Gran Turismo World Series (Manufacturers Cup Exhibition Season: Feb 5 - Feb 15)

[OJBrit]

Well I had Mark Webber's luck in that one.
I was able to set good times but was wary of the car snapping randomly out of Pinheirinho.
Into the qualy and annoyingly anther driver exits behind me and close enough to be on my mind. I set my fastest lap on the first lap and it is provisionally P6. By the time others cross it is P8. My next lap is slower and the car behind gets closer. Thanks go to an Italian who started on Meds and who pit for softs pulling over out of the pits for us on fast laps. I'm also surprised to see that I'll get a 3rd lap in. But alas it is way slower due to the obligatory spin out of Pinheirinho. Pushing too much due to the car behind I'm putting it down to.

On the grid I set tc to 1 and try to find my handbrake but hit the camera button instead. By the time I'm back to my normal camera the time counts down so just go. Not the best launch but it is safe. I loose a place due to it but I'm able to find a space in the first part of the Senna S due to the melee. However in the 2nd part I get nudged into another car who subsequently runs wide.

Guess who gets a penalty and who doesn't. Yup, me but nobody else.

I loose a few positions into Curva Do Sol thanks to having to prevent a spin due to the hits. I'm now behind a Turk who has 4.5 seconds of penalty to my 3. At least I won't be last at the end of the lap I think. Well somehow they seem to bin their 4.5 seconds before my 3 seconds. I'm not sure how they did that but it annoys me. Somehow we're not last. Their braking is horrible, they are braking early and still running wide. I unfortunately give them a tap into the right hander after Ferradura due to this. They stay ahead though. Then the same happens at Bico do Pato and I get 2 seconds for it. I'm really annoyed now as this driver is all over the place and I'm paying for it for trying to be clean. The next lap the car decides it is time for the obligatory spin out of Pinheirinho and I am now DFL. I pit lap 5 for softs and hope the clean air will do me good. It sorta does. I'm a few seconds of the pack when the majority of them do pit. I still can't seem to make inroads. I claim a position thanks to a late pitter and 2 further ones due to spinners (Not by their design I'd bet) over the last 2 laps. In the end I finish P11 so it is only a net loss of 1 place in the end but something didn't click here for me despite it being a round I'd enjoy the combo at. A little like the Spa round.

 

[D_Dragline]

Top split in Oceania slot 1.

Minimal practice resulted in q12.

Took it very easy into turn 1 and let the carnage play out in front of me. By turn 4 I was p9. Got held up in the infield by p8 for 3 laps and the front 7 cleared out. Then, on lap 4 p8 braked a bit earlier than expected and I tapped his rear giving me front wing damage and reducing my top speed by 12kmh. 10 laps in and the cars that had gone off earlier were back on us and 2 went by without a fight. P8 got himself sideways and p6 ran off the track, still p10. Another early casualty went by me and when I pitted on lap 14 I was p11.

The last half of the race was relatively smooth and I picked up a couple of spots as a 2 stopper took his second stop and I caught and passed someone running their second stint on mediums.

Into the last 3 laps and the 2 in front had obviously lost their tyres as they were all over the place and dropping about a second a lap.

On lap 29, p8 binned it and then p4 disconnected. Almost caught p6 but he hung on despite the worn tyres.

P7, 191 points, one and done.

 

[Roggers]

I don't get why the default downforce (which is locked through BoP) is so low on the Super Formula cars. The defaults are at minimum and it destroys the enjoyment of these cars.

I ran a SF season in a private league with downforce settings enabled, and having it near max totally transforms the way the SF cars drive. You can really push and they are actually a lot faster with higher downforce. With the default setting they are not enjoyable to drive or race at all. I think I will probably skip this SF round. After having raced with the SF cars the way they should be raced I can't bring myself to attempt this Nations round with the downforce locked at minimum. It's a shame because these cars are a joy with downforce at 50% or higher.

Must admit I did a few laps yesterday in TT and the car doesn’t feel great to drive. I noticed as soon as I start to get on a kerb the cars rear end would lose all traction and spin me.
Seeing how the X19 went at Spa with people driving the cars like they were bumper cars, I’m considering on slipping this round too.

I've been doing some strategy tests using Custom Races for the 20-lap GT2/3 race. Here are how things are looking from the tests I've run so far:

Strategy	Race time
1RM-19RS	27:01.590
5RM-15RS	26:44.173
7RM-13RS	27:00.821
9RM-11RS	27:03.202

A few comments/observations from my practice:

• The RS could last the entire race without changing them, if that were allowed. There is ~10-20% left on the tires at the end of the race when I tried. I was often still setting best sector times on the RSs in laps 15-18 and didn't see any appreciable impact on lap time until laps 19 and 20, and even then it seemed quite small.
• My fastest lap in Free Practice is 1:16.500, but in race conditions my good laps are in the low 1:18s on RS and low 1:19s on RM. I expect this is going to be on the slow end of mid-B lobbies.
• My best time so far is with the 5RM-15RS strategy, but I was having an unusually fast (for me) and consistent race for that one. Not sure how much of the difference is from my hot streak and how much from the strategy.
• If my practice with AI cars in Custom Races are any indication, lap 1 -- and especially the first trip through Senna S -- is bound to be chaotic. I wonder if it might be smart to skip qualifying and run from the back to avoid some of it and pick up positions from cars getting pushed off the track and serving track limit penalties.
• I'm not sure if it just a coincidence or something with the tire physics, but I've noticed that I'm having a surprisingly large amount of track excursions and crashes on the 6th lap of being on a set of tires. Doesn't seem to matter whether it is RMs or RSs. Not having problems on laps before or after.
• As I expect to be on the slow end of the pace, in the race I'm going to try to focus on keeping the car on the track and avoiding the chaos.

Nice data! Seen your newer post about 2/18 split.
Looking at your info, I think for me a 2/18 or 3/17 might be my plan today. I think with the way these car handle, I’d rather play it safe on mediums for a lap or 2 extra then risk softs been very worn.

 

[Talon16]

The car does not have DRS. It has push-to-pass and you will see how much boost you have in the HUD.

EDIT: I think it's important to add that boost is only available in qualifying and race sessions. You will not be able to use the boost nor see it in the HUD in practice sessions.

Qualifier has boost? I thought I saw on the Race Info screen the boost multiplier was 0.0 and for the race it's default. I assumed that meant we won't have boost to qualify.

Just to clarify there is no boost in qualifying.

 

[Roggers]

Well….does help to look at the full race details. Just seen we have partial suspension active 🤣
Few small changes and the car feels way better to drive.

 

[Talon16]

Did one of these last night on the AO account (really nice to be able to do one on a Friday night if my Saturday is booked). Not too fond of this combo, honestly. That being said, the race was pretty entertaining for all the wrong reasons.

My qualifying time was garbage as I couldn't put a lap together. It's a short track with a fast car so you can get three laps in. First lap was bad; second lap I was impeded by someone who almost spun and we sliding sideways, then decided to get back on the racing line despite his or her lap already being ruined; third lap was also bad but a little less bad than the first. Didn't help, though, as I was starting Q9.

So, I was starting on RMs. Happy to say the first lap was void of any major carnage, at least for me. The Senna esses were pretty clean and everyone was able to stay on track. Going into T3 someone did get pushed off track and there were some slow cars so I was able to pick up a couple freebies. From there I was just trying to stay in tow of the gaggle of cars in front who I presumed were on RS due to their pace. Ultimately, I fell out of toe and on lap six I pit for RS tires.

Because of the Wed to Sat (well, Fri night for me) turnaround between events, I really didn't have time to practice set-ups or tire wear. Thanks to some people here was well as some streamers I like (like ImMullet (@ImMullet3), good dude, ~75k DR US player, small channel if anyone is interested), 15 laps seemed to be a good number for the RS tires. I decided to play it a little safe just in case and do the 6/14 strat.

There were some open lapping sessions for a bit after that as different strats played out, as I see the gap to the leader dropping bit-by-bit as his RS tires start to wear. I started pushing hard as I wanted to put in the purple lap as I do think it plays a psychological roll on whomever you are racing if they see that, and after a couple of laps I did.

Fast forward as the front runners start to pit and one-by-one they come out behind me, until lap 16 (I think) when the leader pit. I didn't think I had made up enough time on him and as I come out of the Sennas I was right; he was ~ one second ahead. Darn. We were now in P3 and P4 respectively as a pair of drivers hadn't pit. On lap 19, one of them did for RS but the other didn't.

As we start lap 20, the original leader and I were P2 and P3 and I wasn't able to real him in on my worn softs, losing about .500" over the previous laps. I really didn't think the guy in P1 had pit but there is no way of knowing; at this point I think you guys know where this is going. The three of us get to the infield - with me still healthily behind - P1 and P2 start fighting, side-by-sides and minor contact. Coming out of the last turn I was right there and because they went side-by-side I was able to get a clean run, hit the last bit of boost, and overtake them both before the finish line for the win.

And, sure enough, the driver in the Ferrari livery never pit (ironic, eh? #Ferraristrat) and cost the player in the silver car the win as I wouldn't have caught him otherwise. He was, understandably, not happy in the chat afterwards.

Lap two where it almost ended before it had a chance to begin.

At the line...

 

[GlockPants]

And, sure enough, the driver in the Ferrari livery never pit (ironic, eh? #Ferraristrat) and cost the player in the silver car the win as I wouldn't have caught him otherwise. He was, understandably, not happy in the chat afterwards.

Precisely why I will not be using a Ferrari livery this race. As much as I like it.

Really don't want to bring out an inner Leclerc on this race after what happened to him at Interlagos last season.

 

[Wilsonson]

Does anybody have a tune for the limited suspension options? Or maybe any comments on what some of you may have noticed when dabbling with it?

 

[Moose78]

I've had a chance to do some coarse suspension tuning this morning. I've found that reducing the expansion ratios on both front and back helped me shave about a tenth off my optimal lap time. In the process, I also managed to post a new fastest lap in free practice (1:15.850). I'm beginning to hope this race may not be the disaster I was expecting earlier in the week.

Edit: After trying this tune out in a practice race, I've found it's no good. I'll be reverting back to the stock tune for the race.
Anyways, for anybody interested, here's the tune I'll be running with, unless I find some time to do more fine tuning:

Setting	Front	Back
Damping ratio (compression)	30	30
Damping ratio (expansion)	40	30

Still need to tinker with brake balance a bit to see what works best for me.

 

[mastretta_mx]

After seeing the teaser from Kaz my main fear is close to become real:

Last round probably will be the Bvlgary on Tokyo, that is a combo they already used on the world finals💀

 

[GlockPants]

After seeing the teaser from Kaz my main fear is close to become real:

Last round probably will be the Bvlgary on Tokyo, that is a combo they already used on the world finals💀

That is exactly what I was thinking, too. I hope we're wrong.

 

[PMK]

Top split in Oceania slot 1.

Minimal practice resulted in q12.

Took it very easy into turn 1 and let the carnage play out in front of me. By turn 4 I was p9. Got held up in the infield by p8 for 3 laps and the front 7 cleared out. Then, on lap 4 p8 braked a bit earlier than expected and I tapped his rear giving me front wing damage and reducing my top speed by 12kmh. 10 laps in and the cars that had gone off earlier were back on us and 2 went by without a fight. P8 got himself sideways and p6 ran off the track, still p10. Another early casualty went by me and when I pitted on lap 14 I was p11.

The last half of the race was relatively smooth and I picked up a couple of spots as a 2 stopper took his second stop and I caught and passed someone running their second stint on mediums.

Into the last 3 laps and the 2 in front had obviously lost their tyres as they were all over the place and dropping about a second a lap.

On lap 29, p8 binned it and then p4 disconnected. Almost caught p6 but he hung on despite the worn tyres.

P7, 191 points, one and done.

What is the go to strat for GT1?

 

[SupaflyIRL]

I'm seeing people winning GT2/3 races in asia replays with weird strats like 15RM 5RS, because their race pace on mediums is in the low 1:17s and softs in 1:14s so i guess i just have to "be fast"

 

[Wilsonson]

1:14s is insane pace for anything worse than A+ isn't it?

 

[SupaflyIRL]

1:14s is insane pace for anything worse than A+ isn't it?

it is. the top splits of GT2 and GT3 are stuffed with smurf accounts going seal clubbing

also when i say "people" are doing these times, its usually one guy on pole in the split doing those times, and just pulls away from the rest of the race immeditely. i haven't seen more than one person posting times even close to that per split

e: i'm an actual borderline GT2 driver in GT3 right now and my soft race pace is in the 1:17s and maybe tag a lucky 1:16 lap

 

[Eggstor]

After seeing the teaser from Kaz my main fear is close to become real:

Last round probably will be the Bvlgary on Tokyo, that is a combo they already used on the world finals💀

Nah - Jimny at Broad Bean...with a custom suspension that replicates the '80s US-spec Samurai for a roll-fest.

 

[SupaflyIRL]

Nah - Jimny at Broad Bean...with a custom suspension that replicates the '80s US-spec Samurai for a roll-fest.

i didn't even consider a jimny final round until now and am immediately bricked up

 

[Eggstor]

i didn't even consider a jimny final round until now and am immediately bricked up

Sorry to do that to you. Now if that happens,....

 

[Roggers]

VR for the real F1 experience. Decided to give VR a try and plus I’m able to handle these car better in the VR mode. Only downside is my racing awareness. Against AI it’s easy but this was my 2nd race in a competitive manner. The awareness required for VR is mad! Also the lack of info is poor, but then again I never noticed the info as it wasn’t in my line of sight.

So after finding out tuning was available. I made the car so much better in handling.
My tune is:
Dampers (Compression) Frt. 28, - Rear. 25
Dampers (Expansion) Frt. 50, Rear 45

Lobby - 2pm UK, fairly high DR B, with 126 points to play. And just as I happened to pick the Nigel Mansell Red 5 livery, I was given lobby #5 too.

Quali - well I messed i up. Did 2 okish laps, and didn’t even notice you could get a 3rd lap in so I was off position for T1. P13 for the race.

Race - started on medium tyres. I decided to go for the 2/18 strat. I get off the line well and manage to gain a position, but I then run a little wide and miss judge the track edge. Got on the dirt and this slowed me down and fell back to P15. Lap 1 was a mess. Car going left and right, and I manage to get up to P12. Lap 2 again a bit messy but knowing I was pitting and getting free air was great. On the softs I was able to pump in high 17, low 18 for every lap. Around lap 16 I started to meet cars and I came across an Italian who decided for P10 I was easier to play dirty then fair. Into T10 the yellow flags come out, but this doesn’t stop the Italian behind me from trying to overtake. They try round the outside and then pit manoeuvre me and then I see they have spun too, so karma I guess. Anyway they don’t hand the position back, but then the next lap it appears some dirty tactics are used on another car as they let off the throttle to try and give the car behind a yellow flag penalty. This doesnt work and they go off track somehow? After all that I managed to get up to P9, then lap 19 P8 spins just ahead and give me P8. As I don’t know who has or hasn’t pitted I ended up P7.

P7 in the end with 95 points on my 2nd account, so I’ll take that. Was an interesting race but again not that exciting. High speed cars in lower lobbies just doesn’t offer exciting racing in my opinion.


You be the judge here on the Italian.


My live VR stream, apologies if it makes you sick.

 

[Wilsonson]

I am officially the worst. Get the fastest lap but finish 13th. I have punted about 5 guys (involuntary). Just never adjusted to people breaking way earlier than me. Which of course I should. Any tips on how to get this into my brain?

Also spun myself 3 times.

 

[tmtk]

EMEA, GT3, B/S lobby

Race 1 - 70 points lobby

I never get to clock such laptimes in qualifying as in FP, the difference is huge. Stress probably.
Here a lap of 17.1 was surprisingly good enough for P3

Started bad, late to lift the brakes, lost few positions, but pushing and punting chaos on Senna esses allowed me to regain some.
That didn't last long. Approaching Ferradura I lifted early not to crash accidentally into the guy in front and received a huge hit from behind or rear right side that got me far off the track. Before I rejoined I was 12th and struggling with aero and wheel defects.
That was basically it. Managed to crawl back to 10th after all the pits (changed RS to RM at lap 15).
I was briefly 9th, but the ovetaken guy dived inside me and punted me off the track hitting my side for which he didn't get any penalty (note to self: hitting on the side is not illegal in this game). And that's it, finished 10th.

Race 2 - 69 points lobby

Quali laptime slightly better, 16.9 resulted in P4.

Decided to change strategy and go for RM-RS. Good start and troubles for driver in P3 allowed me to gain position. Opening lap was good, tried to cling on to the Dutch in P2. We ran few laps together, I was faster in first part of the track (especially the esses), he was better in the latter part of the track. The Italian in P1 was on another planet pace-wise.
Don't know what happened behind, but suddenly I noticed we had a gap of 6, 7 and then 9 seconds. I just sat comfortably behind the Dutch. But he was slowly pulling away. Pitted for softs on lap 8. Dutch stayed out. Exited in P6.
When the Dutch pitted I tried to close the gap using the overtake boost, he exited a second in front of me. Decided to try to catch him, but instead I was caught by the exit from Pinheirinho and spun out - that place was giving me trouble everytime.
Overtaken by some guys who still needed to change tyres, so basically I was alone in P3 with about 10 seconds space in front and behind. Decided to bring it home and not risk anything.
For me P3 is super result as driving an open wheeler with controller buttons is very demanding.
Solid 64 points, I'm happy.

 

[afc5150]

Entered North America slot 1 top GT2 lobby with 10 A/S and 6 B/S drivers worth 155 points. Great!

Qualified 6th and all looking good. Great!

About to start and the hot water tank repair people knock on my door 3 hours earlier than my appointment. Not great.

Tried to race but too many distractions with strangers in my home and I quit on lap 2 while running 5th.

Damn.

 

[Zorz]

Only doing that once, that was a warzone. How I managed to make my way through that unscathed, I don't know. Super Formula continues to be damn good fun in VR though. It felt to me like it was 110% arcade driving that thing on a TV, but it just feels REALLY GOOD in VR.

I qualified P11 with a 1:15.623 which actually surprised me. I was a bit higher than usual on the global leaderboard coming into this, so was not expecting to qualify that far back with a lap that was only a few tenths off my personal best. No consideration for anything other than starting on the Mediums from that far back.

Lap 1 didn't go very well... but also kinda did. Turn 1 was fine on the outside, but my entrance and run through turn 2 was compromised by a Portuguese driver who had a bit of a wobble or something. Very, very slow on the turn 2 apex. That gave me a poor run out of the Senna S onto the straight and I ended up pinned in behind a Swede who had damage. I got forced out wider than I wanted at turn 4 by cars behind making passes, then a Brit forced me to back out into Ferradura after going side-by-side with him. Down to last position.

It all started kicking off though through Esse and Pinheirinho, and I got lucky. The Brit went up the back of a Frenchman and picked up front aero damage, then pinballed back into me and got rear aero damage. I got no damage at all! The Frenchman was carrying a track limits penalty and a Spaniard got hit with a 3 second penalty for... something. Watching back the replay, I cannot figure out why!

The two penalties moved me up to P13, then P10 crossing the line to start lap 2. It turns out I was the only person in the back half of the grid to avoid damage on lap 1. Utter carnage and I somehow managed to keep out of it.

I came charging up behind another French driver and another Spaniard out of the Senna S and weaved through to take back P8 at turn 4. They both had a lot of damage on the replay. I was wary of the French driver because...

[ROUND 1 AT SPA]

I started P7 on the Mediums and within seconds all hell broke loose. The French driver in P8 had absolutely no sense of caution and dived me into the Bus Stop. That punted the German in P6, giving both damage. Getting a penalty for a collision and causing damage in just 5 seconds from race start has to be some kind of record.

...I had a front row seat to his antics this time last week! The two of them ended up having a real go at each other after I got past, lots of contact. Very glad I managed to get through quickly and safely.

Now clear of everyone with damage, I could start pushing and the gap behind started building quickly. I didn't know if I had much chance of pulling back anything more after being stuck at the back, but at least P8 seemed safe. That eventually became P7 at the start of lap 11 as someone was in the pits.

I took my pit stop at the end of lap 15 and came back out in P8. I hadn't used any overtake up until this point and was going to start pushing hard. I caught up to a Ukrainian on lap 21 and after a failed attempt to overtake at turn 1, managed to go around the outside of him at turn 4. P7... for a moment. He got a much better exit so we were side-by-side on the run up to Ferradura where he backed out and I was firmly in front.

I later caught up with an Italian who was fighting with a Norwegian on lap 27. Finding a way through their fighting was going to be tough though. Or well, that's what I thought. The Italian pushed the Norwegian very deep at Bico de Pato. When the Norwegian started getting the run on him up to the start/finish line, the Italian went to block and ended up pit manueveuring himself. That slowed the Norwegian down and I sent it up the inside into turn 1. P5!

The Norwegian did start making a push back at me on the last lap as my Softs were giving up, but couldn't get close enough to attack.

I ended P5, and a race time only 6 seconds off my practice run in spite of everything. Not going to complain about that at all. I had hoped I'd be able to fight for a podium, but P1 and P2 were more than 25 seconds up the road. P3 was the Portuguese driver that compromised me at the beginning, 16 seconds ahead of me. No chance of competing with that, even if I had the perfect run.

Give me my 221 points, I'm banking them!

 

[GlockPants]

I'm seeing people winning GT2/3 races in asia replays with weird strats like 15RM 5RS, because their race pace on mediums is in the low 1:17s and softs in 1:14s so i guess i just have to "be fast"

One thing to consider is that during the race, you also have boost which will make your race pace likely faster than FP or qualifying.

I am officially the worst. Get the fastest lap but finish 13th. I have punted about 5 guys (involuntary). Just never adjusted to people breaking way earlier than me. Which of course I should. Any tips on how to get this into my brain?

Also spun myself 3 times.

My only tip is don't be directly behind anybody or have anybody directly behind you entering a breaking zone.

 

[Gorefast]

Just a short statement: time trials helped me a lot to improve my basic speed. Three races in Nations Cup and three pole positions! Thanks to everyone over there! Now I must work in my racing skills and standing starts... Have a good race everyone!

 

[PMK]

Okay WOW! What an emotional rollercoaster this race was! Mixed feelings!

GT1 Slot 2 for 187 points.

First off, let me say that i have barely driven any SF in this game. I had done it once in last years Nations Cup. That went very bad. So that caused me to avoid it all together. But as soon as i stepped onto the track during practice i was loving it. Didn't post any crazy times, 1:16 mid at max. But i loved the feeling of flying around on this track on softs.

I had no idea what the best strat was so i just started on softs. Qualified 11th, one lap was ruined by someone blocking me at the 8th corner. But who cares about qualifying when you've got Interlagos' first corner? Through all the chaos, i passed a whopping 7 cars. 3rd place for me. Had fantastic battles with a German driver that perfectly display the art of racing. Still pumped because of those battles. We were constantly trading places, cleanly.

By lap 8 however, 4th place catches up and he's lagging. He overtakes us both through a divebomb. I'm still 3rd and when i see a clean overtake on the lagging Brit, he starts lagging all over the track. He suddenly teleports in front of me and i hit his rear. Front damage for me. To make it worse, a lap later he returns to smash my rear. So now i've got aero damage in front and rear. For some reason, he doesn't have any and he and the German take off leaving me in 4th.

I pit only on lap 16 (should've just done it way sooner) but now in a unfortunate 6th place. I really shoulda pitted sooner because i lost sooooo much times because of damage. I leave the pits in 10th as some had already pitted and switched to their softs while i switched to mediums. From here, everything only gets worse as i get passed left and right, leaving me in a 12th place at lap 26. But, there's stil hope! Two cars in front of me are quite slow, possibly due to a mix of damage and worn softs. I passed them at lap 27, i'm now in 10th.

That was not my only blessing! Two cars about 4 seconds in front of me are fighting (physically, pushing eachother of the track and ramming etc) and i near them. At Ferradura, they push eachother off with me next to them. I almost pissed my pants but fortunately they just missed me as they spun. 8th place!

With two laps to go, i'm rapidly catching up to 7th, he likely had damage. Did i pass him? Unfortunately, no. It literally was a photo finish, with him just reaching the line in front of me, the difference only being like a fraction of a second. However, someone forgot to pit, promoting me to 7th. But still, that last push had me sweating!

On one side, i'm bummed because if i didn't have damage i would have likely finished 4th. As some of you might now, i was also rammed in the last race, pretty much ruining my race from the get go. I don't mind finishing lower due to damage, but the fact it's constantly out of my control is sad. Anyways, on the other side, i had a blast. The battles with the German driver were straight out of a real race.

I posted about losing my racing skill earlier this week but this race proves i've still got it in me! So that makes me happy honestly. 7th is the best position i've had since the first Manu Cup race on the Ring at night.

Goodluck to those who still have to go!

 

[Moose78]

First GT2 slot in the Americas. Door #15. 119 points up for grabs.

It wasn't a complete disaster.

I qualified Q7, with a time of 1:16.9, which was fine, I guess. On my final flying lap I was on pace for something better until I went wide on a corner and incurred a track limit penalty.

I was a little concerned about going into Senna S off the line in the middle of the pack, but I managed to get through without incident.

That's when I realized I had forgotten to switch to RMs after qualifying. Looked like I would get to deal with traffic for a while. Yay!

Over the next few laps, I was knocked off the track twice at T4, both times incurring a 0.5s penalty. Lost a few positions there. And then I spun myself backwards going into Senna S. Lost a few positions there. And then I snagged my tire on the curb in T11, which sent me flying into the car beside me, knocking them off the track. Lost a few more positions while I waited for them to rejoin.

After all the incidents, I was in P11, 34s off the leader, and I hadn't even pitted yet. I was still on my RSs, though, and was able to catch and overtake a few cars on RMs. Surprisingly, there were still some drivers going into the pits on RMs on laps 12 and 15.

By the time I pitted on lap 18, I had worked my way back to P8. Came out in P13. I passed a couple cars in the pits on lap 19 to finish in P11 for 69 points.

I was hoping things would go better, but I don't want to try again, so I suppose I'll leave it at that.

 

[MetalApe]

Race 1: Didn't manage to put a completely clean qualifying lap so ended up 9th, could have had at least 6th if I'd put together a decent lap. Started on Mediums. First lap was chaos, it was just pinball through the first few turns. God knows how GT1 players are avoiding damage. Lost track of position changes, up and down between 12th and 8th, where I settled down, soon 7th passing an early pitter.

Unfortunately escaping the chaos I'd burnt a fair bit boost early on, but it was worth it to pull clear of the madness. Settled down nicely with a clear track, pitted on lap 5. From there just kept plugging away to the end, ended up 8th, with 4th to 7th in sight ahead, I was slowly closing in on them, but too slowly to get there by the end.

I think 4th was possible if I'd managed a good qualifying time and broke clear of the early madness. So decided to go again, not to mention it was so much fun I couldn't resist another go.

Race 2: Much better qualifying lap, but only enough for 7th due to a much stronger field this time. Start on mediums again. Slow off the line and end up being tapped into a spin in the middle of Senna 'S', but quickly going again and right on the back of the pack by the end of the lap. A few incidents sees me jumping up from the back of the field, luckily soon finding clear air, I stay out until lap 5 again

I'd completely avoided using boost early on, so could now use it to blitz it as fast as possible while in clear air, giving me the best chance to jump ahead of any close rivals when they pit. Worked well, I pretty much had clear track all the way to finish. Was running 8th for a most of the time post pit stop, hoping to jump a few places when the soft runners ahead pitted. Disapointed to only jump 1 place, seems the cars ahead were just too fast for me to jump.

This time I'll settle for 7th, the field was a lot more competitive and I don't have confidence I can easily improve on this result now. Not to mention my brain was fried after doing two of those races back to back in VR.

 

[Eggstor]

Maybe I should have qualified today. My best time in testing was just under 1:18, though I wasn't overly-consistent. I wore number 1 in my 15-driver all-D/S lobby, with 11 points for 1st/2nd. The fast time was just over 1:18, with 2nd a second slower, and me the only driver to not take a time. My plan was, thanks to @Moose78's testing, do a 3 RM/17 RS run, and qualifying would have wrecked that strategy, and probably a few drivers' races.

Carnage ensued on the first lap as usual, though I only was able to pick up 1 spot that lap, because I was the meat in a virtual 3-wide situation in turn 10. The 13th place car ran into 12th and went way wide and slow. I came in maybe a bit hot, but had almost cleared 13th, and had to take the outside lane to avoid 12th. There was right-front tire to left-rear tire contact as the outside car fought to get back into the racing groove, and I let him by.

I got another pair of spots from continued carnage on lap 2, and an actual pass on lap 3, which is when I headed in for some feel-goods.

I came out 14th, ahead of the main cause of the lap-1 carnage (he had a 5-second penalty from that). I took advantage of a pair of 0.5-second penalties to get 13th on lap 6. The next lap, that guy then had a massive run in turn 6, but drove in too deep, flew off the curbing beyond the tight lane I had left him, and, had the game not ghosted us, would have taken both of us out. I let him go, then I then proceeded to mow the left-side lawn coming out of turn 9 I took my time cleaning off my tires, dropping to last, and still the only driver to take a pit stop.

The next set of pit stops came on lap 8, with one of what had been a front-runner until a lap-7 spin taking mediums and a back-marker taking hards. I got by the latter, climbing to 14th. More pitting on lap 9 (3 changes to mediums, 1 change to softs) got me to 10th, on the tail of the aforementioned former front-runner.

I remained patient, and lap 10 saw another 4 drivers pit (again 3 changes to mediums, 1 change to softs), which brought me up to 6th. 2nd place pitted on lap 11 for mediums, but he was too far ahead for me to catch at that point and he came out 4th. Meanwhile, I hounded 5th place into a mistake on turn 10.

At the end of lap 12, 1st was 46 seconds ahead of me, but had yet to pit for his mediums, 2nd was 27 seconds ahead and still on softs, 3rd was 22 seconds ahead and still on softs, and 4th was 15 seconds ahead with his change to mediums complete. 3rd place had already burned through over half his overtake, while the rest of the top 5 still had full overtake.

The leader and 3rd came down on lap 13, with the now-former leader blending in 2nd 30 seconds ahead of me and me picking up 4th. The last of the pit stops among the front-runners (the driver who assumed the lead on lap 14) came on lap 16 for mediums, which put him in 3rd, a couple seconds ahead of me. By this time, my tires were a bit worn down, but my last 3 laps were all sub-1:20, and my fastest 3 laps of the race. I quickly got to his rear wing, but I waited patiently for a mistake that didn't come. I then remembered I had the overtake on the last lap. I got a run on the front-stretch, and instead of hitting his own overtake button, he tried blocking (really too late to be a block as I was already by his back wheels) and not-so-subtle ramming. It didn't go well for him, as the game ghosted us until he bounced off the outside wall he tried to put me into.

I ended up about 21 seconds behind the winner and 9 seconds behind 2nd. I'll take the 10 points, though it only replaces a 9-point effort and won't move me up from all-bronze to any-silver, and the modest bump in DR.

As an aside, a pair of drivers tried no ABS. Brave, but foolish, especially considering one of them had pace when he wasn't spinning.

 

[GlockPants]

I have mixed feelings about my race today. I only had time for one entry and my lobby was only worth 120 points. I'd have to podium to improve my points standings. I was door #5, so not looking great from the start.

As info, suspension was 35/35 compression. 45/45 expansion. Seemed to control the car pretty well.

---

GT2 - B/S Lobby

Qualifying wasn't horrible, but I got held up by a slower driver for my first two hot laps. By the time I made it to my third hot laps, I had psyched myself out. 1:16.636 was good enough for Q7, not horrible, but I was way off by best FP lap of 1:15.7xx.

So, starting in the RM tires. I planned to pit after Lap 4.

The start of the race, TC1 gave me a decent jump on a couple cars ahead into T1.

Not really any drama from the rest of the field. Everyone was pretty respectful with space. Looks like one person went off the track toward the back.

By the exit of the Senna S, I was up to P5. But fighting through traffic on slower tires left my pace off. I'd pick up a couple 0.5 second track limits penalties over the first few laps and drop back to P9.

Time to pit for the RS tires.

I'd exit in clean air but P14, time to start just putting in good laps and strategically use my boost. Unfortunately the clean air didn't last too long as I'd catch up to others exiting the pits later. Pick up a minor collision penalty when I hit the back of a car in the slow infield section. They were fine, only messed up my pace having to serve a two second penalty.

Otherwise clean and I'd pick up a spot or two as people continued to pit or go off the track. I had a great battle with a car ahead for about the last 5 or 6 laps. I felt like I was getting through the course faster, but could not stick the overtake as I was ensuring they had space into a turn. But on the final lap I still had a tiny amount of boost left to use at the end.

It was a drag race to the finish. And I made it stick this time.

We congratulated each other at the end and thanked him for the clean race.

---

The result is only worth 90 points, so this one will be dropped. I managed a total time of 26:41.5xx.

So, good fun race but poor points haul for a race I spent more time preparing for than I normally would. At least my DR increased, so that's something.