NGT Sprint: Race 5 - Donington
Wanting to keep my good run of top 10 finishes in tact, I entered the Donington race with a small amount of trepidation. It's a tricky track, very easy to spin on the tight hairpins if you get the power down too early and very easy to leave the track on the fast first section.
I'd been practicing on a soft/soft set-up for qualifying but briefly experimented with soft/medium before the race as the softs seem to overheat very quickly here. Decided not to change things at the last minuts and stuck with the original plan.
Qualifying went badly though, traffic conspired to slow me down for the first half, then managed one decent lap which I screwed up by spinning. Starting the race back in 14th was pretty disappointing, especially as the times were so close.
Thought I was in for a tough time with Fozzmeister right behind me and he started to apply the pressure as I got off to my usual tentative start on cold brakes and tyres. Coming through the chicane for the first time Fozz got a little close under braking and gave me a little tap, Fozz span, I didn't. Phew.
Chased Aangram for a while 'til we caught PaulW, we seemed to be pretty evenly matched until PaulW span on the first hairpin, letting us through.
Spinning at Doni is a viscious circle, one spin overheats the tyres, which reduces grip....
By this time, Fozz was back on my tail, starting to get close and was mighty relieved to see him overcook a corner and disappear. Aangram was next to go, spinning at the chicane, which left me in 10th, behind Don1.
Don1 drove brilliantly, we were about 1-2s apart for about 15mins, did all I could to close and put some pressure on but he kept responding. I was faster through section 1 but Don1 was pulling it back again in section 2. There seemed to be no way through as the laps ticked down.
As the pressure and tyre wear started to take its toll, we both made some mistakes, had some contact, let PaulW through as I ran off, who promptly span again to let me though!
Chased down Don1 again who was starting to look a bit scrappy, with about 3 laps to go we caught some backmarkers, this looked like my last opportunity. Somewhere in the melee, Don1 span and finally I was through! Cruised through the last two laps for a hard-fought 8th.
Good to see both the NGT Legends in the top 10 with PaulW finishing in 10th.
Wanting to keep my good run of top 10 finishes in tact, I entered the Donington race with a small amount of trepidation. It's a tricky track, very easy to spin on the tight hairpins if you get the power down too early and very easy to leave the track on the fast first section.
I'd been practicing on a soft/soft set-up for qualifying but briefly experimented with soft/medium before the race as the softs seem to overheat very quickly here. Decided not to change things at the last minuts and stuck with the original plan.
Qualifying went badly though, traffic conspired to slow me down for the first half, then managed one decent lap which I screwed up by spinning. Starting the race back in 14th was pretty disappointing, especially as the times were so close.
Thought I was in for a tough time with Fozzmeister right behind me and he started to apply the pressure as I got off to my usual tentative start on cold brakes and tyres. Coming through the chicane for the first time Fozz got a little close under braking and gave me a little tap, Fozz span, I didn't. Phew.
Chased Aangram for a while 'til we caught PaulW, we seemed to be pretty evenly matched until PaulW span on the first hairpin, letting us through.
Spinning at Doni is a viscious circle, one spin overheats the tyres, which reduces grip....
By this time, Fozz was back on my tail, starting to get close and was mighty relieved to see him overcook a corner and disappear. Aangram was next to go, spinning at the chicane, which left me in 10th, behind Don1.
Don1 drove brilliantly, we were about 1-2s apart for about 15mins, did all I could to close and put some pressure on but he kept responding. I was faster through section 1 but Don1 was pulling it back again in section 2. There seemed to be no way through as the laps ticked down.
As the pressure and tyre wear started to take its toll, we both made some mistakes, had some contact, let PaulW through as I ran off, who promptly span again to let me though!
Chased down Don1 again who was starting to look a bit scrappy, with about 3 laps to go we caught some backmarkers, this looked like my last opportunity. Somewhere in the melee, Don1 span and finally I was through! Cruised through the last two laps for a hard-fought 8th.
Good to see both the NGT Legends in the top 10 with PaulW finishing in 10th.
posted by popabawa at
8:10 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home