A very demanding race for me after signing up very late and not doing enough testing + I was driving quite sick and with a fewer. Almost decided to park it half way through, but I just love this cars so much and it's been so long since I drove them, I just couldn't quit, so I continued till the end.

My qual run lasted for only 2 laps and then my engine started to overheat. After one fast lap I decided it was good enough and parked it to save some strengths for the race.

My start was a bit hectic since I had to avoid the car in front of me who was very late off the line. Still everything ran smooth from then on and after a couple of laps I settled behind Heinz. He was sideways a couple of times and I managed to sneek up behind him until he eventually ran wide and gave me the spot.

I kept my advantage until my pit stop where I decided not to change tyres but looks like it was a mistake, since I lost a lot more time driving with very worn front tyres for the closing laps of the race. I was more or less a sitting duck for the guys with fresher tyres so I didn't cause to much troubles to them except to Heinz who brought along Christi and Pablo.

They were on my tail and I did some defensive driving, shutting the inner line going into the chicane but than ran a bit wide and had to cut the chicane. Decided to give the spot to Heinz so I blipped my lights to him and he went inside approaching Melbourne (see screenshot) and Cristi was trying to pass me on the outside as well. Great racing and we survived that three wide situation but it was just a matter of time before I was passed by Cristi and Pablo as well. I continued in 7th and got my tyre warning 3 laps before the finish so I just nursed it back home and saw Cristi slowing down as he ran out of fuel on the last lap giving me 6th place.

It was very tough to keep my concentration in the last couple of laps, my vision started to go away and I was really driving with my last atoms of strength. Still it was worth it... a great exciting race and a big congrats to Ari for wining it.

Congrats Tristan for a nice win!

QUAL:
Some fast times out there and I set my PB as well but it was not enough for the pole. Was a bit unlucky when I had a pole in my sight but I had to lift big time when someone was trying to spin into the right direction in the last corner. Still, second place was a great result with Barry setting a great time in 3rd as well.

RACE:
Had a normal start, good enough to be able to keep my spot. Observed Barry in my mirrors making a great start behind me and also saw Steve going wide in T1 and in to the sand. Was really cautious on cold tyres and brakes but was still able to stay up with Tristan and even had a nice slipstream on the S/F straight on lap 2, but a pass was impossible. I like this track and I had a good pace but Tristan was just a bit to fast in first part of the race, building up 4 seconds of lead and then just controlling it till the end. Still I'm happy with my performance, not making any mistakes and doing some constant fast laps. Was faster than in my offline testing so I'm happy with that as well. Congrats to Barry for 3rd place finish as well.

PRACTICE:
Woke up at 3:20 AM so I needed some practice time to open my eyes fully. It sure woke me up when my GTR crashed in the middle of practice which never happened before. Not again I said after "surfing the skies" at the start of my last race with these blue candies. I restarted and hoped for the best. Track seemed to have less grip or maybe it was just me still sleeping a bit.

QUAL:
There were 3 cars in front of me when we left the pits and I had to back down a bit to have some open space. It was not enough so I eventually did my PB despite overtaking a car so I guess those overheating soft tyres did a very good job!

RACE:
Kent was sitting alongside of me and I knew it will be very hard to stay ahead of him starting the race. I decided to use a button instead of a pedal for my clutch. I've tested it and it seems this suits me better. My start was not bad but Kent was amazing as always so in the first left corner I had the inside line but then came the second right corner and it was his to take with Mike diving in as well. I had to stay wide after hearing Mike's engine very close to me. I gave him a lot of room and tried to accelerate as hard as I could because I knew next corner is mine to take if I stay alongside of him. I even managed to clip the grass a bit exiting turn 2 but I still had enough speed to stay alongside and retake second when braking for the next left hander.

I was runing on medium tyres and Kent must have been on softs with his speed in the first 3 laps. After that my tyres warmed up and I was able to slowly come closer to Kent, observing his lines and trying to find my spot to attack him when I'm close enough. I soon realized this is going to be mission impossible without him making a small mistake and just when I got a bit closer to him he ran wide in the second to last turn and on to the dirt giving me a chance to take over his lead.

From then on it was just a matter of pushing hard and observing the standings (cheering up for my team mate Barry who was in second) and when my lead was big enough I just took it easy with overtakings the lapped cars and brought it home safely.