"Quali: pretty close. I was soo happy and maybe even lucky with my pole, because I totally messed up pretty much every attempt for a good time. 0.004 sec was the margin that saved me a pole Big relieve..
Race: Became quite clear in the first laps that my racepace was good enough, so I could push hard in 'save mode' and create a small gap on de matos. I chose to do a 2 stopper, although I wasn't sure until the moment I decided to turn my car into the pitlane. The car felt great again in race and very stable.
Very very happy with this win, but I don't know if it would've been such a comfortable race if Stahre, Dominguez and Kanitz were able to race this one. Congrats to Joakim and de Matos.
Thanks again to the whole team for the setup work!!"
This time I got closer to my PB in qualifying, which brought me closer to the front and helped me achieve my goal of starting the race from the first two rows. People were very sensible in the start and there were no changes of position near the top. I had no chances to have a serious look and a quick glance in the mirrors showed there were no serious threat to my own position either. First lap was, as usual here, all about staying on the racing line and not get fooled by dirty air, heavy car or cold tyres.
Apart from a clash with Werdmuller which unfortunately ended his race the only events were a few half attempts at Keithley which I thought better off. Fortunately he pitted very early and I could go. Then the other leaders pitted early aswell and I could take the lead closely followed by my teammate Niza who was doing a very good job. I could keep the distance to around 1 second without any problem but to extend the lead I would have needed to take much more risk and I wasn't prepared to do that as I already had reckoned that I would be pretty safe for P2 because of my 1 stopper.
My tyres held up over even my expectations and I could make my only stop on L30. The second stint was equally uneventful. Kerkhof was sailing away and I couldn't do anything about him. De Matos was ten seconds behind with twenty laps to go so he wasn't a big worry even if he had slightly fresher tyres. Basically I drove carefully, minding the gap, keeping my margins for error big enough and boosting conservative to have tyre and engine resources left should he catch up. He obviously put up a very good pace and set a few FL along the way but my gap was big enough to stay comfortably ahead. Stragegically a perfect race which brought a very welcome 1-2 for Twister Racing and my first podium since P2 in Monaco."
