Lap.around.the.track

We are driving on the pit straight which is a bit down hill in fifth gear at 250 km/h when we approach turn 1, the braking area is bumpy and we do not want to lock the front wheels and miss the apex, so a little careful, we brake just a little bit, down one gear and turn right.

Thanks God, or unfortunately, (whatever point of view we look at it)!! The lap is completed. We only have to make 95 of those to complete one driving stint!!

Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Have fun!

As soon as possible, just after the turn-in we want to go back on the throttle. The speed is high and we have to keep it like that. About in the middle of the corner the road starts to climb and we are squeezed on the seat. The car has a lot of grip and it is a great feeling to be on board.

Not quite all the way to the left, at the exit, where the car would like to go because the next turn is a left-hander.

Turn two and three are really tricky. It is a left-right change of direction on top of the hill where the car gets really light. We are at 220 km/h and we brake for turn three as late as we can. We should not forget that braking in a change of direction and with the car getting light because of being on top of the hill is not the easiest thing to do!

If all went well we go back on the power from third gear going downhill in a long left-hander (turn four) in acceleration. Fantastic feeling. We have to be very precise, though, because the road is narrow and very much downhill. Right-hander still in acceleration, we are now in fifth gear at 250 km/h ready for turn five. Again a very difficult bit where precision is a must! We just had a compression because now the road goes again uphill when we have to brake for this narrow but quite fast left hand turn (five).

The most important thing here is not to scrub speed too much when we downshift to third and to go on the power as soon as we can because there is quite a long straight in front of us and don’t forget that we are uphill!

Up to fifth 250 km/h approaching turn six a nice good grip banked right hand corner. Down one gear and back on the throttle for just a little bit before braking again for the most slippery and unfriendly corner of the whole circuit. We use second gear for turn seven and we only think about accelerating as early as we can without spinning the car. Remember we are driving a twin turbo car with quite a lot of power!

In the main straight we have some time to relax and look at the on board instruments. After a couple of ups and downs we reach the speed of nearly 300 km/h when we approach the last chicane, this is a potential overtaking point but the fact that is going down hill and that the road is quite bumpy does not make our life easy.

Second gear for the left hander and quickly in third for the next one (our electro-pneumatic shifting on the steering wheel is making our life a lot easier) we start going up quite steeply again for only a hundred meters or so before the most fascinating part of the track. Turn eleven, we are in a blind place with the road bending to the right and the turning-in point is really difficult.

The downhill section that follows is more like a free fall, accelerating through the gears into turn twelve which is just flat in fifth gear at 240 km/h. What a corner.

We are in a really nice hilly area full of green where we would like to have a house. But instead of our house there is the race track!
Have you fastened your seat belts?…ok then we go.