I'm trying it with softs now and ran a low 1:22.1 lap. I was in first place after lap 6 but the rain came in as my tires were on the way out. I saw a lot of dark blue in the sky so I put on inters. 4 laps later, and despite dark blue sky's overhead the rain didn't come down very much and everyone on clapped out race tires still out broke, out turned and out accelerated me in the wet conditions. This race is 100% rigged.
P.1 - I've just won the race by 5 seconds, in
Hard mode, in an SF23 with
worn oil (I'd forgotten to change the oil for ages), with two bouts of light rain to deal with. The thing I did differently this morning was to use praiano63’s tune on RS tires ...as I had previously won in normal AI mode in stock trim, I didn't previously bother with a special tune. But it helped this time. It took me three attempts: one to get used to the new breaking points; the second to lose P1 on lap 13 because I didn't expect the tyres to go off quite so quickly (I then recovered from P.6 to P.2 over the line); and the third to finally get the win. I can't prove that it was in hard mode so you'll have to trust me.
I took the lead on lap 5 (as previously) but this time I stayed out for 8 laps as it was easier to cope with worn tyres racing clear of the pack. I think a big part of the win was in taking the lead on or around turn One, which then gave me most of the lap to build up space behind me, which meant that P.2 could not draft me down the straight, which broke the tow and allowed me to build up a better lead. I came out the pits in P.10 but quickly clawed my way back up to the lead on lap 13 (as previously). Once I had broken the tow again, I slowed down a bit so as not to spin-out on worn tyres again. The reason I'm telling you all this,
@Tommy_D, is because my best lap of 1:22.696 was half-a-second slower than your best lap, so you are a quicker driver than me. But as I eluded to before, and just as with kart racing IRL, consistency is the trick - most of my laps were in the 1:22s or 1:23s, and I stayed out of trouble when passing traffic.
As for the consistent weather and lack of overly-aggressive, physics-defying 'ringers', I am now even more convinced that last week's update brought some stability to this race's weather and AI performance. I think this race was well-broken before, but now it seems like a normal GT7 'hard but fair' race, albeit very hard in 'hard' mode 🤪
Edit: I forgot to say: as with all my SF races at this circuit, I used the overtake facility at the start of the straight until the first gantry, which you can do for almost every lap. As well as giving you extra speed to carry all the way down the straight, it helps break the tow of cars close behind you. This, I think, was crucial in being able to escape P.2 once the lead was taken (in each race segment).
Second Edit: I take it all back - the game still has 'ringers', just as you said,
@Tommy_D. I just did this race another three times. The first it rained heavily and I spun out on my soft tyres. The second and third time it only rained lightly. In each race I could not take the lead before my pitstop, and although I finished P.2 ten seconds clear of the rest of the pack, I was 14 seconds behind the leader who posted a 1:20.1 fastest lap. These times were identical to within a second for both races. My laptimes were similar to my win this morning, but there's no way I can find another second a lap! I don't think the leader even pitted, so I guess those sub 1:21 laptimes were on RH tyres! I'm rather pleased that I won the race this morning.
). My driving style kills the tires pretty fast and I have the impression that after the pitstop (lap 7 to 8) the car has a lot less grip despite fresh tires for the rest of the race?!
