Barcelona: GGGrrr!

We came to Barcelona knowing it was not a BMW circuit.  However, the goal was to have a great end to the season.  

We only had one free practice session instead of the usual two.  It was longer.  The car felt good.  I finished P5, and was a little disappointed.  However, we found out that the fasted driver had decided to put on two sets of new tires!  We went straight to qualifying.  I managed to drive spot on when the tires had their full grip.  I made a slight error, which cost me pole by 6 hundreds of a second. P2 was good enough, and I kept my tires in good form for the qualifying race.

I was a little nervous at the start knowing that the cars behind were faster on the straight.  At the first corner I lost my second place, but kept up to speed.  On the fourth corner, I decided to take the outside line!  I kept my cool, felt the car twitch from behind, counter-steered the oversteer and past the car.  I was SUPER pleased!  It was then a matter of catching the driver in first.  For the next 20 minutes I tried everything, but had to settle with P2!  I was out – mentally and physically drained!

Then main race started horribly.  I just did not get the tire pressures up and lost two positions.  It took 3 laps before I could fight for 3rd.  The first two were gone and had excellent pace.  I knew it was going to be impossible to pass them.  In turn 4 I caught the car in front and tried the same outside maneuver.  As we were side by side half way into the corner the back of the car slide.  I thought I could control the slide, but it was too much and the car spun and into the gravel I went.  At that point the race was over but I knew I could accomplish one more thing!  The marshals pulled me out and I was able rejoin the race.  I went on “super” attack mode!  I had one last thing to prove!  At the end of the race I was congratulated for the fasted lap of the race – over a second quicker!  Job done.

2018 is over.  I will get my crown on November 24 in Paris!

I will take this opportunity to thank all my supporters. See you in 2019.