Euro Rhez: Portland

Another race, another 3rd place...
A pretty good race this time out. Was struggling in the mid 1:19's before the race, before realising I was running hard tyres instead of softs! Once I ran the softs, I could start running high 1:17's. Pretty happy with my setup, I couldn't get the balance spot on, but it was good enough. I kept running off at the chicane before the final corner in practice and quali, but got it tackled before Quali ended. Qualified 2nd on the grid behind Pablo after a clean lap, but fluffed my start... again. Starts are my weak point! I thought I jumped it, so I applied the brakes, but the game said I hadn't, so I was back on the power again a little too late. Claudiu passed me into the first corner, and that's the way it would stay for about six laps or so. It's a narrow little track with only a couple of passing places, so I had to shadow Claudiu. I seemed to have the better car through the twisty bits, but at the sacrafice of straight line speed, so I couldn't keep up with Claudiu on the straights, at the end of which are the passing places! I kept the pressure on him, trying to force a mistake, but all credit to Claudiu, he just soaked up all the pressure! He made one little mistake at the final corner on about lap 7 that allowed me to draw aside, but I outbraked myself into T1 and he repassed me. After this, I never found another way past, and just shadowed him to the end. Great drving Claudiu :)

Onwards to Laguna!