So, there appears to be a fair amount of controversy right now in regards to wall riding at Turn 4. Not the scenario I had expected to encounter on my return to FIA races, but not enough to get in the way of a refreshingly competitive Nations run.
Before I move on, I will say that I only booted up GT Sport today to check it was up to the latest version before tomorrow's update goes live. No practice, no strategy, not even a great deal of experience racing around the Infield B configuration. It was nevertheless tempting to sample a few different cars (R92CP, 908, XJR-9, C9) just to get a feel for the combo, and it turned out that I had plenty of speed once I figured out that I didn't have to lift off for Turns 2-3. Out of the quartet, I eventually went with the C9 as it seemed to feel the quickest and most consistent over a 10-lap session.
16:00 Nations
Didn't anticipate great success in the 16:00, especially on the back of my last few FIA races and the third seeding I received in my lobby (also featuring
@Elusion428 and 'Wifi Password' in Saubers). The rest of the grid consisted of five more Saubers, a 787B and the remainder all R92CPs. Two cars dropped out before the warm-up so I was technically ranked second before qualifying. Found myself incredibly lucky to be close enough to a second Belgian Sauber for my first flier, making sure not to graze the walls or run into the back of him. Touched 213mph before braking for Turn 1, on my way to a 39.556 which remained largely untouched. The only drivers to go faster were Elusion (7 tenths up on me with his wall riding experiment) and the second Belgian (a 38.651, also wall riding), which goes to show how massively skewed the FP/qualifying sessions can be without reliable enforcement of wall collision penalties.
Still, by getting the early slipstream, a third-place start was secured, but with no strategy in place I simply decided to start on Softs and see how things panned out. Had revved the GlickenSauber a bit on the grid formation, but was mildly worried when I noticed that only a few other Saubers were doing the same thing. In hindsight, fuel was far less of an issue for me than preserving the tyres and keeping the Sauber out of the walls. Set brake balance all the way to +5 for the first two corners (+2 for the remainder of the first stint), though the second Belgian seemed gracious enough to pull over and let the rest of the top-10 starters past as soon as the race got underway. From there, I had a clear run to follow and eventually hunt Elusion down, with an early challenge from the HKS Nissan (leading a squadron of four or five at most) fading within a couple of laps. Aside from a few light scrapes and moments where I should've perhaps braked a
little earlier, I did enough to get within 5-6 tenths of Elusion by the time we pitted together for Mediums on Lap 14.
Cranked brake balance up to +4 the next time we came out of Turn 1, and with the remaining pitstop cycles to consider it was a straight fight between myself and Elusion for the buttermilk. With my slipstream, the gap shrunk to around 2-3 tenths by Lap 17, and before long I made the first of a few lunges up the inside under braking for Turn 1. Elusion gets more speed and a better drive around the outside, but I think to myself that this is a good opportunity to keep him under pressure. Three laps later, Elusion almost loses it on the outside as we enter Turn 1 together, and I leave him hung out to dry as we go through the infield complex. Now it was his turn to pressure me, but even with his slipstream and more ambitious braking Elusion seemed to lose a lot of ground coming out of corners. I noticed that every time he exited Turn 4, he did so in second gear, the upshift losing him valuable momentum which he would initially claw back in the tow. By the end of Lap 24, it seemed like he began losing more and more time (his front tyres were more worn than mine according to the replay data), and a few laps later he was out of slipstream range. From that point on it was a case of getting my Sauber home in one piece, and I did so with over an extra lap's worth of fuel to spare.
FIA victories come round once in a Blue Moon for me, and despite the wall riding this was a fine way to come back to GT Sport after a short break away from gaming. My past experiences with the Sauber have generally been confined to the Nordschleife time trial from the Lewis Hamilton challenge, but here it worked splendidly. Stable, consistent and yet faster over single and multi-lap stints than the R92CP. Thank you Elusion for the great race and the compliments you sent earlier; as a tip, I would recommend staying in third gear through Turn 4 as it will help keep your revs (and momentum) going on exit.
I may not get the chance to repeat this often in the coming season, so I'm making absolutely sure to savour the rest of the buttermilk tonight!
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