In the early part of the race, I somehow didn't find my rhythm at all, also because it seemed no matter how early I was braking, I still had trouble slowing the car down enough not to run into the car I was following. I didn't even WANT to attack in most cases, but found myself trying to avoid contact not only once.
I'm glad you managed to miss most of the time; I wondered about that. I was braking early (especially for the first chicane), as I within draft of Paul or Jon for a while; I had taken particular heed of Speedy's sage warning about the airbrake and draft braking zones from practice, and didn't really want to explore the limit.
I was a little surprised when everybody in front of me pitted - I thought some might try to go to the end, but it convinced me and I pitted as well. Much better rhythm on the second set of tires, and managed to do a 51.5 (personal best) early on.
I thought about the no-stop, guesstimated where the rears would be after 10-15 more laps, and imagined how much the back would want to step out
Jon and Pekka would probably agree ;-). I don't know if Wes planned to stop or not. I wanted a spin-free race, so it just seemed risky.
After the pitstop I found myself in an OZ-sandwich between Ren and JTV, and after some good fights, I managed to come out of Lesmo 2 very nicely and tried to pass Ren on the left on the run down to Ascari. I thought I had Ren, and I did (I think), but also the grass on the left "had" my left side and wouldn't let go (and I stupidly didn't lift). I suddenly spun wildly ending up across the straight, where I couldn't get out of the way quickly enough to avoid further crashes.
An exciting race, with an unhappy ending. Thanks for the race everyone, though!
That lap I had managed to mess up at least three of the first four corners somehow after running pretty steadily to that point - I don't know if it was brain-fade/pressure, lag for you being near (round-trip to EU players is sadly pretty high from here), or changed balance of the car for fuel, or all of the above - tires were alright, IIRC. At Lesmo 2, when I did it again, I stayed off to the right a bit to let you past (inevitable for the mistake anyway, but wouldn't slow us down as much); I figured I'd try to tuck in and draft along to Ascari, settle down, and try draft passing on the main straight.
Ow, Ow, Ow. My own apologies to those that were involved; I'll check the replay later and have a think about what I could have done to minimize the carnage - it's not clear moving off-line was possible, or would have been wise if it was (if approaching drivers wanted to go around and I moved....). I was slowed facing forward; I think my only options were to quit or pray. Heading right to the wall would have been better than nothing. I also hadn't realized Al (I think) was so close, a lot of distance is covered very quickly there. I have to get a bit better at quick thinking in those circumstances, but it's not something I really want to be practising
