My quali was another shitty one...
I started on 14th place, while I could've easily started among the top 10 (putting together my best 3 sectors, if I could get them all in the same lap - LOL), but I screwed up all of my hotlaps - yay... not.
My race started 'lucky', with another big mess at the start, which I was 'glad' to avoid and escape...
Then I found myself in 8th place and even chasing a few guys down, like Bober...
I spent 2 or 3 laps behind him, being patient and waiting for the best moment, place and opportunity to pass him, since I was clearly a little faster than him at that moment of the race, and then at the start of S3 on lap 5, I finally was able to overtake him and we were sido by sido at the exit of that tight left hander and then I saw on my mirrors that my car was already ahead of his, so I just took the next small left corner, right before the u turn to the right and (although I tried to leave him some room just for safety and assuming he wouldn't risk his whole race for a place he had just lost) I still got hit by Bober's car and sent to the gravel... I hit the wall, got some damage on my car and lost 2 or 3 places, but... I kept going and was able to recover and even get to Bober again later in the race...
I was checking the track map and my huds to see where Joe was and he got the pole and was leading most of the race, so I was really happy for him and pretty sure he was going to get this one, but... near the last laps, I read on my huds that he got a penalty and I was like DAYUM!!!...
At the same time, I myself, was right in the middle of a big fight for the 4th place against Adrian and ADI, who were also fighting each other and I guess I was the only one with Softs tires (thanks to my Meds+Meds+Softs strategy) and then I was a little faster than them, on Mediums, but still it was pretty damn hard to overtake, especially because I was trying to do it as clean as possible, but damn.. Adrian has that australian high ping and lags a little bit too much - not his fault, of course, but.. that makes it hard to know exactly where his car is and sometimes he was too far ahead and as soon as I braked the car, his car's rear would appear almost 'inside' of my car and I guess we bumped each other a few times - sorry for that, Adrian - but in all of them, I braked and waited for him to recover, which was the right thing to do, although I think it was not my fault as well...
But anyway... after a few very nice overtakes back and forth between the 3 of us (me, Adrian and ADI), I was finally able to overtake them, 'crossing' them at T3 - which was an AMAZING move, I must say - and then all I did was to 'nurse' my car back home for the last 2 laps... - thank you guys, for the nice fight!!!
I was thinking I was going to finish in P4, but to my surprise, I checked the monitor (and then the LiveRacers and also the Autosim Analizer) results and... I actually finished in P3 and got a podium!!!
And it was all because lau got a penalty (gven by the game) for cutting the last chicane on lap 32 (penultimate lap) and he didn't serve that penalty, so the game took away 1 lap of him and although he crossed the line in P2, he was put in P14... sorry for that, but... I can't complain for earning a podium - LOL
Congrats Denis for the win!!!
Congrats Joe for the 2nd place, even if you could've actually won this one...
Congrats Rory for finishing your very first race in the league and already scoring 1 little point - better than no points at all - and a humble, but nice start!!!
Anyway... guys, don't forget to tell the stewards to check ANY race incident you were involved (or just saw) - here:
http://www.rfactor-racers.com/t1152-spain-incident-thread#24526And also to check the new Event Thread for the next race at Monaco - here:
http://www.rfactor-racers.com/t1154-05-monaco-gp-monte-carlo-event-thread#24532