Weird ESP behavior on a spin
 

Hi all,

I seriously doubt someone knows the answer to this (yes, that was a challenge :D), but here it goes anyway.

I tried to lay some rubber on the track with my R8 (2010 model year, USA model, V8, manual) with the ESP off and the suspension on the hard setting ("lay rubber = I accelerated hard on 2nd gear out of a slow corner, starting from 20mph. I had just come from a few hours of driving a spec Miata though with 1/4th the horsepower, so no surprise that I smacked the throttle too hard...).
I overdid it though and I spun. So far, no big deal. It happened with around 40-50mph which is easy to stop quickly. After I lost it, I hit the brakes. (Side note here: I am not good at "both feet in", I forget to press the clutch when the car spins. That's what I did here as well)
However, the brake pedal was stiff and could not be depressed. That was scary... Eventually the car stopped before hitting anything, but I think only after I pressed the clutch (sorry, can't tell for sure, and it scared me too much to try it again at the same spot -- plus I got yelled at by the track manager). Also, even though the engine didn't shut down, the ESP had defaulted to On, and the suspension setting on soft.

So, what happened? Does the ESP turn on automatically beyond a certain slip angle or combination of other conditions (e.g., speed around the vertical axis)? Does it pump the brake circuit to ready itself for action while it is "thinking" what to do?

Any insights? My next move is to find an empty parking lot or take it to an autocross to see what happens in a similar situation. But it will cost me a set of (flat spotted) tyres and I have to find a really big lot.

Thanks in advance if you have any insights!

Yiannis