Round 11 - Int. V. ADAC Bilstein Super Sprint [Dec 4th]

That was ... unexpected.

After the fiasco in Belgium last time, I gave it a long, good thought, but in the end, I decided to bring the season to a proper end and attend the race. Not that much has changed, I'm still guessing what's happening, never exactly knowing if the car will follow the suggested line, tries to overeagerly climb the inside curb, or I'll have to drag it through the corner like a dead donkey. And sometimes, I've got everything in one turn. Its just a huge riddle. There were a few hairy moments, out there...

...once again, got an early personal best in Q, but then I just hit a block and couldn't get a better laptime out. My start was shockingly good, and that carnage into T1 got me two positions, as well. I was able to follow Francisco and Dave in the Bimmer without too much effort, it looked, as if Francisco had some balance issues through south turn (the dreaded dead donkey!) and I had some joy chasing him, I think there were even some paint samples traded, nothing serious, though. Some laps in, he overcooked it and I finally passed fifth, and I think he soon retired. Fifth, that was better than anticipated, but still some ... 35 or so to run. Dave was to fast, and when Gabriel took the lead of the group behind me, this gap slowly closed. L19 or 20, exiting the short cut, one of those unexplainable handling glitches happened and I put the car in the pit wall. A few meters earlier, and I would have run right into the pit entrance, which would have instantly ended my race. So I was really lucky I was just leaning on the wall in an awkward angle and it costed me an awful lot of time and four positions, until I was rolling again. And the car was still straight, phew!

It took a while until I was back in my rhythm again, and I had some problems following the cars in front of me, and engine temps were a bit hairy, too. I got two positions back by other people's mishaps, and after a while, I could close the gap to Luciano, once again with donkeyish handling, but he could still hold the lines enough to keep me behind, and the following straights, he would just pull away. Well, still a third of the distance to go. In the process, the two of us got closer to Filipo in the K2.

My handling got increasingly dodgy, though, and I had my handful of incidents that always allowed Luciano to open the gap again. At the same time, he tried to find his way past Filipo, though, and then, I suddenly saw a wing flying through the air and two Porkers going wide. Thank you, guys! I watched the gap, and after two laps, I decided to play it safe and turned down the boost, to .9, after running 1.1 the whole time. A couple more laps, and I would wrap up the season with a fifth place. That's fine for the troubles with the car I had lately.