Well.... Not sure what to say after that one, apart from that it went far better than I was expecting...
As has been the norm over the past couple of years, practice time was severely limited over the past 2 weeks. I had time before that, but no track. So I was riding on Juha's excellent setup testing, which braught a setup that was good to work from, did about 20-30 laps of practice yesterday to get a feel for the car and make a couple of small adjustments, which really made the car a lot nicer for how I drive the car, using momentum.
Qualifying: I hadn't driven the Qualy car around this place ahead of the session, so did a careful run to begin with. Placed myself in 13th and then went for a bit more of a pushy lap and got myself up into 8th.
I was struggling with locking fronts in the Qualy setup and, even with the bias as far back as the design allowed, it would still lock the fronts, so 8th on the grid was my award. Not bad, but clearly could have been better, looking at Juha's starting position.
During the Warm-Up, I let Juha know what I had done to the car, he was happy with the feel but suggested one more tweak, which made it a solid rocket in the back-field and still decently quick in a straight line.
Race: Got a, for these F1 cars, good launch off the grid but CC came flying up beside me as if shot out of a cannon.
Bided my time on the Racing Line and all hell broke out ahead of me, with contact and Bahja-off-roading going into Turn 1.
Luckily for myself, I was able to avoid the worst of it and going through Sector 2 I was able to make a move on Ceszar to keep a hold onto the rear of the leading group.
Settled in and got to grips with the higher temps and the car, was quite happy to sit in 7th and wait. But a few laps in, Tim's pace started to drop off and I saw no other alternative than to give it a go to pass him.
Decided to make the move going in T1, didn't keep the car tight enough and unfortunately ran Tim slightly off the road, sorry for that one. We then ran 2 wide through Turn 2-3. I then upped the boost and was able to slot in ahead going into the fast right and pulled away through the back-field, my strongest part of the track, it would turn out.
After that whole altercation, I believe I was about 6 seconds or so in the rears of Ray, maybe more still. But I put my head down and began reeling him in. I was setting mid 12's laptimes and felt like the car was really under me and the distance steadily grew smaller, all the while keeping the fuel usage per lap within the limits I set for myself.
In between all of that, I came up behind John, who seemed to be struggling a little bit with the car. Again, I was happy to sit behind and give it a go or two, but as I was sizing him up for a move in the backfield, he suddenly slowed on the backstretch. I thought for a moment that I had missed him as I tried to sverve, but sadly I had collected him. To my amazement, I had, as far as I could tell, no damage on the car and the pit menu said the same.
I'm amazed that I accrued no damage in all of that but also very sad to see John drop out like that. Really sorry that I collected you mate
About 36 or so laps into the race, the distance was within a second and a half. Knowing that I was strong on the backside of the course, I gave it a go to get closer over a lap but it wasn't coming good. Decided then that pitting could be the strategy, to try to undercut Ray with a decent pitstop.
Asked Juha, since he was leading the Ferrari's at the time, if he wanted preference, he declined, so I went into the pits. A 14 second pitstop, the Ferrari crew is getting a nice something to drink after they've packed everything up.
Came out the pits and the car felt just as good, if not even a little better. The newer mediums on an even hotter track was really happy and so was I.
Was looking to set a PB lap on my first flying lap after the pits but ran wide at the end of the backstraight. Without that, I recon I would have jumed Juha as well. But as it all fell, Juha rejoined just ahead of me, while Ray must have had a stinker of a stop as he was a good 10 seconds behind.
Decided that, as has been the case for the past 3 rounds, really, that since Juha is better placed in the championship, he has preference on strategy, so was contempt with sitting behind him for a few laps and see if he could catch up.
He let me know that he was a little short on fuel, while I was all good, so after some 8 laps or so, as we were making no major inroads on Jules, I said that if he wanted me to try to catch him, I would be happy to try. He agreed, and we swapped places, allowing him to slip-stream to save a tad bit of fuel (was the hope) and for me to try to catch Jules.
Two laps later, Jules was off the road, partly due to a mistake during lappings, but I recon stress from the fact that I was clearly closing in, making him feel it needed to go for a risky lapping around the outside (I saw that on the broadcast later).
As he was rejoining, I was able to sweep past and Juha very nearly did the same.
From then on, my whole plan was to stay in front and, if Juha would have gotten up to second, probably let him by for championship reasons in true Ferrari (Early 00's...) style.
That never happened but Ray got some more speed out of his McLaren and gave it a red-hot go at closing in, setting a fastest lap of the race in the process, but to my continual amazement of last nights proceedings, I were able to better that lap, before Grant smashed it out of the park.
But hold on I did, to take my first win of the year and very, very happy to have done so in Stefan's car.
Again, big thanks to Juha for a good base setup to work with and to the momentum friendly Le Castellet circuit for once again proving a valuable ally to me (was the spot for my sole point in 1971 F1's back in the day).
Also thank you to all participants and for everyone, most time it was allright to lap people, some occasional struggles but that is always the case on such a circuit.
Congratz to the podium and all finishers, that was a difficult race, especially with how on the limit one had to be to get speed out of the car and circuit combination.
Time to go and savor this with a continued day at work, following by a celebratory Grilled Chili Chicken with Rice and homemade peanut sauce when I get home