So, the race full of events, here's another essay as well as few thoughts on the incident as requested.
Just didn't have enough quali pace today, but fixed that with a great start. As I said already to Joonas contact we had was a mistake and even without it I would have passed easily. Now, after few laps I cought up with Isaac and after his mistake I was right there, ready to pounce and so I did take him down, with a brilliantly precise dive down the inside, as he left the door wide open, leaving him powerless but to make way as I was fully along side for a perfectly clean move. Gave him plenty of room on the exit, not pushing him into a wall or anything like that, dropped down to 1st and powered out into 2nd place.
He obviously couldn't take this without taking his rage out and plauted into back of me right away in the next corner. Obviously, he took unfair advantage and the place back, however all in vain as I got him under brakes in T1, again. Unfortunately, he just wouldn't deal with it and the pressure was so high I hit the wall later in the lap taking some damage.
Obviously, I pushed more than the tires really allowed to stay ahead and once they cooled down a bit I had a bit of gap in my pocket. But, he just wouldn't deal with it. As if I stole a place from him and after building this little gap, he would hit the back of my car under braking for hairpin to make my exit slow, numerous times in the race. His favorite driver (Alonso) would be disgusted by this behavior. Once, twice can be a mistake, but for the love of god... even Joe finds a way not to hit someone in the back under braking. I consider that the most unfair way to gain an advantage personally. If you have a look at the replay from my car you can perfectly see how easy it is to avoid that contact in hairpin when I was chasing him, just duck out to the right a little bit and you have same good exit, gained fairly. Sometimes, it was because of this why gap didn't increase and sometimes it was backmarkers playing more luck to him.
He even tried to make a dive on me in second to last corner somewhere mid race, but I had it covered, always. And driving to have the good exits, well isn't that something that you had done to me last race and still I made zero contact to you last race...
Now, the last lap. If I didn't brake as late as I did, he would have hit the back of me there as he did few laps earlier. In that incident few laps earlier he lost a bit of ground, but still subconsciously you always want to avoid these things. Anyway, wall hit is nothing bad, its last lap and bit more dmg dont matter, so I just keep the car in slide out of corner, have to mention I didn't really have other choice, the slide came natural and I had to keep it in slide, and suddenly I'm hit! It was the only line I could take and he wasn't even side by side, just lurking his nose in. You can't even pass around the outside in next corner. If you have a look at the replay you can see that he actually accelerates not to avoid contact, but to cause it. And eventhough the rules say that some contact is tolerable in last laps, which would only then make the hit in the rear bumper in hairpin justifiable, rules also say that competitors are asked to give their fellow competitors the fairest chance to escape on track incident. A desperate man, calls for desperate measures and replay can confirm that even though he saw me with car just in control, he decided to accelerate and cause contact in very convenient place (over bump) where I could no longer save it.
Was it this deliberate, I think we will never know. I can't understand why would someone compare this to round 1, where the situation isn't even similar to this. There, we were completely side by side, both in control over the cars and I was slightly in front, when passing, not just lurking my nose in, on exit of the corner and you didn't spin as a consequence.
If we're gonna compare it, I would compare it to Round 3, lap 1, when he dived into fast right corner and I left room with drift around him, and that time he avoided this deadly contact, unlike this time. I hope the justice will be served.
Also, the traffic could be a little bit more cooperative I have to say. Many times I lost gap to Isaac because I had to overtake traffic as if I was racing them for position. Now, I understand when it's someone racing closely, even then they need to compromise a little bit, but when someone is alone being lapped, really rude.
Grats to Joe. That pace is little bit out of reach it seems, this race, just like it was at round 1, one has to say in all fairness.
And grats to my teammate Sma, finishing P6 in only his 2nd or 3rd race in your series.