Do you remember?
I wrote in the pre race discussion thread
"I really think it's the hardest combo in the whole Triple Double Cup."
I think I was right.
My bet was that 30% of the drivers won't finish the race.
Only 59% saw the checkered flag so it was worse than that.
I practised a lot in the last week and got again lots of setups from Dadge and Jouman and tipps about using R4 with low pressure on the front and many more tipps. I was happy when I first did a 1:23.high and I managed to do 18:1x to 18:2x 1st splits and 52.high at the 2nd split. But Saturday it looked like I forgot everything, I was not able to drive fast 1st or 2nd split times.
So I thought forget about the qualy hotlaps and test some more endu races. And I did to find out what's the best tire solution for me. In the end I decided to use R4 on the front with ~150 pressure and R2 on the back. As I was able to do completly consistent lap times with it over 40 laps.
Quali:My goal was to drive 3 stints: 1 Outlap, 1 hotlap, 1 inlap. I was a bit nervous as I saw almost everyone was doing 1:23.xx times in the test qualy sessions. So my plan was to get at least in the top 10, not to far away from ATC gAg as he had to finsh in the race 9 places in front of me to get on the overall podium.
I was completly surprised and thought I was wrong to see gAg pitting especially after I had written right in front of the qualy "no shift+p ...". So after my first security laptime I had to stop during the 2nd stint to tell him he has to stop driving. But I was a bit relaxed now as my biggest rival had to start from the back of the grid as his laptime had to be erased as it was done after the pitting.
In my last stint I tried to risk a bit more and it worked, with very bad split times a 1:24.33. Only 7th so I started another lap and after some nice splits I was up for a 1:23.xx but in the corner where the 2nd split is I touched the green and that's it. No more time for another run but 7th. To see some more people had massive problems with their laptimes helped to stay till the end on P7.
Race:For the first time in the TDC I had to rearrange the grid but no big deal. 1 click on his name then he joins again at the back. But right before the LAG lap someone thought it was funny to click also on my name and so I was spectating when the lag lap started. But the lag start is to see if everyone is on the right position and that's why I stopped it to arrange the grid again. I double checked all the names again and then Dadge was always a bit quicker to tell who is next. Then I thought ok go on, less work for me.

I only checked if all was correct.

Finally we could start the race with everone on the right place.
After the first turn I was almost next to DSR Smack to pass him but I drifted on cold tires into the chicane and if, I think it was P1LOT, had not rammed the tires away I might have been crashed there but the way was free and I could hold the car on the track in front of Smack.
Then PM Ant rolled his car and me and Smack passed his spining car only with a few centimeters space left. Scary

. Unfortunatly PM HAsse crashed then into his team mate and Greybull into him then PM Luke into Greybull and into PM HAsse. Then some more of the field thought "Yellow, slow down, no not really" or like Gloria Gaynor sings "I will survive "

and the crashing continued. What a large pile-up.
During that I was chasing P1LOT and Franky till he did in lap 2 almost at the same place what Ant did in the 1st lap. Then I had P1LOT in front of me only a bit over 1 second away. I tried to push a bit more and was coming closer but then I told myself: "stop it - stick to your plan" And the plan was to not risk to much and to not roll the car as this would be the only real chance for ATC gAg to pass me in points.
So I did what I practised the other days. And I did a lot of even laps, one of the most consistent races for me: 1:24.53, 1:24.51, 1:24.51, 1:24.22, 1:24.37, 1:24.22, and so on. I was really pleased with my own performance

hehe. Not to fast, not to slow but always safe.
~20 minutes later in lap 17 P1LOT crashed right in front of me at the same spot as Franky did 15 laps before. Dadge had pitted and so I was in the 2nd place. Then I had a crashing Franky in front of me again at the end of lap 17. In lap 20 same place same driver at the 2nd last turn Franky on the green.
The crashIn lap 22 I noticed that I still have 2% refuel in the F12 menu and tried to change it while driving on the S/F straight, but when I looked up I mixed up the 150 and 100 meter signs and breaked way to late at ~60 meters in front of T1 and crashed straight into the wall after the sand pit. But thank god my car didn't took big damage. I lost 15 seconds in that lap and was back in the third place when I drove on.
In lap 23 I had again a crashing Franky in front of me (but he somehow managed to always land on the tires everytime) 3 laps later I had Dadge in front after he spun and then chatted "F8 key monkey" I really had to laugh. I than had the feeling he was holding me up a bit in that lap and to not risk a fight later I decided to drive into the pits in lap 26, 3 laps earlier than planned.
The pitsBut after the crash in lap 22 I had forgot to check the F12 menu again and I had "repair damage" on yes and refueling was also on and so I had the feeling I stood there for ages (over 14 seconds). And I thought ok that's it with the 3rd place in this race. I saw P1LOT passing by but I was still on the 3rd. There must have happend something to him I didn't noticed.
The finishThen I watched for the first time in this race the time gaps and saw that ATC gAg is still over 15 seconds behind. 1 lap later over 20 seconds and only 3 more laps to go. Then I had some blue flagged guys in front (they all gave room perfectly, thx a lot) and passed them and finally finished on P3 for the overall P3.