Does anyone else have a sore throat from screaming PIT PIT PIT at the TV!
The team had a great opportunity to move Steve into 2nd in the Championship today and dropped the ball.
They had made the gain they were looking for with the soft tyre when Steve moved from 18th to 5th, Holdsworth was parked, and he had track position over Dill. To top it off, the stuff up in the 888 garage saw Whincup slip way down the order which would have allowed us to claw back some points on the leader. 13 positions. How much more gain were they hoping for? That?s without being able to pass Whincup and Winterbottom in the pits to effectively move into 3rd after the stops. I don?t believe that Steve had the pace today to stay with the lead, but all he had to do was stay a couple of spots in front of Dill to move into 2nd for the Championship.
I know it must be difficult to make the right decision in the heat of the moment, but to me it was an obvious and basic calculation. A pit stop takes about 55sec, Steve had about 10 - 12 laps left in his tyres, so unless your going to get about a 5sec/lap gain by staying out, you pit and say thanks for the 13 positions. I?m sure I wasn?t the only one that screamed PIT the second they saw the images of Holdsworth parked.
I love my team, but sorry, today you dropped the ball.[hb]
Congrats to James on a good race and to Steve for moving into 3rd in the Championship.