Donington Masters

That was a hell of a battle with teammate Pablo!

Started 3rd but took 2nd from Joco at the start. From then on it was a 30-lap chase on Pablo, gap was never higher than 3 seconds. I was 1 second behind when we came (together) into the pits. I knew I was gonna refuel around 2 seconds faster and that was it: I rejoined half a second ahead of him!

2nd part of the chase: Pablo chasing me now for 25 laps lol with few laps to go I made a little mistake in the 2nd to last corner and he went through. But then he made a mistake too and I retook the lead, last 2 laps were rather relaxing.

Thanks to all backmarkers who behaved nicely ahead of us :) and grats Pablo, we equally deserved that victory! Looking forward to the next one :D

While I was looking competitive in qualify, I was just terrible in the race. First off I had no idea how could Pablo and Xavier be so quick and second I was stupid enough to take no tires in pits and that cost me a place to Kent, Heinz and George. Fuel was very tight but in the end I would have just enough to finish even if I wasn't lapped :)

Next time...

been feeling lil ill whole day. skipped one event earlier
allready but decided to givit a go. after half hour or so
went to pits and stayed there. driving just felt horrible
today.

Thunderstorm rolled in and reset my internet connection with 3 minutes left in qualifying.

:(

A very tough race. But that's the plan in a Masters race. Thought of switching to the Lister when quali was wet but luckily I didn't because the race was dry. Again I messed up T1 at Doni. Someday I'll get it right. The whole race I was fighting the Apex-guys. Felt like an Apex-sandwich all race. :-) But I enjoyed it a lot guys. Too bad Xavier didn't let Heinz and me fight it out. But he had every right to lap us ofcourse. Grats to the podium and cya at the next one.

A pretty lucky 3rd place for me.

I got a good start but it was a little too good as it was looking like I would slam into the back of the car in front of me and I backed out just as he was rolling. This allowed everyone behind me to close up into T1. Then someone went wide, I think it was GP and soon Heinz was on my butt and made the pass late in the first lap.

After everything settled down I was keeping the gap behind under control while making gains ahead every other lap or so but really didn't have anything to challenge Heinz, it was just his battle with Joco that was letting me close up. But then Heinz had a connection hicup and I drove right into his car in T1 taking a little damage and allowing Darren to close up on me and Joco to get a nice gap ahead prior to our stops.

I made my stop one lap after Joco and was shocked to see him 13 seconds ahead! Then I realized after my out lap that I gained half a second on him and figured he must have not taken tires. GP was behind me and we were running similar lap times with both of us gaining on Joco by almost 1 second a lap.

When I finally caught Joco we had a nice 4-5 lap battle which I found quite difficult since his tires were shot I was having to brake way early and was having trouble making the pass. Then I looked up and saw GP was closing really fast and I went for a out braking move on Joco into the final chicane. He tried to fight back and we touched a little then I heard his revs climb up and saw him spinning atthe exit. All I could think was, "did I punt him?" then I reviewed the pass in my head and realized I was to his door so even if it was aggressive it was legal.

Sorry Joco I hope you don't feel I was too aggressive.

Once I passed Joco I quickly opened up a comfortable gap and cruised from there to the finish.

Xavier and Pablo were in a race of there own....FLYING almost lapping the entire field. Well done you two! and grats to all that finished.

OMG, it was a very close race, after 80min (=4800 seconds) the gap between Xavi and me never was bigger than 3 seconds.

In the 1º stint I couldn't open a gap and Xavi refuel was fast enough to overtake me by 4 meters in the pit-line !!!
The 2º stint was the opposite of 1º stint until Xavier made a small mistake and I could take the lead with a great battle at 10 min to go.
Then I could keep a 1.3 second gap and I was quite confident to keep Xavi behind me, but when I was trying to catch a fast backmarker I went wide at the exit of McLeans (very common here) and put some inches of my rear-right in the grass and made 4 consecutive spins ;(

That isn't all folks, when we cross the finish line at 4:35 min to go, I realized I didn't have enough fuel. A fast calculation (3 laps x1.5min per lap = 4:30 < 4:35): it means 3+1=4 laps to go and i had only 11.1 litres, I need 1,3 f**ings litres of fuel !!!
Of course I slow down to save fuel, but surprisingly the race finished 1 lap before I calculated, it finished before 90 minutes. Now i remember this bug always happens in monza, but I never remember it.

Maybe this spin was good for me, because if I'm leading the race when I realize don't have enough fuel... this moment would be DRAMATICAL because I would slow down and let Xavi pass when really I had fuel enough to win, crazy!!

very good race Xavier, great driving mate

Amazing racing from Xavier and Pablo today, I had the pleasure of watching some of their late race battle as they lapped me!
Had a good first stint and stayed in front of George and didn't lose too much time to Kent, also had a good stop but on the first lap after the pit I couldn't stop for McLeans, it just felt like I didn't have any brakes atall and I went into the gravel. That cost me a place to George, then Heinz got his act together later in the race and I let him pass because he was clearly faster at that stage so I dropped back to 7th after a possible 5th. A bit disappointing but there were alot of fast guys on track today so not too bad considering.

Grats to Podium ... Xavier and Pablo ... way too good today, speed was immense!

Had a brainfart and walked away from my pc before quali started and came back with 3m20s to go .. I heard darren screaming over TS and when i saw the clock ticking i was very embarresed... never happened to me before to miss quali start, always know what the time is.

So anyway, was able to salvage 6th on the grid. Start was good and took GP at T1 when he went wide and a BEAUTIFUL pass on kent round the outside, was well chuffed..

Then i proceeded to hunt joco down, and once i caught him, i was nibbling at his bumper, but had nothing to pass him on. I tried a desperate move up the inside into the chicane but it was only going to end badly, and it was a desperate move, but i dropped anchors and avoided a hit.

Then my PC froze, and came back 10s later, graphics were all messed up, but it wasn't horrendous, but it did affect me here and there..

Managed to make a comeback to 4th, thanks to darren letting me passed to first catch George, who i was able to get passed with alot of luck when Xavier lapped us, but it was pretty fair play, i didnt pass George until the next corner he let xavier through, but i did set myself up on the outside line for the final corner, and i was able to make is stick... nice racing george.

I was the backmarker who got to watch pablo spin at mcleans .. sorry dude if i in anyway was part in making you loose concentration.

Grats to all

So far so baaaaad :(

This was my worst race so far! Right at the start I was stuck behind the late starting Toni, lost couple of places, then spun because of an accident ahead. Some laps from then I banged into another Lambo which was braking suddenly, and something damaged badly in the front of my car. It just couldn't turn the nose in and I had terribly corner entry understeer. A stop-and-go for speeding in pit topped that. :(((( After some repairs I could only do a best of 1:26.6. I quickly forget this terrible race.
I deeply sorry for Aaron not to participate, maybe next time.

Grats for the top pack!