Round 5& 6: Right Choice Bad Luck and Wrong Choice No Luck

The days before the race weekend in July are quiet since the Zhuhai track were fully booked by commercial events. The only chance that I can test our Lotus is Monday. Many drivers come to the track on Monday to see if their cars are ready for the race.

There are altogether 4 sessions on Monday. I am in the car driving in all these 4 sessions. My best lap time of the testing sessions is 1’57.5. Alan is very happy to see that I improved another a couple of seconds. Because if you can do 1’58 with 2 or 3 laps of 1’57 in round 4, you can become the champion overall.

Another thing makes Alan happy is that all the other drivers cannot stand the hotness because July is the hottest time in China. They either just drive fewer sessions or drive less time in each session, and they complain about the weather. On the contrast, I can drive through all the sessions without feeling un-comfortable.

Unfortunately, rains catch the race weekend. We decided to use road tires for qualifying, as our new rain tires are for pouring down heavy rains, and the rain around the track was really mild. Not enough for using wet tires but much enough to keep the track wet.

The car feels a bit strange in qualifying. Probably because of the setup for dry and road tires combination, I guess while driving. It is very hard to slow down the car. Still, the car starts to slide when I brake. At the first few laps, I brake at where I brake on wet before, but the car does not slow down enough. At the end of the main straight, I tried to brake earlier and earlier. But I still could not slow down the car enough when I brake at 200 meters sign while other drivers brake at 150 meters sign and they are ok to slow down and turn in the corner.

I stopped in the pit lane once to tell Alan about the strange feeling on braking. But it is not enough information for him to do anything and we do not have time to do anything. Finally, my worst ever qualify result come out: 9^th with a lap time of 2’24 on wet.

After I came back from qualifying, both Alan and me found the dirt on the tires are strange. Because the dirt is not even on the surface of the tires as it is before, but it is a kind of strange shapes, which made the tires surface look scraggy. Alan could not figure out a proper answer to the ugly rough surface. But later on, I asked my Michelin friend Alex and he said it is probably because of the tire pressure.

Race 5 started. I dash from the 9^th and I am already 3^rd at the first corner. I can hear the team boys cheering at the pit lane. The car feel much stable with the rain tires although they are for heavy rains and we only get mild rain. I overtook the second position car at T7 at the second lap and he took back his position at T9. Same thing happened again at lap 3. Then I figure it out that I could overtake him again and he would never catch me any more. Because I feel that my tires are better than his and I am surely faster than him either on straight or corner. I just try to be safe on the wet. I decided to overtake him at T7 again and brake later at T9, than there would be no need to give him space when I turn into T9. At apex of T11, while I was making my plan for the next lap and carefully following the car in front of me out of the corner, I felt a heavy bump on the rear right. The car immediately made a spin and out of the track. I re-started the car and tried to drive it, it immediately made another spin as soon as I put on gas while in 2^nd gear. Then I realized there must be something wrong with car. I tried to drive again and found the steering wheel lost its direction and the car was totally not drivable at all. I have no other choice but slowly drive the car back to the pit. After I got out of the car, I found the suspension is destroyed and the rear right wheel lost its shape. I start this race well but got very bad luck.

Race 6, we are still looking at the sky 5 minutes before I have to drive out, without any tires fitted on the car. It is very difficult to decide what tires we should use. It looks like it is going to rain and clouds are dark while wind is strong. Alan asked me. I finally said wet tires. However, the drizzle drops fully stopped after one lap and the strong wind started to blow the track dry. I am ambivalent whether being faster and destroyed our only set of rain tires or protect the tires for future using. Finally, I decide to stay in the middle, not to push very hard but still keep some pace. This is a boring race for me, start from 5^th and finish 6^th.