Re: F1 2010
Just had such a great race in Budapest with my Lotus.
In practice I was pushing hard trying to find the right setup, but it wasn't working well. In fact I was trying so hard I forgot to come in for fuel, so I ended up empty, which led to me accidentally hold up 2 cars on the straight and getting a 10 place grid penalty.
Qualifying was always going to be difficult now and I'd have to push real hard to meet my objective of a 15th place grid position. In Q1, I was struggling to get a decent lap in. Sector 1 & 3 times were good, but I was hemorrhaging time in sector 2. I still scraped through to Q2, but a change of setup was needed perhaps. Early Q2 times were poor and I wasn't going to qualify for Q1 unless something changed, so I had to be braver on the chicane in Q2. I span a couple times and was running out of time, I had 1 more lap, this time I got through the chicane safely and somehow ended Q2 in 9th. (I cheered out loud at this point). Q1 was much the same, continued to be braver in sector 2 where I was slowest and gradually got my times up, ending qualifying in 5th.
During the race I'd obviously have to sit 10 places back thanks to my penalty in practice, but 15th was my objective anyway, so I was pleased. It was raining lightly and the entire field looked to be on intermediates, including me. The race began and I was battling between the cars from my 15th to 13th, but couldn't match the pace of cars further ahead. So early into the race, with the rain not stopping and grip not optimal, I decided to hit the pits and go for wets. At this point, I was the only car to pit and the entire field passed me by, maybe I'd made a terrible mistake.
Out lap felt good, but I couldn't judge the times due to the pit stop, 2nd lap on the wets was looking good, all the sectors were fast and the engineer on the radio tells me I've just done the fastest lap of the race. I quickly catch up to the back markers and start carving my way through the field and hoping other cars would make pit stops later in the race. They did pit, lap by lap more and more cars would pit and I'd moved back up to 10th place. At this point the rain was getting heavier and the cars on intermediates were really struggling, this meant I could pass 4 cars up to 6th place, where I'd meet the big boys.
6th place was good, I'd be happy with that, but the rain became worse yet and their cars were really struggling, they had to pit for wets. During the penultimate lap they all pit for new tyres and I now led the race! At this point my tyres were in bad condition, the back 2 were red, but with only 1 lap left and a comfortable lead, I eased the car home for a Lotus win in Hungary.
Damn it felt good.
