09-03-2020, 08:05 PM
Some really put in a lot of practice laps for this race. I saw some with 300 laps upwards! Wow. Then again, this is really the track where it's essential to get enough laps done and come in prepared for anything.
Around 20 cars on track during qualifying. Maybe we should opt for private qual for certain races..?
I had a total of 3 clean laps, where luckily each time I managed to improve my laptime. Unfortunately after J-P pushed me down to 3rd position I didn't get another chance of a clean lap, and that was it. The top 3 within 0.1s though, very close!
Starting position is (nearly) everything at Monaco, so I had to come up with something to potentially gain positions starting from 3rd... I went for the 2-stopper!
I kept 3rd position on the run to the narrow St Devote. For the first stint I kept pressure on J-P. Even though I was a little bit quicker in my lighter car, there was just no way of even thinking about overtaking. Without a mistake of the other driver, there's just no chance, and J-P managed to keep it together very well. I was also eating my tyres, but then with a 2-stop that's less of an issue. I actually needed J-P to wear out his own tyres for him to be slower up to his pitstop
After my first stop, I came out right behind ramon bauer taking my 3rd position. Crap! I started pushing to overtake as I had no time to lose! Unfortunately one lap later when lapping Ricky in T1, disaster struck. With ramon and Ricky heading together for T1, I braked early as I could already see this going horribly wrong and I know fully well that you need a lot of care overtaking backmarkers - even more so at Monaco. I stayed out of trouble but was hit by the car behind and pushed into the barriers! This cost me more positions, more time and resulted in a damaged car. Argh, the 2-stop strategy became a race back to 3rd instead...
I kept on pushing and first up was Dan Bayford. Again, it's so tricky to follow another car, but after a good exit of T1 we went side by side up Beau Rivage, both being careful to give each other enough room, but I couldn't make the move stick.
After several laps I made it past thanks to a small mistake by Dan on the exit leading into the tunnel, outbraking him in the chicane. I think that was the highlight of the race for me, managing to overtake someone at Monaco lol
Next I was racing ramon bauer, who went into the pits lap 23 after defending very well for numerous laps.
I drove onto the end of lap 27 to stop for tyres and fuel (just leaving the damage as-is), and had a short last stint of 11 laps to give it my all. At that point I started making up ~3s per lap on J-P. Despite being 30+ seconds or so behind and not enough laps to make it, I was up into 3rd again and determined to catch J-P for the sake of it.
Lap 34 disaster struck again. When exiting the chicane I took the right side to lap Bruce, but he hit the barriers losing a wheel, tangling his spinning car with my rear wheel in the process. I got spun around and had a car damaged beyond driveability now with a flat tyre to boot.
Luckily I made it back to the pits for a change of tyres and despite the heavy damage was able to bring the car home in 3rd.
Considering the accidents I am glad to have held onto my 3rd position, but it wasn't an easy nor really fun race. On the bright side, still in the lead of the championship and 3rd being my worst finishing position so far (not counting the race I couldn't attend). Can't really complain too much about this championship
Next up is France. Hoping to do well there again for maximum points, as I'll have to give the race at Silverstone a miss.
Around 20 cars on track during qualifying. Maybe we should opt for private qual for certain races..?
I had a total of 3 clean laps, where luckily each time I managed to improve my laptime. Unfortunately after J-P pushed me down to 3rd position I didn't get another chance of a clean lap, and that was it. The top 3 within 0.1s though, very close!
Starting position is (nearly) everything at Monaco, so I had to come up with something to potentially gain positions starting from 3rd... I went for the 2-stopper!
I kept 3rd position on the run to the narrow St Devote. For the first stint I kept pressure on J-P. Even though I was a little bit quicker in my lighter car, there was just no way of even thinking about overtaking. Without a mistake of the other driver, there's just no chance, and J-P managed to keep it together very well. I was also eating my tyres, but then with a 2-stop that's less of an issue. I actually needed J-P to wear out his own tyres for him to be slower up to his pitstop
After my first stop, I came out right behind ramon bauer taking my 3rd position. Crap! I started pushing to overtake as I had no time to lose! Unfortunately one lap later when lapping Ricky in T1, disaster struck. With ramon and Ricky heading together for T1, I braked early as I could already see this going horribly wrong and I know fully well that you need a lot of care overtaking backmarkers - even more so at Monaco. I stayed out of trouble but was hit by the car behind and pushed into the barriers! This cost me more positions, more time and resulted in a damaged car. Argh, the 2-stop strategy became a race back to 3rd instead...
I kept on pushing and first up was Dan Bayford. Again, it's so tricky to follow another car, but after a good exit of T1 we went side by side up Beau Rivage, both being careful to give each other enough room, but I couldn't make the move stick.
After several laps I made it past thanks to a small mistake by Dan on the exit leading into the tunnel, outbraking him in the chicane. I think that was the highlight of the race for me, managing to overtake someone at Monaco lol
Next I was racing ramon bauer, who went into the pits lap 23 after defending very well for numerous laps.
I drove onto the end of lap 27 to stop for tyres and fuel (just leaving the damage as-is), and had a short last stint of 11 laps to give it my all. At that point I started making up ~3s per lap on J-P. Despite being 30+ seconds or so behind and not enough laps to make it, I was up into 3rd again and determined to catch J-P for the sake of it.
Lap 34 disaster struck again. When exiting the chicane I took the right side to lap Bruce, but he hit the barriers losing a wheel, tangling his spinning car with my rear wheel in the process. I got spun around and had a car damaged beyond driveability now with a flat tyre to boot.
Luckily I made it back to the pits for a change of tyres and despite the heavy damage was able to bring the car home in 3rd.
Considering the accidents I am glad to have held onto my 3rd position, but it wasn't an easy nor really fun race. On the bright side, still in the lead of the championship and 3rd being my worst finishing position so far (not counting the race I couldn't attend). Can't really complain too much about this championship
Next up is France. Hoping to do well there again for maximum points, as I'll have to give the race at Silverstone a miss.