard starters and was now breathing down my neck while I was stuck behind the leader who was still on Hards. I went for a move on the inside of 130R and took the lead, but wasn't able to fully clear them before the chicane, and they dove back up the inside to keep the spot, only to then spin their tires on exit and run wide, giving me the lead anyway. Now I had to defend into T1 because this had allowed the car behind to draw almost alongside me. Fortunately for me, 2nd-4th all collided at T1, with 2nd and 3rd both going off track and 4th (who'd now moved up to 2nd after the others went off) having aero and suspension damage.
This allowed me to open up a gap of over a second in just 1 lap, and for the rest of my stint I slowly walked away from 2nd, ultimately growing the lead to 4.5s.
I stayed out until Lap 13 - 2 laps longer than I'd planned to run my Mediums - to avoid pitting into traffic. It worked and I came out of the pits in 2nd with no one immediately in front of me to hold me up - not that they would've held me up much, since I was on Hards. 2nd place had also pitted with me and came out in 3rd, but chose to bolt on Softs. Within a lap they were all over me and went around the outside at the end of the esses.
By now, the polesitter, who'd long since ditched their Hards and was running Mediums, finally caught back up to me, but couldn't get past since their Mediums were now pretty worn. They pitted on Lap 15 to take Softs the rest of the way. I knew they'd undercut me and I'd have to re-pass both them and the current leader, but I knew the leader would have to still use their Hard tires when I'd be on my Softs, and 2nd would have dead Softs at the end of the race, which would still give me a chance to catch both. I stuck to my plan to run 7 laps on Softs at the end and pitted on Lap 18, and unfortunately my plan wouldn't be so straightforward, as I came out of the pits in 4th, right behind another car on worn Softs. Thankfully I didn't get held up much and was able to send it down the inside at Spoon.
I now had a 7.5s gap to the polesitter and person I knew I'd be fighting for the win, so I set about chasing him down and also trying to get the gap to the leader under 16s in the hopes that I could pass them in the pits when they changed to Hard tires, rather than having to waste time passing them on track. The leader pitted before I could undercut them though, so I did have to pass them on track, but surprisingly they made it very easy and slowed on the front straight to give me the spot; they did hold me up just enough that I couldn't get fastest lap though.
The gap to polesitter and current leader was now under 5s with 4 laps left, but I was now doing 2s/lap faster than they were with their dead Soft tires. I finally caught them on Lap 24 and went for another dive into Spoon to grab the lead and won by 3s, with the polesitter actually eventually falling to 3rd and losing nearly 9s on the last lap alone when he had 4 almost 100% worn Softs.
No need to risk trying for a better result in Slot 3 and getting another "UnExPecTEd ErRoR". That makes 2 wins from 2 X2019 races (though both each took 2 attempts...). Too bad my night was still a net DR loss though...
Now I'm sitting on 1:36,130 and enough of practice in optimal scenario. Tomorrow will go for full race to check 1RH, 16RM, 8RS strategy. Cheers & thanks again!
), earned 80 points.
