Now dudes, THIS was a race.
I kept the fastest pace through the qualifying, but just like before, I messed up on the first lap and lost several positions even though the first corner still went okay. I even collected a penalty, but fortunately that prevented me from crashing into the crowd in that tight chicane as I had made a shortcut. The first laps were extremely tight, but I stayed behind the big pack most of the time to avoid carnage. It looked like Vatrox was a bit slower than the rest, but still defended his position with the Supra.
Closer to the middle of the race, I finally managed to find a steady pace and fought it out with Filip and cobrius - a true Finland vs. Sweden battle! It lasted for long, and cobrius eventually pitted (as did X180 from the lead) and I passed Filip to lead the race briefly, only to pit on the following lap as my tires were going bad, and I expected the Swede to also pit at some point (which he sadly didn't). I emerged behind cobrius in 4th, but got ahead of him when he accidentally took a shortcut at the final turn and spun out.
The rest was chasing - I desperately increased my pace and started getting 1'40 laptimes again as X180 in second was not too far ahead. But I ran out of laps, finishing only 0.9 seconds short of 2nd.

Still, 3rd is an excellent finish against these opponents who definitely have the pace. Unfortunately some of you left the game midway through the race, so only 7 drivers proceeded to finish.
Looking forward to Nürburgring!