OEL Blancpain Series Finale - Suzuka 250km
A little bit wild at the start, and an even crazier finish, but a mostly lonely race for me in Suzuka. Elia Tartari was on pole as usual, speeding off into the distance, but this time he had Barnabas Rozsavolgyi chasing him. We lost the Ferraris of VR25 Motorsport early on, because of a bizarre bouncing bug, so I found myself in 3rd position. I was falling away from the leaders but pulling ahead of the guys behind me.
Barnabas was able to overtake and led the race for some laps, but after the pitstop cycle Elia had regained the lead and pulled up a bit of a gap. I just kept it clean as it was clear I didn't have the pace to keep up with the leaders. For most of the race it seemed like I was watching the trackmap and the leaderboard on the HUD more than I was driving. The best way to watch a race is to be in it.
Barnabas made another pitstop and maybe put on the wrong tires or something because suddenly he became erratic and was losing loads of time. Meanwhile, my tires were dying and I couldn't push anymore. I caught up with him around 10 laps to the end and we had a lively battle for 2nd, exchanging places several times. He was definitely having some issues and would make mistakes that allowed me to pass, only for him to retake the position with his superior speed. I was ahead going into the chicane at the end of the final lap, but he did a great move to overtake and get 2nd place at the finish line. The gap between us was less than a second.
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