Ok, on to my report..
Really happy with my Q. A perfect Q for me would've been a 55.6, but really happy with my 55.8 concidering the nature of how we're doing it..
Was 3rd, but Tony decided not to race so started in 2nd, in between 2 aliens. 👍
I was really concerned about T1 so was a tad too concervative loosing my spot to Nige.
Nige and Josh had good pace, and I saw the disapear inch by inch.
I found myself in 3rd, with a gap down to 4th which gave me some room to breathe.
I drove pretty concistant, but not fast enough. Was hoping to lap in the high 55's, but never found that kind of pace.
I was initially going for a 2 stopper, but felt my tyres starting to loose grip at around lap 10-9-10 already.
So decided to make the race a 14-15-15-15 lap one.
But wanted to get a good jump on Nige and Josh to give it another go to try and keep up, or at least slow them down a tad, so went in at lap 11.
So it was not a 14-15-15-15 race any more, it was a 11-16-16-16.
I "knew" I had to fill up 85 liters in total to reach the finishline, so decided to split that up in 3, instead of 2.
Was all by my self in the pits at lap 11, and only added 15 liters to keep the stop short.
So was exiting the pits in last place, but with a good amount of laps to jump the guys ahead, especially to 2-stopper since they had another 8 laps on much older tires than me.
So from here on, it was 100%, but still did'nt reach in to the 55's on a regular basis which was my hope.
Caught up to jtv and ren after a while and did'nt loose too much time doing so.
Was passing Johan, Wii and Pag by lap 14-16 iirc, and saw that those guys went for a 3-stopper like me.
A little later, I was passing the 2-stoppers as well. My "jump" was a success this far.
So ran in 1st for a while. Saw Nige catching up pretty quickly towards the end of my 2nd stint. And he was on fresh tires while mine started to give in at this time.
This was at lap 25, and my scheduled 2nd stop was lap 28.
So I thought that when Nige do catch me (that was obvious), I'll try to keep him behind me for as long as possible to take his best laps away from him.
He did'nt have to fight for long though.
By lap 26, he had already passed me.
Johan did a good 2nd stint in 3rd by this time, and passed me on my 28th lap just before the last chicane, and then he went in to the pits just as I had planned, so I decided to stay out one more lap to avoid beeing held up in the pits when the AI is driving (tend to slow down a lot if you're too close to another car in the lane), so my race was now a 11-17-15-16 one.
During my 2nd stop, I decided to put some more fuel in to keep my last stop shorter. Filled up with 25 liters this time, so had put 40 liters in in total.
According to my tests (based on 100% attack fuel depletion), I had to fuel 85 liters in total, so was looking at a 45 liter pit stop for my last stop.
When I came out on track after my 2nd pit, I was right behind a group with Dom, Tim, Paginas, Johnkiller and Wii (iirc), and was'nt happy with that. Cause all of my laps where I had the best tires was consumed by battles and dirty air.
Should've short fueled on the 2nd stop as well to get out ahead of that pack ofc
Either way, I still had a concistant pace and defenetly saw a 2nd or 3rd within reach.
And when the 2-stoppers went in for their 2nd stop around lap 40, I passed all of them. I had a really nice gap now down to 3rd (was running in 2nd behind Nigel) who was Johan, and even more gap down to the fastest 2-stoppers Tim and Dom (Nige not counted for).
I now went in at lap 44, and was about to take my last chunk of fuel.
As I said before, I "knew" I needed 85 liters to make it to the finish, but was totally confused when the pit crew said 30 liters.
I did some quick maths and added 15+25+30=70..

Totally confused since I was about to put 45 liters in.
But did'nt dare to trust the crew, so decided to put in 43 liters.
And that took for ever!!!
Johnkiller pass me as my tires are already changed and was only waiting for the fuel guy to finish his work.. Then.. Tim.. Zooom.. Then Dom. Zooom.. Still in the pits.
Finally, I'm on my way out, around 5 seconds behind Dom.
But I had good tires, so was pretty certain I would catch him.
After about 6-7 laps, I'm in striking distance.. Too early on the throttle out on the main straight -> sand -> lost 5 seconds..
And suddenly, Jason was on my back.
But I found pace again, so left Jason behind and started to catch Dom again.
And by lap 58, I was on his tail again.
On the last lap, I was going all out to set up a pass, and from nowhere, Johnkiller is now just a few car leanghts ahead of me and Dom.
Tryed the best I could, but was'nt strong enough to get close enough before the race ended.
It was a super funny race. The 2 and 3 stop strategy seemed to be dead even, and that made this race extremely funny even when I was alone. Always trying to see where the opponents was..
I think that if I had trusted the pit crew, I could've got out ahead of Dom, and as a result gained even more time, with a possible 2nd as a result.
But had to be happy with 5th.
Good racing to all I was close.
I was perhaps a bit stubborn with Nige at some point, but I guess he's already so fast so decided to make him work for it if only for 1/2 a lap.
Gratz to Nige - Super performance!

Gratz to Tim - Solid as a rock!

Gratz to Johan - Extremely good performance, and happy for you that you did'nt loose more than 1 spot on the last race. It sure was close.
Looking much forward to Spa!
Will host a 1/2 race distance this Tuesday at 15.30 PM (GMT) for those who are interested.
