First of all, thanks everyone for the well-wishes and the congratulations on that victory! I had actually started to doubt my ability to go a full race distance but that was a real confidence boost!
So...where do I start...
The week before the race, I'd done just about as many testing laps as I could, trying to figure out a good-ish setup for the race, but I never managed to do more than 25 laps on a run, so I wasn't very confident or assured that I'd do well in the race. I'd done private sessions to see my qualifying pace, which I have decided not to show on the official server as to kind of leave people guessing as to how fast that ol' 020 could go around the streets. Actually, before Sunday evening, my best Qualifying run was a
1:21.133, which wouldn't even have put me on the front row!
Anyway, I have experienced a lot of rear tyre wear during testing and during the long runs, and given that even my race pace was about two tenths off of what Richard Coxon was able to do, I thought I should play it safe on this one.
And then came Sunday.Shortly before Qualifying, I'd decided to reveal my qualifying pace, but I saw that there were other drivers that were able to do even 1:20s, so I was kind of shocked. However, during one run, I suddenly got a 1:20.293, literally out of nowhere! (Remember, Ayrton Senna's pole time from 1991 was a 1:20.3.)
So, to answer Richard's little comment that went something like "See, I knew you had another second in that one": Yeah, but I was just as surprised as you were!
Anyway!
Qualifying was quite short for me, I ran my pole time on my first run and tried to beat it afterwards. As Grant said, my second run would have put me in the 1:19 range, but I pushed too hard in the last section and cooked my tyres going through La Rascasse, so that lost me some time.
I was happy about my fourth pole in the fourth race of the season, so that's a 100% Pole Position record, but...well I'll be honest, Pole Positions don't count for crap if I can't bring the car home! (See also: Imola)
As I said on the broadcast during the warmup, "The car likes to go fast for one lap, now I hope it'll go fast for 78 laps", and I wasn't kidding. My pre-race testing told me that I'd either crash out or fall back around lap 25, so I honestly wasn't very confident. It wasn't just pure sandbagging, people!
Now for the race.Let's start with the formation lap. I heard people ask why I do such burn-outs on the grid at the start. Well, I know it doesn't lay down any rubber, but I like doing it. Michael Schumacher did it. It's quite rad. And it heats up the rear tyres!
That little flex aside, I don't blame Brian for being mad at the slow rate of the formation lap. In fact, I knew Juha had qualified in the mid-field, so I asked him multiple times where the back of the pack was. I almost came to a stop at Rascasse because I didn't want to wait too long on the grid!
However, it still felt like it took an eternity for the back of the grid to line up, which meant that by the time the Green light came on, my engine was smoking, too. Luckily for me, it didn't blow up.
I had a good start, I had no wheelspin and my clutch actually accepted my love this time. The fact that there was a three-way fight for second place at the beginning made it possible for me to get a comfortable lead of ~10 seconds.
Then came the pit stops. And here, I'd like to point out a few mistakes made by the broadcast crew during the broadcast. (No offense, still loved watching it last night!)
First of all, yes, I saw Dave Sabre come very close to me at the Lowes hairpin, but he didn't hit me and didn't cause any damage either. As was suspected, his front brakes most likely gave up. This can also be seen by him returning to the track but every time he braked, his rear tyres locked up. Obvious indication of a front brake failure.
Anyway, Richard pitted on lap .... 40, I think? I had decided to pit two laps later, as I had to set up my pit strategy with tyres and stuff like that, but by that time, Richard had gained 4 seconds on me in two laps.
After my pit stop, Richard was 4 seconds behind me, waayyyy closer than at any point during the first half. He definitely had a way faster car after the round of pit stops, not gonna lie.
However, a couple of laps later, I went too hot into Sainte Devote and damaged my rear left suspension, as was also correctly pointed out in the YouTube chat. I really was in trouble, because the car would understeer into left-hand corners but the rear would step out on right-hand corners, especially at Casino Square.
So, with that happening, Richard Coxon took the lead, and I swear to God I was happy with second place. I knew I couldn't match his pace at first, so I was just trying my best to adjust my sway bars to make the car handle somewhat okay.
A couple of laps and insane amounts of front ARB stiffness later, I noticed that I wasn't losing anymore time on Richard, and at some point, I was even gaining! So, here's my question: Richard, did you also have damage at some point? Did you by any chance also kiss the wall at Sainte Devote?
So, a couple of laps after that, I had caught up with Richard again and this is where shit got serious. We're fighting for the win, both cars are probably battered a little, and I knew I was faster than him. But God dammit, this is Monaco, and overtaking is nearly impossible!
So, one attempt at Massenet, he blocked it. The next one at Mirabeau, he blocked it. Then came the cars of Wilks and Bos. So, next try at Massenet, nope. Then the Lowes hairpin! At the hairpin, I duck inside and push past, but Richard aggressively goes to the inside and takes back the lead. I'm sure Jason and Alberto in the booth were either tearing their hair out, standing up in excitement, or both! Through the tunnel, to the chicane. Next attempt! Coxon defends, but is forced off and cuts the chicane. No problem. I spent the next lap catching up to him again. Queue the same things for the next two laps, but remember, we're on lap 73 or so! Eventually, I got past at the Nouvelle Chicane and sadly, Richard hit the wall in the last lap at the Piscine, but made it back in 2nd.
I think Jason summed it up pretty well in the broadcast. That was literally the most exciting race this year so far. And even writing this summary (not very short, eh?), my heart rate goes up again like it did during those last 15 laps.
So yeah. That's my first F1 win this year. I damn well hope it's not the last. And thank you so incredibly much to the ISO broadcast team for bringing this race to YouTube. I loved every second of it.