Meaning he takes the Ferrari, while I have the Cooper.
After a fair amount of practice and getting the car setup right, and I was pretty happy with the setup going into qualifying.
I went for three flying laps, but unforunately spun on the last two, unabling me to get the best merit out of my lap times.
I would have probably not improved my position, but I think I left about 3 or 4 seconds of potential left to waste.
The start was not one of my best. Tristan went like a rocket behind me and took me into T1.
Michael had warp contact and went wide, so I went passed him, leaving my win/lose marge to 0.
I still wanted to make something out of the start, so after a good exit on the Sudkehre, I went behind him and went for a very cheeky divebomb into the Nordkehre,
and with success! Thus I gained one place at the start.
I managed to keep him reasonably with the front runners in my Cooper and aimed not to lose too much ground.
Even more fortune hit me when Roy apparently spun into the Karussell, so I got his place as well.
Later on at Schwalbenschwanz, Iestyn spun and I merely avoided the Ferrari. Roy, however, was less lucky.
But at the end of lap 1, I was in third.
And let me tell you, I did not expect to get myself in this position at all.
Michiel (who was having the time of his season) and Robert were far away, so I focused on staying ahead of Tristan.
Unfortunately, the Nürburgring was also after me and I bottomed out at Fuchsröre.
My car got the inside line for the curve before the Tree Of Death, hit the enbankment and threw my car into the barrier, severely damaging my suspension.
Trying to recover, I immediately felt the fractured suspension preventing me from doing a burn out and recover myself from the spin.
I had to wait till nearly the whole went past to get my car back into the right direction.
I tried to measure the severity of the damage, hoping I might be able to contest with the backmarkers.
But it became quickly clear there was no chance. At every left turn, the understeer was bad, and the car would snap incredibly easy at every right turn.
There was no way I could keep up. My race, thus, was pretty much over.
Almost any sane driver at this point would get out of the car to avoid making things worse. Except, I was everything but sane.
I decided to keep going forward and get to the finish line, because I wanted to get a few things done:
- in case the car has extreme damage, finishing would mean I have not destroyed one of the team's cars. Save us some money.
- I also get some coins myself for the team and compensate for the damage.
- If lucky, with retirements, I may scramble one or two points.
I toiled for 5-and-three-quarter with a limping leg, and in the end, managed to actually get cross the line.
Throughout the journey, I gradually grew a little more accustomed to the car, and almost gave me the illusion that the car was 'healing'.
Whereas I first struggled to get it under 9 minutes, I became much more doable, with the last lap being around 8:46
As it turned out, the damage calculated only was in the 'Heavy', so the costs are not as bad as I thought it would be.
And with the finish, collected enough for the D1 team to keep a netto score in the positive numbers.
Last but not least, I scrambled one point. Better than zero

I'm dismayed by throwing away what could have been P3 at best, but on the otherside,
a bit proud on managing to carry a very badly driving car to the finish on one of the most difficult tracks out there.
Huge congratulations to my teammate Michiel for absolutely dominating the ring and a well deserved first place!
That has to be a huge relief after several misfortunes this season.
Also congrats to Roebrt and Iestyn on the podium, and all with got to the finish line on this track.
Whew... a lie down and a season break is what I can use after such an intense race.
This was probably one of my most difficult runs I have done yet.
But hey... pulled it off, y'know?
Oh yes! Two more things:
I livestreamed this race on YouTube because... why not.
It's unlisted for now, as I'm going to do some editing, but once it's done processing, I'll throw the video in the topic.
And speaking of, I was asked to dropped my folder because some liked of the graphics. Simply put a mixture of GAMMAWORX and =XK= updates.
And some other stuff, I guess.
I'm making a Dropbox folder now which should be done later this evening/day.
The evil mistress that is the Nürburgring will have an even better disguise for all.

Edited by GrandPrixYannick, 18 May 2019 - 11:55 AM.